| Radical L.A.: From Coxey's Army to the Watts Riots, 1894-1965 Contributor(s): Stevens, Errol Wayne (Author) |
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ISBN: 080614002X ISBN-13: 9780806140025 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $34.60 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2009 Annotation: How conflict between right and left shaped a city's character |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Political Ideologies - General - History | Modern - General - Political Science | Public Policy - Social Policy |
| Dewey: 320.509 |
| LCCN: 2008035615 |
| Physical Information: 1.3" H x 6.3" W x 9.1" (1.45 lbs) 388 pages |
| Themes: - Locality - Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA - Cultural Region - Southern California - Geographic Orientation - California - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Cultural Region - West Coast |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: When the depression of the 1890s prompted unemployed workers from Los Angeles to join a nationwide march on Washington, "Coxey's Army" marked the birth of radicalism in that city. In this first book to trace the subsequent struggle between the radical left and L.A.'s power structure, Errol Wayne Stevens tells how both sides shaped the city's character from the turn of the twentieth century through the civil rights era. On the radical right, Los Angeles's business elite, supported by the Los Angeles Times, sought the destruction of the trade-union movement--defended on the left by socialists, Wobblies, communists, and other groups. In portraying the conflict between leftist and capitalist visions for the future, Stevens brings to life colorful personalities such as Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis and Socialist mayoral candidate Job Harriman. He also re-creates events such as the 1910 bombing of the Times building, the savage suppression of the 1923 longshoremen's strike, and the 1965 Watts riots, which signaled that L.A. politics had become divided less along class lines than by complex racial and ethnic differences. The book takes stock of the rivalry between right and left over the several decades in which it repeatedly flared. Radical L.A. is a balanced work of meticulous scholarship that pieces together a rich chronicle usually seen only in smaller snippets or from a single vantage point. It will change the way we see the history of the City of Angels. |
Contributor Bio(s): Stevens, Errol Wayne: - Errol Wayne Stevens is retired as Assistant University Librarian for Archives and Special Collections at the Charles Von der Ahe Library, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has published numerous articles on the history of American radicalism and other subjects. |
