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City of Industry is a stunning exposé on the construction of corporate capitalist spaces. Investigating Industry's archives, including sealed FBI reports, Valle uncovered a series of scandals from the city's founder James M. Stafford to present day corporate heir Edward Roski Jr., the nation's biggest industrial developer. While exposing the corruption and corporate greed spawned from the growth of new technology and engineering, Valle reveals the plight of the property-owning servants, especially Latino working-class communities, who have fallen victim to the effects of this tale of corporate greed. ... Read more

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a fascinating exposé of political corruption and racism
Víctor Valle's City of Industry is a fascinating exposé of political corruption and racism wrapped in a "Chinatown-like" historic epic. A slice of Southern California History from the 1920s to the 1980s, with the City's founder Jim Stafford at the center, the parts of this puzzle of a story include the power of the railroads companies and developers and the privatization of government. Combining intrigue and detail accounting, Valle explains the redirecting of funds to redevelopment projects often at the expense of low-income residents. Valle also offers a biting critique of the press. Ultimately this is a story of the unholy symbiotic relationship between developers and politicians, with the former donating to the latter's (city and county) campaigns and, in turn, public officials diverting incredible amounts of public wealth into the coffers of private developers.

Insightful, to say the least!
I grew up in Bassett, California and had heard and read of the going ons in Industry. An amazing piece of investigative work on Mr Valle's behalf. Great comparisons to Polanski's Chinatown also, intrigue from Sacramento to El Monte to La Puente.

A great investigative piece of reporting

"City of Industry: Geneologies of Power in Southern California" is the kind of book that should be a best-seller but won't be. It should be because it is a thoroughly documented expose' of a tiny(pop 700), multi billion dollar railroad town in Los Angeles County that has manipulated itself to global importance, but has gotten where it is by breaking all of the rules and corrupting local and state politicians. The author, Dr. Victor Valle, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, should receive some high award for this effort, but he won't. The facts are all there in this book. However, this world, this nation, this state, that little townseemto prefer back-alley cheating and corruption as the means to satisfactory ends. Too bad, we haven't evolved into a more enlightened species. Thanks Prof. Valle. for a valiant, if futile,effort. ... Read more

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This book boldly unsettles the idea of globalization as a recent phenomenon--and one driven solely by Western interests--by offering a compelling new perspective on global interconnectivity in the nineteenth century. Jeremy Prestholdt examines East African consumers' changing desires for material goods from around the world in an era of sweeping social and economic change. Exploring complex webs of local consumer demands that affected patterns of exchange and production as far away as India and the United States, the book challenges presumptions that Africa's global relationships have always been dictated by outsiders. Full of rich and often-surprising vignettes that outline forgotten trajectories of global trade and consumption, it powerfully demonstrates how contemporary globalization is foreshadowed in deep histories of intersecting and reciprocal relationships across vast distances. ... Read more

