William J. Kelly - The People’s Republic of Chemicals

Praise for Jacobs & Kellys Smogtown

Remarkably entertaining and informativethis book is just amazing, a gripping story well told.

Booklist starred review

Historical heft [and] style delivers substance in true Hollywood fashion, with character-driven plots draped in glamour and sensationthe history of smog has never been so sexy.

Los Angeles Times

In this tale of underhanded deals, gritty politics, community organizing and burgeoning environmentalism, the corruption is plentiful and the subplots replete with intriguethe authors offer a zany and provocative cultural history.

Kirkus

Finished with a particularly powerful, forward-looking epilogue, this friendly, accessible history should appeal to any American environmentalist.

Publishers Weekly

A meticulous chronicle of the citys signature airborne grime and the civic and social forces that emerged to stop it.

Bookforum

The narrative that emerges is more than a tale of a region and a populace besieged by smog; it is also a parable for a nation beset by environmental and social problems. Among the pleasures of this well-researched cultural history is revisiting the past.

Slate

Well-documented, highly engaging and widely relevant Smogtown is not your typical greens diatribe against big business and weak government. No, Jacobs and Kelly are much smarter and fairer than that.

Sustainablog

One of Booklists top ten environmental books of the year; silver medal, Independent Publishers Book Awards and Green Book Festival; recipient of the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature; featured in The New York Times , Author@Google, C-SPAN, and elsewhere; Sacramento Bee bestseller.

Praise for Jacobs The Ascension of Jerry

This is not just another Hollywood Whodunit. In the end we find it is really about one mans search and struggle to find his own personal truths and redemption. Well written and highly recommended.

Steve Hodel, LAPD Hollywood Homicide
detective (ret.) and bestselling author,
Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder

Jacobs delivers a seductive tour of an LA rife with murder-for-hire plots, political corruption and sociopathic schemes. Against this backdrop the young Schneiderman comes of age, to ultimately emerge as the last man standing. A terrific bookI couldnt put it down!

Stephen Jay Schwartz, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Boulevard and Beat

Chip Jacobs chops as an accomplished newspaperman are on brilliant display in [this] delightfully off-kilter true-crime taleJacobs prose is intimate, darkly funny, and crisp as he follows the twisted pathBut heres the thing: Jacobs ear for a good story is pitch perfect The Ascension of Jerry isnt an old song in a new key, but an entirely new song about crime, fear, and a weird kind of redemption that could only happen in the general vicinity of Hollywood. Jacobs is a genuine writer, not a wannabe scribbler. He knows what makes us keep turning pages

Ron Franscell, celebrated true-crime author

Jacobs uses his boundless reporters energy and well-honed sense of Southern California to tell a gripping tale of serial mayhem and the curious life of Jerry Schneiderman. Its reassuring to see the right writer was paying attention.

David Willman, Los Angeles Times Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter and author of The Mirage Man:
Bruce Irvins, the Anthrax Attacks, and Americas Rush to War

Chip Jacobs explores the underbelly of an LA murder-for-hire ring that leaves many dead and a successful space planner, Jerry Schneiderman, so affected by PTSD that he embarks on a widespread muckraking campaign that targets major political forces in Los Angeles and beyond. Pitched as a roots of Occupy story (aside from Mark Twains, of course) Ascension of Jerry will leave you closing your blinds and forever looking behind your back for the crazed psycho-killer disguised as an ordinary blue collar guy.

ForeWord Reviews staff pick

The pay for some deals is wonderful, but the drawbacks that can come along with it may be too much to swallow The Ascension of Jerry is an enticing true tale of getting ones life back in the midst ofskullduggery, highly recommended.

Midwest Book Review

Bookforum title to watch; bronze medal, Southern California Book Festival; silver medal, Hollywood Book Festival; author highlighted on true-crime featurette on Lionsgate DVD for the movie Sinister.

Praise for Jacobs Wheeler-Dealer

With both dramatic flair and detached fairness, Jacobs eloquently reveals the soul of a charismatic and courageous character. Had Gordons career taken place on the screen instead of behind it, he would have been the Christopher Reeve of his day.

ForeWord Reviews

a brilliant and uplifting true storyhighly recommended for anyone in a similar position or [who] has a relative thereto open their eyes to the possibilities.

Midwest Book Review

This amazing book is all heartJacobs blends the skills of an investigative journalist, the glitz of Hollywood, and the smooth storytelling of fiction to weave a profile of his larger-than-life uncle that will leave you crying, laughing and gasping in wonder, often on the same page. Bravo!

Denise Hamilton, bestselling author of Los Angeles Noir and Savage Garden

Readers looking for a glamorous Hollywood story or a tale of gentle uplift should be warned: This is not that book. Instead, Chip Jacobs has written something far bettera witty, clear-eyed account of a charming and utterly impossible man whose ferocious willpower transformed his personal nightmare into a lifelong Technicolor hallucination.

A. J. Langguth, bestselling author of After Lincoln

FDRs body and Sammy Glicks brain? No, but closeand better. Mon Oncle dAmerique has nothing on Chip Jacobs Mon Oncle dHollywood, the picaresque, quadriplegic Gordon, who is at least as good a story as anything he helped to put on filmGordon is a premiere citizen of Hollywood As She is Spokenunsentimental but believing utterly in the art of the possible.

Patt Morrison, award-winning columnist

Jacobs has documented a marvelous life, and done so without the sentimentality that ruins so many life stories of people with disabilities

The Internet Review of Books

It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will make you want to turn your dreams of the impossible into a reality

Andrea Dimech, Action Online

Bronze medal, Hollywood Book Festival

This is a Genuine Vireo Book

V

A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books
453 South Spring Street, Suite 531
Los Angeles, CA 90013
rarebirdbooks.com

Copyright 2014 by William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs

FIRST HARDCOVER EDITION

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For more information, address:
A Vireo Book | Rare Bird Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 453 South Spring Street, Suite 531, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Set in Minion Pro
Printed in the United States of America.
Distributed in the US by Publishers Group West.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Kelly, William J., 1953
The Peoples republic of chemicals / by William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs.
p. cm.
ISBN 9781940207254
Includes bibliographical references.

1. AirPollutionChina. 2. Air qualityChina. 3. Environmental policyChina. 4. Environmental managementChina. 5. Economic developmentEnvironmental aspectsChina. 6. Climatic changesChina. 7. ChinaEnvironmental conditions. I. Jacobs, Chip. II. Title.