California was perhaps the most important locus for the development of the Progressive reform movement in the decades of the twentieth century. These twelve original essays represent the best of the new scholarship on California Progressivism. Ranging across a spectrum that embraces ethnicity, gender, class, and varying ideological stances, the authors demonstrate that reform in California was a far broader, more complicated phenomenon than we have previously understood. Since the 1950s, scholars have used California Progressivism as a model case study for explaining early twentieth-century social and political reform nationwide. But such a model―which ignored issues of class, race, and gender―simplified a political movement that was, in fact, quite complex. In revising the monolithic interpretation of reform and reformers, this volume provides a better understanding of the sweeping reform impulses that had such a profound effect on American political and social institutions during this century. Equally important, the issues examined here offer significant insights into problems that the entire country must tackle as we approach the new century.

California Progressivism Revisited

History

Deverell, William F.

Sitton, Tom

Americas

University of California Press

Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s

Los Angeles came of age in the 1920s. The great boom of that decade gave shape to the L.A. of today: its vast suburban sprawl and reliance on the automobile, its prominence as a financial and industrial center, and the rise of Hollywood as the film capital of the world. This collection of original essays explores the making of the Los Angeles metropolis during this remarkable decade. The authors examine the city's racial, political, cultural, and industrial dynamics, making this volume an essential guide to understanding the rise of Los Angeles as one of the most important cities in the world. These essays showcase the work of a new generation of scholars who are turning their attention to the history of the City of Angels to create a richer, more detailed picture of our urban past. The essays provide a fascinating look at life in the new suburbs, in the oil fields, in the movie studios, at church, and at the polling place as they reconceptualize the origins of contemporary urban problems and promise in Los Angeles and beyond. Adding to its interest, the volume is illustrated with period photography, much of which has not been published before.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Los Angeles rose to significance in the first half of the twentieth century by way of its complex relationship to three rivers: the Los Angeles, the Owens, and the Colorado. The remarkable urban and suburban trajectory of southern California since then cannot be fully understood without reference to the ways in which each of these three river systems came to be connected to the future of the metropolitan region. This history of growth must be understood in full consideration of all three rivers and the challenges and opportunities they presented to those who would come to make Los Angeles a global power. Full of primary sources and original documents, Water and Los Angeles will be of interest to both students of Los Angeles and general readers interested in the origins of the city.

Water and Los Angeles: A Tale of Three Rivers, 1900-1941

For four decades, John Randolph Haynes (1853-1937) was in the forefront of social-reform crusades and political action in Los Angeles and California, with his most important legacies in the fields of direct legislation and public ownership of utilities. He was the individual most responsible for the adoption of the initiative, referendum, and recall in Los Angeles in 1902 and in California in 1911. His vigilant protection of these measures thereafter and his promotion of direct legislation throughout the nation earned him the title 'father of direct legislation' in California. For almost twenty years after 1920, Haynes's chief priority was to shape the Los Angeles Department of Water and power into a glowing example of public ownership of utilities. Today, the LADWP operates the world's largest municipal water and electrical power generation and distribution system, continuing to serve the needs of an ever-growing region whose extent even Haynes could not have envisaged. In one way or another, Haynes participated in all the major social and political events that shaped California and Los Anglels in a most dynamic era of their development.

John Randolph Haynes: California Progressive

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Stanford University Press

When Fletcher Bowron (1887-1968) ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1938, his twelve years as a superior court judge with a reputation for honesty and fairness carried him to victory against a notoriously corrupt incumbent. During his nearly fifteen years as a neo-progressive mayor, Bowron presided over fundamental reforms in the police department, public utilities, and other agencies charged with basic services, rooting out bribery, kickbacks, and influence peddling.World War II brought economic and population booms, racial conflict, social dislocation, and environmental problems to Los Angeles and complicated Mayor Bowron's job. After the war Bowron initiated massive public housing and desegregation projects. These forward-looking programs alienated enough voters to cost him the 1953 election as his leftist supporters fell away under the influence of McCarthyism. This political history of the mid-twentieth century reform period in Los Angeles is also a case study of the ways outside events can affect municipal affairs. As Tom Sitton demonstrates, the choices made during Bowron's administration have had a direct bearing on how Los Angeles looks today and how its government operates.

Los Angeles Transformed: Fletcher Bowron's Urban Reform Revival, 1938-1953

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

University of New Mexico Press

A massive frame, dynamic in action, a keen brain, violent passions, and an abundant heart”in the eyes of one of his contemporaries, Phineas Banning (1830-1885) was a figure larger than life. Banning played a crucial role in Southern California, not only through the blood-and-guts work of building the region's mercantile and transportation infrastructure but also by envisioning its future. In rough mountain passes, dusty plains, and tidal mudflats, Banning saw roads and railways, and the harbor that would one day become the busiest container port in the nation. The Bannings who followed this formidable patriarch shaped the engine of Southern California's growthtourismby developing Santa Catalina Island as a leisure destination. And once the physical fabric of the region took shape, they devoted their attention to building the social service, reform, and philanthropy networks that would sustain the modern metropolis. Sitton's balanced and searching portrait reveals the crucial role of this First Family of Los Angeles, whose insight and energies shaped Southern California at every stage.

Grand Ventures: The Banning Family and the Shaping of Southern California

Huntington Library Press

The Haynes Foundation and urban reform philanthropy in Los Angeles: A history of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation

Historical Society of Southern California

This book studies Los Angeles County and its government since World War II. A special focus is given to the "Titans of Temple Street," the five-member Board of Supervisors that determines policies and actions for many issues throughout the county, especially for residents who do not live in the county's 88 cities. It is the largest of all U.S. counties, with a population of more than 10 million, more residents than 41 states, and an annual budget of more than $44 billion, more than all but 19 states. It has served as an innovative example of county government since the early 1900s.

L.A.'s Titans of Temple Street: Los Angeles County Government Since 1950

McFarland

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