Nathaniel Gee | Failure and Fortitude

Join author Nathaniel Gee for a meet and greet to celebrate his new book, Failure and Fortitude: How Faith, Politics and Power Shaped the Teton Dam Disaster. Nathaniel will be at the store from 4 pm–6 pm signing copies of his book.

This event is free and open to the public, but we require you to RSVP.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. You may also pre-order your signed copy to be picked up at the event by calling the store at 801-484-9100 or ordering online. If you cannot make this event, signed copies may be ordered from our website. Please specify in the comments if you would like your copy personalized. Places in the signing line are reserved for those who purchase a copy from The King's English.

About the book: In 1976, the Teton Dam collapsed, unleashing a wall of water that ravaged eastern Idaho and shattered the public's trust in American infrastructure. Engineers, historians, and survivors have asked the same question: Why did it fail? For decades, the disaster has been reduced to a cautionary tale, a grim case study, a footnote in engineering textbooks. But what if the real story is more complicated than we have ever been told? Failure and Fortitude is a meticulously researched, vividly written account of the Teton Dam's rise and ruin. It reconstructs the hours that changed everything and the decisions behind the failure. Failure and Fortitude also recounts the remarkable story of the communities who refused to be defined by devastation - neighbors who dug each other out, rebuilt from mud and memory, and proved that resilience can be as powerful as any flood. This is not just a story of seepage and soil mechanics, but of faith and ambition, bureaucracy and blind spots, and the razor-thin line between confidence and catastrophe.