A document of Depression-era Los Angeles, that illuminates a pivotal moment in L A's history, when writers like Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, and F Scott Fitzgerald were creating the images and associations - and the mystique - for which the City of Angels is still known.
"Los Angeles in the 1930s" returns to print an invaluable document of Depression-era Los Angeles, illuminating a pivotal moment in L.A.'s history, when writers like Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, and F. Scott Fitzgerald were creating the images and associations--and the mystique--for which the City of Angels is still known. Many books in one, "Los Angeles in the 1930s" is both a genial guide and an addictively readable history, revisiting the Spanish colonial period, the Mexican period, the brief California Republic, and finally American sovereignty. It is also a compact coffee table book of dazzling monochrome photography. These whose haunting visions suggest the city we know today and illuminate the booms and busts that marked L.A.'s past and continue to shape its future.
"More than just a tool to help you find the nearest Presbyterian church or a convenient tennis court, the guides, part of the Depression-era Federal Writers Project, included thoughtful essays on history, life and culture in each destination, as well as blow-by-blow tours through city neighborhoods and other information that in many cases remains at least partially relevant (or interesting) today."