Author: Charles Dwight WillardPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 598
Book Description
A History of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, California
Author: Charles Dwight WillardPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 598
Book Description
John Randolph Haynes
Author: Tom SittonPublisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804720670
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
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. From 1910 until his death, 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, 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 many ways, Haynes is an enigma. He was not a typical progressive, having amassed a fortune in his medical practice and in real estate, mining, and other capitalistic ventures. However, he spent a large portion of his wealth to promote a form of gradual, democratic socialism in the United States. Haynes advocated the transformation of the nation's economy and government, yet he campaigned for morality laws that limited personal freedom. Haynes's motivation was not social status or money, both of which he had before his conversion to social reform. Nor was it political power: he never ran for office (except as a temporary freeholder) or created a personal political machine. His primary motive was a perhaps arrogant yet honest desire to aid in the creation of a more just society by improving the living and working conditions of the less fortunate. In one way or another, Haynes participated in all the major social and political events that shaped California and Los Angeles in a most dynamic era of their development. In a broader sense, Haynes's life serves as a yardstick with which to measure other progressives of his time and as a key for understanding the motivation of those idealists who helped shape our present political institutions.
Congressional Record
Author: United States. CongressPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
Sunset Limited
Author: Richard J. OrsiPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520940865
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 640
Book Description
The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, Sunset Limited explores the railroad's development and influence—especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment—and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West. Based on his unprecedented and extensive research into the company's historical archives, Richard Orsi finds that, contrary to conventional understanding, the Southern Pacific Company identified its corporate well-being with population growth and social and economic development in the railroad's hinterland. As he traces the complex and shifting intersections between corporate and public interest, Orsi documents the railroad's little-known promotion of land distribution, small-scale farming, scientific agriculture, and less wasteful environmental practices and policies—including water conservation and wilderness and recreational parklands preservation. Meticulously researched, lucidly written, and judiciously balanced, Sunset Limited opens a new window onto the American West in a crucial phase of its development and will forever change our perceptions of one of the largest and most important western corporations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Sixty Years in Southern California 1853-1913 Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark
Author: Harris NewmarkPublisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465581464
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1085
Book Description
Harris Newmark (1834-1916), son of a modest Prussian Jewish merchant, sailed to America in 1853 to join his older brother in Los Angeles. He made a fortune in real estate, the wholesale grocery business, and hides and wools, becoming a leader in the local Jewish community and the city at large. Sixty years in Southern California (1916) begins with his description of Los Angeles as he found it; judges and lawyers, merchants and shops, churches and other landmarks. In the chapters that follow, Newmark organizes his materials chronologically and outlines his various mercantile partnerships and traces changing patterns of social life in Los Angeles, political factions, railroad construction in southern California, crime and vigilantism, the Chinese Massacre of 1871, and real estate speculations. In a more personal vein, he chronicles Jewish family life and philantropy.
Report
Author: United States. Congress SenatePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 1994
Book Description
California Vieja
Author: Phoebe S. KroppPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520931653
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
The characteristic look of Southern California, with its red-tiled roofs, stucco homes, and Spanish street names suggests an enduring fascination with the region’s Spanish-Mexican past. In this engaging study, Phoebe S. Kropp reveals that the origins of this aesthetic were not solely rooted in the Spanish colonial period, but arose in the early twentieth century, when Anglo residents recast the days of missions and ranchos as an idyllic golden age of pious padres, placid Indians, dashing caballeros and sultry senoritas. Four richly detailed case studies uncover the efforts of Anglo boosters and examine the responses of Mexican and Indian people in the construction of places that gave shape to this cultural memory: El Camino Real, a tourist highway following the old route of missionaries; San Diego’s world’s fair, the Panama-California Exposition; the architecturally- and racially-restricted suburban hamlet Rancho Santa Fe; and Olvera Street, an ersatz Mexican marketplace in the heart of Los Angeles. California Vieja is a compelling demonstration of how memory can be more than nostalgia. In Southern California, the Spanish past became a catalyst for the development of the region’s built environment and public culture, and a civic narrative that still serves to marginalize Mexican and Indian residents.
