Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege

by Laura R. Barraclough

In the first book-length scholarly study of the San Fernando Valley―home to one-third of the population of Los Angeles―Laura R. Barraclough combines ambitious historical sweep with an on-theground investigation of contemporary life in this iconic western suburb. She is particularly intrigued by the Valley’s many rural elements, such as dirt roads, tack-and-feed stores, horse-keeping districts, citrus groves, and movie ranches. Far from natural or undeveloped spaces, these rural characteristics are, she shows, the result of deliberate urbanplanning decisions that have shaped the Valley over the course of more than a hundred years.

The Valley’s entwined history of urban development and rural preservation has real ramifications today for patterns of racial and class inequality and especially for the evolving meaning of whiteness. Immersing herself in meetings of homeowners’ associations, equestrian organizations, and redistricting committees, Barraclough uncovers the racial biases embedded in rhetoric about “open space” and “western heritage.” The Valley’s urban cowboys enjoy exclusive, semirural landscapes alongside the opportunities afforded by one of the world’s largest cities. Despite this enviable position, they have at their disposal powerful articulations of both white victimization and, with little contradiction, color-blind politics.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

316 pages, Hardcover

First published December 9, 2010

Reviews

[Jacob Woocher]

I really liked this book. The way she described the development of the San Fernando Valley through a settler colonial frame was really interesting and definitely changed the way I see LA and suburbia in general. The valley is too big a part of LA to ignore and this is probably the single best book on it.

[IZ]

A really interesting and well written analysis of a land shaped by colonialism, whiteness, and rural/western ideals and aesthetic

[Yusef]

Essential for understanding the Valley and indeed my hometown just north.