Los Angeles's history is a story of conflicting visions. Most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on L.A. as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl. The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. The authors chronicle efforts of progressive social movements that worked throughout the twentieth century to create a more livable, just, and democratic Los Angeles. These movements - what the authors call Progressive L.A. - have produced a new kind of labor movement, community-oriented environmentalism, and multiethnic coalition politics. This book shows how reformers have fought to transform a city characterized by huge economic disparities, concrete-encased rivers, and an endless landscape of subdivisions, freeways, and malls into a progressive model for regions around the country. The Next Los Angeles includes a decade-by-decade historical snapshot of the city's progressive social movements and an indepth exploration of key trends that are remaking L.A. at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
It examines L.A.'s changing political landscape, including grassroots initiatives to construct a new agenda for social transformation. At once a history, a policy analysis, and a road map for a progressive future, this book provides an exciting portrayal of a city on the cutting edge of many of the social, economic, and environmental changes sweeping across America.
- ISBN10 6612357282
- ISBN13 9786612357282
- Publish Date 17 January 2005
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 16 March 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of California Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 289
- Language English