Lcd Projector Rental Los Angeles

Chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity, William Deverell offers a unique perspective on how the city grew and changed. "Whitewashed Adobe "considers six different developments in the history of the city--including the cementing of the Los Angeles River, the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1924, and the evolution of America's largest brickyard in the 1920s. In an absorbing narrative supported by a number of previously unpublished period photographs, Deverell shows how a city that was once part of Mexico itself came of age through appropriating--and even obliterating--the region's connections to Mexican places and people. Deverell portrays Los Angeles during the 1850s as a city seething with racial enmity due to the recent war with Mexico. He explains how, within a generation, the city's business interests, looking for a commercially viable way to establish urban identity, borrowed Mexican cultural traditions and put on a carnival called La Fiesta de Los Angeles. He analyzes the subtle ways in which ethnicity came to bear on efforts to corral the unpredictable Los Angeles River and shows how the resident Mexican population was put to work fashioning the modern metropolis. He discusses how Los Angeles responded to the nation's last major outbreak of bubonic plague and concludes by considering the Mission Play, a famed drama tied to regional assumptions about history, progress, and ethnicity. Taking all of these elements into consideration, "Whitewashed Adobe "uncovers an urban identity--and the power structure that fostered it--with far-reaching implications for contemporary Los Angeles.

WILLIAM MULHOLLAND PRESIDED OVER the creation of a water system that forever changed the course of southern California's history. Mulholland, a self-taught engineer, was the chief architect of the Los Angeles Aqueduct -- a project ranking in magnitude and daring with the Panama Canal -- which brought water to semi-arid Los Angeles from the lush Owens Valley. The story of Los Angeles's quest for water is both famous and notorious; it has been the subject of the classic, yet historically distorted movie Chinatown, among many other accounts. This first full-length biography of Mulholland challenges many of the prevailing versions of his life story and sheds new light on the history of Los Angeles and its relationship with its most prized resource -- water. Catherine Mulholland, the engineer's granddaughter, provides insights into this story that family familiarity affords, and she adds to our historical understanding with extensive primary research in sources such as Mulholland's recently uncovered office files, newspapers, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power archives. She scrutinizes Mulholland's life: from his childhood in Ireland to his triumphant completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the tragedy that ended his career, the Saint Francis Dam disaster. In 1928, the dam, which had been approved by Mulholland, collapsed, killing more than four hundred and fifty people in the worst catastrophe resulting from human technology in California's history. This book sets Mulholland's life in the context of his times, describes his relationships with his associates, and reveals new information about his enemies.