Los Angeles histories & cultures: General resources

Haas, Lisbeth, Saints and citizens : indigenous histories of colonial missions and Mexican California, University of California Press, 2013. (Ebook via Proquest Ebook Central)

Online Archives of California (part of the California Digital Library project)

Osborne, Thomas J., Pacific Eldorado: a history of greater California, Wiley/Blackwell, F861.O63 2013

Pacific Historical Review (journal of the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch. PDFs of articles from 1932, with a 3-year delay, are available via Jstor)

Pfaelzer, Jean, California, a slave state, Yale University Press, E445.C2 P434 2023

Rolle, Andrew & Arthur C. Verge, California : a history, John Wiley & Sons, 2014 (Ebook via ProQuest Ebook Central)

KEVIN STARR

Kevin Starr’s volumes covering 1850 to 2003, published by Oxford University Press, constitute a standard history of modern California:

• Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915, F867.M25 1973
• Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era, F867.S8 1985
• Material dreams: Southern California through the 1920s, F867.S82 1990
• Endangered dreams: the Great Depression in California, HB3717.1919.S73 1995
• The dream endures: California enters the 1940s, F866 .S78 2002
• Embattled dreams: California in war and peace,1940-1950, F866 .S786 2003
• Golden dreams: California in an age of abundance, 1950-1963, F866.2.S733 2009
• Coast of dreams, California on the edge, 1990-2003, F866.2 .S73 2006

Berry, Rob, et al (editors), LA Forum reader, L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design; Actar, HT168.L6 L34 2018

Saito, Leland T., Building downtown Los Angeles : the politics of race and place in urban America, Stanford University Press, HT168.L6 S257 2022

Sanders, James (editor), Renewing the dream : the mobility revolution and the future of Los Angeles, Rizzoli Electa, HT168.L6 R46 2023

Sloane, David C. (editor), Planning Los Angeles, American Planning Association, NA9127. L7 P52 2012

Soja, Edward W., My Los Angeles : from urban restructuring to regional urbanization, University of California, HT168.L6 S65 2014

Varnelis, Kazys (editor), The infrastructural city : networked ecologies in Los Angeles, Actar; The Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, HT168.L8 I54 2008

Kaplan, Wendy, Found in translation : design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985, LACMA, NK1410.C2 D47 2017

Kaplan, Wendy, et al., Living in a modern way: California design, 1930-1965, MIT Press, NK835. C3 C35 2011 (Survey of all design arts)

Tigerman, Bobbye, et al., A Handbook of California design, 1930-1965: craftspeople, designers, manufacturers, MIT Press, NK835 .C3C35 2011

Bahr, Ehrhard, Weimar on the Pacific: German exile culture in Los Angeles and the crisis of modernism, University of California Press, BH301.M54B34 2007

Davis, Mike, City of quartz, Verso, HN80.L7D38 1991

Davis, Mike & Jon Wiener, Set the night on fire: L.A. in the sixties, Verso Books, 2020 (ebook via Ebook Central)

Decherney, Peter, Hollywood : a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, PN1993.5.U65 D44 2016

Faragher, John Mack, Eternity Street: violence and justice in frontier Los Angeles, W. W. Norton, F869.L857F37 2016 (On L.A. in the 19^th century)

Flamming, Douglas, Bound for freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America, University of California Press, 2005 (ebook via Ebook Central)

Fogelson, Robert M., The Fragmented metropolis: Los Angeles 1850-1930, University of California Press, F869.L95F64 1993

Gottlieb, Robert & Simon Ng, Global cities : urban environments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China, The MIT Press, HC79.E5 .G6573 2017

Gurr, Jens Martin (Editor), Norman M. Klein's "bleeding through: layers of Los Angeles" : an updated edition 20 years later, Transcript,, F869.L857 2023

Hurewitz, Daniel, Bohemian Los Angeles and the making of modern politics, University of California Press, F869.L86E24 2007

Klein, Norman M., The history of forgetting: Los Angeles and the erasure of memory, Verso, F869.L857K57 2008