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The first book ever published on the Irish in Missouri (1984) now updated to the 21st century.75 illustrations, maps, photographs, extracts and sketches, sewn binding, 264 pages, and full color cover.
The Murphy Wagon, Genealogy, Politics, The Kerry Patch and more. The story of the Irish in Missouri from the 1700s to the great famine of the 1840s to the 21st century. It is the story of the Irish in America as never told before !
Full chapters on the following topics are included: Kansas City; St. Louis; St. Joseph & Buchanaan County; The Famine Irish; The St. Patricks Day Parades; The Irish Wilderness and Iron Mountain Railroad; andIrish Immigration and distribution, with statistics. A premier work on the Irish in America, by the most published author in the field.Table of Contents Part One1770 - 1884. Irish Settlers in the Spanish Regime...Indian Mounds and Tara Hills. Immigration...Religious Ties and Conflicts... West vs. East ... The First Irish-American Settlement in the Bois Brule Bottom.Part Two 1804 - 1900. The First Irish AmericansPioneer Journalists ... Mexican War ... Steamboat Irish ... Indian War ...The Famine Irish ... Murphy s Wagon replaced by the Railroad ... Slavery ... Civil War Irish.Part ThreeIrish Immigration and DistributionIrish Settlements in Missouri ... City vs. Farm .. Population by County ... Irish Settlements ...O Fallon Missouri ... Donnybrook ... Moving on from MissouriPart FourThe Irish in the Cities.Saint Louis... Brady & McKnight ... O Connor... Mullanphy .. The Kerry Patch ... Kansas City.... First Newspaper ...Father Bernard Donnelly ... The first Irish in Kansas City ...The History of the St. Patricks Day Parade ... The Shamrock Society ... A.O.H. St. Joseph and Buchanan County... On the overland trail Part Five The Irish Wilderness SettlementRev. J.J. Hogan ... Lifestyle ... Chillicothe ... Brookfield ... Ripley and Oregon Counties ... Iron Mountain Railroad.Part SixMy Irish American Heritage.The Sullivans, Donahues, Buckleys, Irish American Development. List of Illustrations Alexander DoniphanAlexander McNairAlexander O'Reilly, commanderArchbishop KenrickBarney Carney married Arrah Wanna'Bess' DonahueBrownes Irish MarketClanna EireannClanna Eireann DancersCole Camp ParadeDance & Pipe ChampionsDennis SullivanDonnybrookDred ScottFirst Brick HouseFirst Cultural CenterFirst Government HouseFounding Patrons of Irish CenterFr. Bernard Donnelly, Kansas CityFriends of Irish Freedom CertificateGod in the HillsHogan (Catholic)Hogan (Methodist)IACC Grand OpeningIrish Music in 1915Irish Newspapers (The Shamrock, Irish Focus, Irish Life)Irish Patch, Kansas CityIrish Roots CafeIron Mountain WorkersJ. Murphy & Sons Wagon recieptJames McDonoughJohn B. SullivanJohn Mullanphy, first Millionaire John O'FallonJohn T. BuckleyJoseph CharlessJoseph Charless, JrThe Murphy WagonKansas Public LedgerKate 'Smith' on TrialKerry Patch (recent)Kerry Patch MapKerry Patch ResidentMary Ellen SullivanMichael Sullivan, Railroad worker Missouri Gazette 1818Missouri PreachersMissouri Republican BuildingSt. Patricks Day Parade FestivitiesPatrick Griffen of the Irish WildernessPhelim O'Toole, St. Louis HeroProminent Celtic AmericansRailroad Line on the mapSacred Indian MoundScartaglen, the bandSt. Louis & San Fran RR ... Read more

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Missouri Irish Book with Missouri Irish Sheet music found in book !
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RD5S2J1QQM2EH Here is a slide show based upon illustrations from this book, along with a lost Irish American Song, published in Missouri in earlier days.Based upon sheet music discovered in this book.Noted Missouri Irish singer, Peter Reilly Adams performs this forgotten song from nearly a century ago. ... Read more

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In his enduring study of Spanish-speaking Californians--agroup that includes both native-born Californians, or Californios, andimmigrants from Mexico-- Leonard Pitt charts one of the earliestchapters in the state's ethnic history, and, in the process, he shedslight on debates and tensions that continue to this day. In a newforeword for this edition, Ramn A. Gutirrez discusses the shapingand reception of the book and also views this classic work in light ofrecent scholarship on California and ethnic history.

