A Companion to Los Angeles

This Companion contains 25 original essays by writers and scholars who present an expert assessment of the best and most important work to date on the complex history of Los Angeles.

• The first Companion providing a historical survey of Los Angeles, incorporating critical, multi-disciplinary themes and innovative scholarship
• Features essays from a range of disciplines, including history, political science, cultural studies, and geography
• Photo essays and ‘contemporary voice’ sections combine with traditional historiographic essays to provide a multi-dimensional view of this vibrant and diverse city
• Essays cover the key topics in the field within a thematic structure, including demography, social unrest, politics, popular culture, architecture, and urban studies
  

List of Plates vii

Notes on Contributors x

Introduction xv
William Deverell and Greg Hise

Part I The Long History of a Global City 1

1 The Border Crossed US 2
Matt Gainer

2 Born Global: From Pueblo to Statehood 20
Louise Pubols

3 Race, Place, and Ethnicity in the Progressive Era 40
Stephanie Lewthwaite

4 Between “White Spot” and “World City”: Racial Integration and the Roots of Multiculturalism 56
Scott Kurashige

5 Contemporary Voice: Where You From? 72
Susan Straight

Part II Social Flashpoints 93

6 Social Flashpoints 95
Eric Avila

7 The Anti-Chinese Massacre of 1871 and Its Strange Career 110
Victor Jew

8 Disposable People, Expendable Neighborhoods 129
George J. Sanchez

9 Gridlock of Rage: The Watts and Rodney King Riots 147
Scott Saul

10 Contemporary Voice: Here, Now, I 168
Angela Oh

Part III Politics and Economies 175

11 Ab Urbe Condita: Regional Regimes since 13,000 Before Present 177
Philip J. Ethington

12 Crown Jewels: Infrastructure and Growth 216
Steven P. Erie and Scott MacKenzie

13 Consolidation, Fragmentation, and New Fiscal Federalism 233
Tom Hogen-Esch

14 Contemporary Voice: Contradictions, Coalitions, and Common Ground 250
Manuel Pastor

Part IV Cultures and Communities 267

15 Cultures and Communities 269
Leo Braudy

16 “A Most Advantageous Spot on the Map”: Promotion and Popular Culture 289
Anthea Hartig

17 Tijuana and the Borders of Race 313
Josh Kun

18 Counterculture 327
Dave McBride

19 Cinema and the Making of a Modern City 346
Edward Dimendberg

20 Contemporary Voice: Looking for God in the City of Angels 366
Matt Gainer

Part V Landscapes and Place 391

21 Situating Stories: What Has Been Said About Landscape and the Built Environment 393
Greg Hise

22 America’s Playground: Recreation and Race 421
Lawrence Culver

23 Landscapes of Health and Rejuvenation 438
David Sloane

24 Excerpts from the San Gabriel River Series 461
Robbert Flick

25 Contemporary Voice: Thickets of Diversity, Swaths of Emptyness 479
Christopher Hawthorne

Index 494

“Every Los Angeles-based history, political science, and ethnic or urban studies instructor has been waiting for this anthology. …The book’s overarching aims serve to revisit and reenvision L.A.’s early history and prehistory, uncover long-term patterns obscured by earlier episodic treatments, and influence the shaping of the city’s future.” (Western Historical Quarterly, 2012)

"Overall, this is a fascinating fractured account of various time periods, events, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and urban sprawl in a city that has become synonymous with the American Dream." (Philosophy & Religion, November 2010)

William Deverell is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. Recent publications include A Companion to California History (with David Igler, 2008), Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past (2004), and A Companion to the American West (2004). He has also co-editor of Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (with Greg Hise, 2005) and Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (with Tom Sitton, 2001).

Greg Hise is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He studies the economies, architecture, and planning of American cities. Hise is the author of Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis (1997), co-author of Eden by Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region (2000), and co-editor of Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (2005), and Rethinking Los Angeles (1996).

“Every Los Angeles-based history, political science, and ethnic or urban studies instructor has been waiting for this anthology. …The book’s overarching aims serve to revisit and reenvision L.A.’s early history and prehistory, uncover long-term patterns obscured by earlier episodic treatments, and influence the shaping of the city’s future.” (Western Historical Quarterly, 2012)

"Overall, this is a fascinating fractured account of various time periods, events, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and urban sprawl in a city that has become synonymous with the American Dream." (Philosophy & Religion, November 2010)

A Companion to Los Angeles is a unique study of America’s second largest city, and the first Companion devoted to a single metropolis. The volume consists of 25 essays, each an original contribution by a writer or scholar, which collectively assess the best and most important work to date on the complex history of Los Angeles.

The structure of the Companion allows readers to view the emergence of long-term patterns within the history of Los Angeles. Instead of organizing the essays around discrete, time-specific events, the editors focus on critical themes and broad multi-disciplinary topics which span different periods and generations, including demography, social unrest, politics, popular culture, architecture, and urban studies. Three photographic essays, along with the “contemporary voice” essays that conclude each section, complement the historiographic essays and provide a truly multi-dimensional view of the city.

Together, the contributions constitute a lively and informed introduction to a history as fascinating as it is complex. The Companion is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and a general readership eager to situate the history of greater Los Angeles within a larger body of metropolitan studies and the history of the United States itself.

"In times past, books of this sort presented accepted interpretations arranged according to the alphabet. A Companion to Los Angeles, by contrast, presents cutting edge interpretations, systematically developed by leading scholars in the field. This valuable resource is not just a book about history. It is history itself, hence a significant step forward in the journey to identity by the City of Angels."
Kevin Starr, University of Southern California