Matsumoto, Valerie J., City girls : the Nisei social world in Los Angeles, 1920-1950, Oxford University Press, F869.L89 J339 2014

Nusbaum, Eric, Stealing home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the lives caught in between, Public Affiars Books, GV875.L6 N87 2020

Podair, Jerald E., City of dreams : Dodger Stadium and the birth of modern Los Angeles, Princeton University Press, GV417.D63 P63 2017

Scott, Allen John & Edward W. Soja, The city: Los Angeles and urban theory at the end of the twentieth century, University of California Press, HN80.L7C57 1996

Stevens, Errol Wayne, In pursuit of Utopia : Los Angeles in the Great Depression, University of Oklahoma Press, F869.L857 S74 2021

Stevens, Errol Wayne, Radical L. A. : from Coxey's Army to the Watts Riots, 1894-1965, University of Oklahoma Press, HN90.R3 S637 2023

Torres-Rouff, David Samuel, Before L.A. : race, space, and municipal power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894, Yale University Press. F869.L857 T67 2013

Wagner, Anton, Los Angeles : the development, life, and structure of the city of two million in Southern California, Getty Research Institute, F869.L84 W3413 2022

City of Los Angeles General Plan (re-adopted August 8, 2001)

Deverell, William, Water and Los Angeles : a tale of three rivers, 1900-1941, University of California Press, HD4464.L7 D48 2016

Erie, Steven P. & Harold Brackman, Beyond Chinatown: the Metropolitan Water District, growth, and the environment in Southern California, Stanford University Press, HC107.C23E5585 2006

Kahrl, William L., Water and power: the conflict over Los Angeles' water supply in the Owens Valley, University of California Press, HD4464 .L7K33 1982

Libecap, Gary D., Owens Valley revisited: a reassessment of the West's first great water transfer, Stanford Economics and Finance, F868.O9L53 2007

A new infrastructure: innovative transit solutions for Los Angeles: results of an open ideas competition, SCI-Arc, NA 2440 .L67 S688 2009

Varnelis, Kazys, et al., The infrastructural city: networked ecologies in Los Angeles, Actar, HT168 .L8 I54 2008

Walton, John, Western times and water wars: state, culture and rebellion in California, University of California Press, HN79.C22949 1992

Chavoya, C. Ondine, et al, Axis Mundo: queer networks in Chicano L.A., Prestel, N6538.M4 A95 2017 

Consulting GPA, Carson Anderson & Wes Joe, Survey L.A.: LGBT Historic Context Statement, prepared for the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, 2014 (via PDF)

“Explore LGTBQ Los Angeles” (map, short films, and brief overviews of historic places, via The Los Angeles Conservancy)

Faderman, Lillian, Gay L.A.: a history of sexual outlaws, power politics, and lipstick lesbians, Basic Books, HQ76.3 U52 C24 2006

Hurewitz, Daniel, Bohemian Los Angeles and the making of modern politics, University of California Press, F869 .L86 E24 2007

Kenney, Moira, Mapping gay L.A.: the intersection of place and politics, Temple University Press, HQ76.8.U5 K466 2001

Rivera, Reynaldo, Reynaldo Rivera, Semitext(e), TR655 .R58 2020

Tschorn, Adam & Arit John, “20 landmarks that underscore L.A.’s pivotal role in the fight for LGTBQ rights,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2021

​Gumprecht, Blake, Los Angeles River: its life, death and possible rebirth, Johns Hopkins University Press, F868.L8G86 1999

Hall, Clarence A., Jr., Introduction to the geology of Southern California and its native plants, University of California Press, 2007 (Ebook via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Hise, Greg & William Deverell, Eden by design: the 1930 Olmsted-​Bartholomew plan for the Los Angeles region, University of California Press, HT394 .L67E34 2000

McPhee, John, Assembling California, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, QE89.M37 1993

Ornduff, Robert et al., Introduction to California plant life, University of California Press, QK149 .O73 2003

