Monday, July 22, 2013
City of Quartz
I thought that this book, likened to the others, makes a strong case for the history of racism in US History. Before reading this book, I was unaware of the racial/social underpinnings that had a hand in laying the foundations of LA. One would think it was a booming economic and cultural hub of equal opportunity. However, I found it very interesting that this was definitely not the case. The land speculation and seeming accounts of fraudulent activity masked by the "hey, come live here because it's awesome" really made me think if most hubs are like this. Are Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and other major cities all developed around "the man's" goal? I'm not an advocate of developing land for industrial/commercial/residential use....I understand it ha to be done, but it seems the way LA came into existence is purely for capitalistic gains.
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I think there is a strong point of contrast between this and some of the other books hat have dealt with race and that is that they (Wood, Morgan, Bederman) have suggested an optimistic future re: race, while I don't think Davis is in anyway optimistic of a revolution occurring to fix L.A's problems (at least in 1990)
ReplyDeleteI haven't really studied Los Angeles at any length so I found it interesting that LA is really America's first major post-industrial city. He mentions that the power structure, instead of factories or farms was tied to property.
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