The Initiative and Referendum in California, 1898-1998
Author: John M. AllswangPublisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804780072
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
This book provides a detailed analytic history of direct legislation—the initiative and referendum—in California from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day. California was one of the first states to implement mechanisms for direct legislation, and these mechanisms have been used with growing frequency as the entire process has become professionalized (from signature-gathering through fund-raising to legal challenge and defense). The author studies this important political device in terms of voter interest and behavior, its role in public issues, and how it has affected the state’s politics and government. The book first analyzes how and why direct legislation came to California, seeing it as a typical example of the disconnected nature of progressive era reforms. It then studies selectively, from among the 300 propositions that have been on California ballots, those propositions that have been most relevant to the major issues of their time, have generated the highest levels of voter interest and participation, and have shaped the development of state politics and government. The author pays particular attention to the explosion of direct legislation, in frequency and consequence, since the Proposition 13 “property tax revolution” of 1978. He also describes how California’s contemporary direct legislation experience—from tax rebellion to harsher criminal justice to controversial ethnic issues—has had national ramifications. The book concludes with a careful analysis of the current state of the initiative and referendum in California: voter attitudes toward the process, its role as a “fourth branch” of government, and arguments for and against changes in the procedure. Based on extensive research in campaign documents, manuscript collections, the contemporary press, and other primary sources, the book also makes extensive use of voting data, public opinion polls, and official filings of campaign expenditures. All in all, it is the most comprehensive study ever made of a political process that is used today in twenty-seven states.
Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West
Author: Gordon Morris BakkenPublisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1452265348
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 945
Book Description
To read some sample entries, or to view the Readers Guide click on "Sample Chapters/Additional Materials" in the left column under "About This Book" Immigration from foreign countries was a small part of the peopling of the American West but an important aspect in building western infrastructure, cities, and neighborhoods. The Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West provides much more than ethnic groups crossing the plains, landing at ports, or crossing borders; this two-volume work makes the history of the American West an important part of the American experience. Through sweeping entries, focused biographies, community histories, economic enterprise analysis, and demographic studies, this Encyclopedia presents the tapestry of the West and its population during various periods of migration. The two volumes examine the settling of the West and include coverage of movements of American Indians, African Americans, and the often-forgotten role of women in the West′s development. Key Features Represents many of the American Indian tribes and bands that constitute our native heritage in an attempt to reintegrate the significance of their migrations with those of later arrivals Examines how African Americans and countless other ethnic groups moved west for new opportunities to better their lives Looks at specific economic opportunities such as mineral exploration and the development of instant cities Provides specific entries on immigration law to give readers a sense of how immigration and migration have been involved in the public sphere Includes biographies of certain individuals who represent the ordinary, as well as extraordinary, efforts it took to populate the region Key Themes American Indians Biographies Cities and Towns Economic Change and War Ethnic and Racial Groups Immigration Laws and Policies Libraries Natural Resources Events and Laws The Way West The Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West brings new insight on this region, stimulates research ideas, and invites scholars to raise new questions. It is a must-have reference for any academic library.
In Pursuit of Utopia
Author: Errol Wayne StevensPublisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806177489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
During the Great Depression, the Los Angeles area was rife with radical movements. Although many observers thought their ideas unworkable, even dangerous, Southern Californians voted for them by the tens of thousands. This book asks why. To find answers, author Errol Wayne Stevens takes readers through the history of such movements as the Utopian Society, Dr. Francis Townsend’s old-age revolving pension plan, Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California gubernatorial campaign, and Retirement Life Payments, known as Ham and Eggs. The book also examines the Los Angeles Communists and the free-market capitalists, both quasi-religious movements with large followings, as well as the self-help cooperatives, a spontaneous upsurge of neighbors who came together to help one another in a time of desperate need. As to these movements’ extraordinary popularity, Stevens finds the standard explanations unpersuasive. He debunks the idea that naïve, unsophisticated Southern Californians, living aimless, empty lives, suffering from ennui, and longing for community, readily supported charismatic leaders who promised a way out of the Great Depression. In Stevens’s telling, Southern Californians supported these movements because they spoke to their needs. Fearful or desperate, some elderly and hopeless, Angelenos cared less about the programs’ feasibility than about their promise of relief. As one Ham and Eggs supporter succinctly explained: “It may be a racket and maybe it won’t work more than a couple of weeks, but that will be $60 more than I ever got before for one vote.” Finding parallels between past and present, readers might wonder why people remain loyal to programs that prove unrealistic, or why voters continue to support leaders who reveal, time and again, their ignorance or dishonesty. In its illumination of a troubled time in American history not so long ago, this book offers insight into our own.