Rundel, Philip W., Introduction to the plant life of Southern California: coast to foothills, University of California Press, QK149.R86 2005

Schoenherr, Allan A., A natural history of California, University of California Press, QH105.C2 S36 2017​

Southern California Earthquake Center

Ulin, David L., The myth of solid ground: earthquakes, prediction, and the fault line between reason and faith, Viking, QE538.8.U45 2004

David Carle has covered the four classical elements for the California Natural History Guides:

• Introduction to air in California, University of California Press, TD883.145.C2C37 2006
• Introduction to earth, soil, and land in California, University of California Press, 2010 (Ebook via Proquest Ebook Central)
• Introduction to fire in California, University of California Press, SD42.32.C2C38 2008
• Introduction to water in California, University of California Press, 2009 (Ebook via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Adelman, Andrew A., City of Los Angeles zoning code: manual and commentary, City of Los Angeles, KFX1632.A2 2013

Bestor, Barbara, et al., Bohemian Modern: living in Silver Lake, Regan Books, NA735.L55B47 2006

Chávez, Ernesto, Mi raza primero! nationalism, identity, and insurgency in the Chicano movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978, University of California Press, 2002 (ebook via Ebrary)

City of Los Angeles, Business Improvement Districts

City of Los Angeles, Historic Preservation Overlay Zones

City of Los Angeles, Neighborhood Councils

Auditor - Controller, Los Angeles County, Incorporated areas - cities

Deener, Andrew, Venice: a contested Bohemia in Los Angeles, University of Chicago Press, HN80.L7D44 2012

Flamming, Douglas, Bound for freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America, University of California Press, 2004 (via ProQuest Ebrary)

Fong, Timothy P., The first suburban Chinatown: the remaking of Monterey Park, California, Temple University Press, F869.M7F68 1994

Gottlieb, Robert, Reinventing Los Angeles: nature and community in the global city, MIT Press, HT168.L6G68 2007

Gottlieb, Robert, et al., The next Los Angeles: the struggle for a liveable city, University of California Press, HN80.L7 N49 2005

Greenwood, Roberta S., Down by the station: Los Angeles Chinatown, 1880-1933, Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, F869. L86C454 1996

Kelley, Ron &  Jonathan Friedlander, Irangeles : Iranians in Los Angeles, University of California Press, F869.L89 I55 1993

Lee, Shelley Sang-Hee, Koreatown, Los Angeles : immigration, race, and the "American dream," Stanford University Press, F869.L86 K675 2022

Mandel, Jennifer, The coveted Westside : how the Black homeowners' rights movement shaped modern Los Angeles, University of Nevada Press, HD7288.76.U52 M355 2022

Marsak, Nathan, Bunker Hill Los Angeles: essence of sunshine and noir, Angel City Press, NA735.L55 M37 2020

Neighborhood and homeowners associations in Los Angeles include Baldwin Hills Estates, Brentwood, Cheviot Hills, Downtown Pasadena, Valley Village,  West Adams, West L.A., Wilshire Vista, ....

Rawitsch, Mark Howland, House on Lemon Street: Japanese pioneers and the American Dream, University Press of Colorado, 2012 (ebook via Ebrary)

Sánchez, George J., Becoming Mexican American: ethnicity, culture, and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945, Oxford University Press, 1993 (ebook via Ebrary)

Sánchez, George J., Boyle Heights: how a Los Angeles neighborhood became the future of American democracy, University of California Press, F869.B69 S26 2021

Sidesk Josh, L. A. City limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the present, University of California Press, 2004 (ebook via Ebrary)

Waldie, D. J., Holy Land, W. W. Norton, F869.L217W35 1996 (on Lakewood, CA)

Waldinger, Roger David, Ethnic Los Angeles, Russell Sage Foundation, F869.L89A1 1996

Weibel-Orlando, Joan, Indian country, L.A.: maintaining ethnic community in complex society, University of Illinois Press, E78.C15W48 1991

Barnet-Sánchez, Holly & Tim Drescher, Give me life : iconography and identity in East LA murals, University of New Mexico Press, 2016 (Ebook via Proquest Ebook Central)

