Boom Town is a history of Oklahoma City told through the prism of its "purloined" basketball team (stolen from Seattle). The book includes many sardonically delivered anecdotes but is organized around three key elements: the city's founding during the Land Rush of 1889; the Thunder's playoff runs in 2012-2013; and its frequent tornadoes.
Anderson tries a bit too hard to draw parallels between these elements and to characterize the history as a tension between chaotic Booms and rational Process. He introduces compelling characters who shaped Oklahoma City but fails to provided a rounded portrait of how they accomplished their magic. Stanley Draper, for example, appears to have been a Robert Moses-type character who imposed his will on city planning, but it's not at all clear how he managed it. During the 1970s city leaders tore down most of downtown in thrall to a vision from I.M. Pei; Anderson paints a picture of a completely decimated city while other stories from the same time show continued activity there.
The book builds to a narrative climax with the bombing of the federal building in 1995. Anderson appropriately drains the sarcasm from his tone when describing this disaster, but undermines the seriousness of the moment by pairing it with a chapter about Russell Westbrook's injury in the 2013 playoffs.
Overall, Boom Town is an entertaining if superficial history that doesn't quite come together.
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