"Decline of the Californios is one of those rare works that firstgained fame for its pathbreaking and original nature, but which nowmaintains its status as a classic of California and ethnic history."--Douglas Monroy, author of Thrown among Strangers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting revelation of the altering of history starting in the 60's
The new introduction by Gutierrez and myopic views of Americano "robbery" are more indicative of the current state of mind than reflective of Leonard Pitt's original assessment. The Californios were colorful, benevolent, brutal and highly racist. Yet, much current commentary attempts unsuccessfully to lay their demise at the feet of unfettered white expansionism. Pitt's own Preface states, "...the Spanish and Mexican Californians were numerically too small and culturally too backward to contribute to mankind much that was new or original." This along with the book was written in 1966, while Gutierrez' 1998 Foreword asserts the book is "brutally honest about Anglo discrimination toward ethnic Mexicans." To fully understand this bias, one should read Pio Pico's Historical Narrative. Pico, himself a Californio and the last Mexican Governor of Alta California, tells a harrowing tale of helping his sister elope with an Anglo American in the 1830s, because the Mexican Government, administered locally by Californios, forbade the wedding on grounds of the Anglo's race. Pico also provides great recollections of the Californios' whippings, incarcerations and executions of the native tribes of California whose residency predates the Spanish and the Mexicans. Serious historians of this era will also be aware of the New Spain policy of "stamping" every individual by race (quatroons, mulattoes, etc.) - a policy adopted by the emergent Mexican "republic," and hence the Californios, after its independence from Spain. In the 19th century it was common for any nation and/or race to promulgate the fortunes of its own. Certainly the Anglo-Americans did that, also certain is that the Californios did as well. Pitt was balanced in these facts, Gutierrez, and current PC-oriented commentary does a disservice painting these tough, rugged Rancheros as docile victims. Andres Pico showed that at the Battle of San Pasqual they would fight hard and kill Anglos, which they did, to save their hegemony over Alta California, hoping to preserve their own brand of discrimination.

Open One's Mind
This is an angry book.This is a smart book.This is a sad book.But most importantly, particularly in these days as the Latino and Mexican population of California continues to grow in numbers and influence, this is a book that requires you to look at the history of the State of California from a different view, and to maybe begin to understand the seriousness of the events and history covered.

It has been at least a decade since I read this volume, but its true stories still resound in me.This book is an education and what more can one ask for from such a work.William J. Trinkle, Director, The Bear Flag Museum.

Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californias, 1846-1890
Wonderful genealogical source for those with ties to the "Californios"...great reading for anyone interested in early California history as well.

Classic California - Here We Come!
Pitt's history of the decline of the Californios is an extremely important record of California's past. Few contemporary Californian's are familiar with the rugged settlers who came to this place and created a society of their own. Largely abandoned by the Spanish and then Mexican overseers, robbed by the invading Americanos, the Californios left their indelible mark upon us. their influence is subtle now, but we still live in the various "ranchos" they founded and ranched. This is a very accessible and well-written piece of scholarship. It is simple enough to qualify as a popular history, well researched enough to be taken seriously in academia.

it was informative but with so many names,a bit confusing
pitt certainly gives us a descriptive account of life in California before the gold rush and after.his referring to so many names and families did make the whole story of the people a little confusing. ... Read more

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California Historical Society brings you this picture coffee table type book of the barns in California. The different types going back to the 1800's. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Grand........
When I discovered the existence of this book, I rushed to order it, got it in record time and it is all I hoped for.A beautiful book in my hands, no hassle, no frustration.Happy camper here. Thank you. ... Read more

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Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California, 1769-1850
While this book is a great history lesson and location of surnames being in alphabetical order, there appears to be many instances of errors in data between spouses. The death date on one of the persons happened well before the birth or marriage of the couple. One should be very careful not to take all the data as accurate. Checking other sources, listed with the families, would be the best way to record the information as accurate.
Many years of labor and research went into this book by using records from the various missions of California, or from Mexico.

Essential for researchers of Early California Genealogies
This text contains a wealth of information for those researching early California families.There are interesting notes and highlights from local records, including touches of history.The index is helpful for cross-referencing and locating family links.There are times when it appears that everyone was related to everyone else in early California.This is an essential text/guide for those doing genealogy research of the time, era, area.It is worth every penny for the detailed information it provides ... Read more

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The eleventh-generation Californian Jennifer Vo and thehistorian John P. Schmal have collaborated in the production of thismulti-generational epic about a pioneer California family. In 1781,Luis Quintero, a poor, middle-aged African-Mexican tailor from Sonora,Mexico, and his family (plus ten other families) founded El Pueblo deNuestra la Reina de Los Angeles del Rio Porcioncula. The founding ofLos Angeles, California, was a well-planned strategic move made bySpain to secure the northwestern border regions of its extensiveAmerican empire in the last half of the eighteenth century. Theorty-four people comprising the Expedition of 1781 made a dangerous960-mile journey through hostile Indian territory from Alamos, Sonora,to San Gabriel, California, is search of a better life. Little didthey know that their small pueblo would one day become a majormetropolitan area boasting a population of almost ten millionsouls. The authors discuss in some detail the story of one family'splace in California history through twelve generations from LuisQuintero to the present generation. 2003, 5½ x 8½, illus., index,paper, 252 pp. ... Read more