Brafman, David (writer of introduction), L.A. graffiti black book, Getty Publications, NC138.L68 L3 2021

Curtis, Erin M., et al., ¡Murales rebeldes! : L.A. Chicana/Chicano murals under siege, Angel City Press, ND2638.L67 M87 2017

Gunckel, Colin (editor), Self Help Graphics & Art : art in the heart of East Los Angeles, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, NC999.4.S45 A4 2014

Kaplan, Ilee & Carol A. Wells (editors), Peace Press graphics 1967-1987 : art in the pursuit of social change, University Art Museum, California State University; Center for the Study of Political Graphics, NC1849.P42 P43 2011

Noever, Peter & Kimberli Meyer (editor), How many billboards? : art in stead, Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg, N8217.A35 H69 2010

Phillips, Susan A., The city beneath : a century of Los Angeles graffiti, Yale University Press, GT3913.C22 P45 2019

Andersen, Thom, Los Angeles plays itself [videorecording​], Cinema Guild, Media Shelf F869.L857L677 2014

Balio, Tino, Grand design: Hollywood as a modern business enterprise, 1930-1939, Schribner, PN1995.5.U6H55 1995 (volume 5 of the History of the American cinema series)

Brown, Jane, et al., Both sides of Sunset: photographing Los Angeles, Metropolis Books, F869.L843B68 2015

Chavoya, C. Ondine, et al, Axis Mundo: queer networks in Chicano L.A., Prestel, N6538.M4 A95 2017 

Clark, Robin, et al., Phenomenal: California light, space, surface, University of California Press, N6530.C22 2011

Davis, Mike, Ecology of fear: Los Angeles and the imagination of disaster, HN80 .L7 D37 1998

Field, Allyson, et al., L. A. Rebellion : creating a new Black cinema, University of California Press, PN1995.9.N4 L24 2015 (Ebook also available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Film L.A. (city government office in charge encouraging and facilitating location filming in Los Angeles)

Gilbar, Steven, Natural state: a literary anthology of California nature writing, University of California Press, QH105.C2N425 1998

Grenier, Catherine, Catalog L.A.: birth of an art capital, 1955-1985, Chronicle Books, N6535. L6C38 2007

James, David E., The most typical avant-garde: history and geography of minor cinemas in Los Angeles, University of California, PN1993.5 .U718J36 2005

Jones, Kellie, Now dig this! art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, Prestel, N6538 .N5 J666 2011

Kennedy, Marla Hamburg, et al., Looking at Los Angeles, Metropolis Books, Oversize Shelf F869.L843L655 2005

Mark, Lisa Gabrielle & Paul Schimmel, Under the big black sun: California art, 1974-1981, Prestel, N6530 .C2U53 2011

Nawi, Diana & Pablo José Raímrez, Made in L.A. 2023 : acts of living, Delmonico & D.A.P., N6535.L6 N395 2023

Nelson, Harold B., The House that Sam built: Sam Maloof and art in the Pomona Valley, 1945-1985, Huntington Library, NK2439 .M28 N45 2011

Peabody, Rebecca, et al., Pacific standard time: Los Angeles art, 1945-1980, J. Paul Getty Museum, ND235 .L6P33 2011

Perry, Claire, et al., Pacific arcadia: images of California 1600-1915, Oxford University Press, N8214.5.U6P473 1999

Rivera, Reynaldo, Reynaldo Rivera, Semitext(e), TR655 .R58 2020

Roettinger, Brian &J.C. Gabel, Slash : a punk magazine from Los Angeles, 1977-1980, CA Hat & Beard, ML3534.3 S537 2016

Schatz, Thomas, The genius of the system: Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era, Pantheon Books, PN1993.5.U65S3 1996

Ulin, David L., Sidewalking : coming to terms with Los Angeles, University of California Press,  F869.L875 A27 2015

Ulin, David L., Writing Los Angeles: a literary anthology, Library of America, PS572.L6W74 2002