Los Angeles

Images of America: California

by Jeffrey Samudio, Portia Lee Ph.D.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 as one of the two original Spanish pueblos in California. At the time of statehood in 1851, Los Angeles began to reconsider its "cow town" condition, and gradually transformed an American city into the magnificent metropolis we know today. Drawn from the collections of the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Los Angeles City Archives, Jeffrey Samudio and Portia Lee record the history of a community that established itself culturally as it grew exponentially. By 1945, the small town that had begun with 28 square miles in the late 19th century had grown to 450 square miles through almost 100 annexations. Businessmen constructed a downtown streetscape whose architecture elicited envy in other cities, hotels catered to visitors with such enthusiasm that guests eventually returned with ambitious schemes of their own, and the construction of an elaborate freeway system suddenly made Los Angeles a drive-in city.

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2001

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Los Angeles edition of Images of America is one of the better books in this series. It's mostly a chronological look at the development of Los Angeles through photos recently released from historical archives, and LA's history is a mix of building where natural resources were not, a mix of architectural styles, and flair for the unusual.

I'm fascinated by LA's history and how what we've built says what was valued, what we wanted to become, and what we wanted to establish.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

History in photos

I was hoping for more of a historic book with corresponding images. Therefore this book was disappointing to say the least.

[Sarah E Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful images, this was a nice read!

[Micki · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many amazing facts and photos crammed into one teensy book.