The book, American Powerboats: The Great Lakes Golden Years chronicles the milestone watercraft manufactured around the Great Lakes and became legendary in the boating up through the early 1960s.  About the same time, Detroit began mass-producing automobiles, a revolution in powerboats began taking place on the shores of the Great Lakes.  Manufacturers flocked to the region in a quest to build the fastest and most beautiful powerboats.  "American Powerboats: The Great Lakes Golden Years" reviews the history of racing boats, runabouts, cruisers and commuters manufactured by Chris-Craft, Gar Wood, Hacker and Century.  Other boat builders such as Richardson, Matthews, Burger and Tiara are also reviewed in detail.  Boats of both wood and fiberglass construction are also featured.  These beautiful boats were once the ultimate vision of success.  The effort and time it took to build and maintain them is evident in the brass fittings, engines and woodwork that combined represented the boat builders ultimate art form.  Sadly the eventual dominance of lower cost fiberglass used in place of hull boards spelled the end of this era.  That said, examples of these beautiful boats still continue to make waves and convey a sense of a bygone era when using wood was the only way to build a boat.  The major sections of "American Powerboats: The Great Lakes Golden Years" are as follows: 1) Acknowledgements; 2) Introduction; 3) Chapter-1 Beginnings; 4) Chapter-2 Powerboats; 5) Chapter-3 Runabouts; 6) Chapter-4 Cruisers And Commuters; 7) Chapter-5 Countdown To Fiberglass; 8) Bibliography and 9) Index.  In addition to an informative narrative, "American Powerboats: The Great Lakes Golden Years" includes the following features: 1) Approximately 60 black and white photographs and 2) About 59 color photographs.  This book is 128 pages and is in excellent condition.  The author is James P. Barry.  Edition published in 2003.