Little more than a century ago, southern California—bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges—was just scrappy farmland, yet one of the world's iconic cities emerged there with remarkable rapidity. At the heart of Los Angeles' meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: engineer William Mulholland, who designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life here possible; director D.W. Griffith, who transformed cinema into a cornerstone of American culture; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist who cemented the city's identity as a center for spiritual exploration. In this NPR Best Book of 2018, Gary Krist chronicles how L.A. developed and maintained its reputation as a city of dreams.