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Fascinating California history from an unexpected source
Approaching this book, I expected to find a prolonged geneological probe into the history of an old and distginguished California family, merit enough for any book.What I found, however, was that within that geneological framework has been written a superbly researched, beautifully worded history of California throughout the times traced in the book.To me, this is an extraordinarily accomplished feat, for it successfully intertwines two different disciplines into one articulate, readable, highly informative text. Even a reader with no interest in the family at hand will emerge from this book enlightened as to the varied, culturally magnificent history of this state.Geneology, per se, can be a plain discipline; history, per se, can be a plain discipline; but, mix them together with the passion and with the power of Schmal and Vo and you have pure magic.An unexpected treat, a surprise, and a highly recommended and valuable book. ... Read more

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The Graves of Tarim narrates the movement of an old diaspora across the Indian Ocean over the past five hundred years. Ranging from Arabia to India and Southeast Asia, Engseng Ho explores the transcultural exchanges--in kinship and writing--that enabled Hadrami Yemeni descendants of the Muslim prophet Muhammad to become locals in each of the three regions yet remain cosmopolitans with vital connections across the ocean. At home throughout the Indian Ocean, diasporic Hadramis engaged European empires in surprising ways across its breadth, beyond the usual territorial confines of colonizer and colonized. A work of both anthropology and history, this book brilliantly demonstrates how the emerging fields of world history and transcultural studies are coming together to provide groundbreaking ways of studying religion, diaspora, and empire.
Ho interprets biographies, family histories, chronicles, pilgrimage manuals and religious law as the unified literary output of a diaspora that hybridizes both texts and persons within a genealogy of Prophetic descent. By using anthropological concepts to read Islamic texts in Arabic and Malay, he demonstrates the existence of a hitherto unidentified canon of diasporic literature. His supple conceptual framework and innovative use of documentary and field evidence are elegantly combined to present a vision of this vital world region beyond the histories of trade and European empire. ... Read more

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The Gold Mining area of Yuba County was settled around 1848. Many of the miners came from Europe. Information included in this book often shows what country these individuals came from, including their birth and death dates and, in most cases, the place t ... Read more

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"A massive frame, dynamic in action, a keen brain, violent passions, and an abundant heart"--in the eyes of one of his contemporaries, Phineas Banning (1830-1885) was a figure larger than life. Banning played a crucial role in Southern California, not only through the blood-and-guts work of building the region's mercantile and transportation infrastructure but also by envisioning its future. In rough mountain passes, dusty plains, and tidal mudflats, Banning saw roads and railways, and the harbor that would one day become the busiest container port in the nation. The Bannings who followed this formidable patriarch shaped the engine of Southern California's growth--tourism--by developing Santa Catalina Island as a leisure destination. And once the physical fabric of the region took shape, they devoted their attention to building the social service, reform, and philanthropy networks that would sustain the modern metropolis. Sitton's balanced and searching portrait reveals the crucial role of this First Family of Los Angeles, whose insight and energies shaped Southern California at every stage. ... Read more

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Advance Magazine text:Names majority of Spaniards who settled California, many descendants in Mexican period, and early Americans who married into Spanish-Mexican families, using Spanish system of surnames, so reader can trace maternal as well as patern ... Read more

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Our Spanish-California Ancestors: the ultimate index
After the occupation of South and Central America, the Spanish conquistodores moved into Mexico and Baja and Alta Mexico -- this latter section is now called California.The Spanish military provided a basic protection for the new settlements, but the community leadership revolved around the missionaries.The native indians were targeted by the missionaries for conversion to Catholicism, in hopes of saving their souls, and in the meantime, teaching them modern farming and ranching, as well as the trappings of civilization as it existed in Spain.As leaders rose from the ranks of the settlers, they prospered, given huge land grants in this virtually untouched paradise, which they populated with vast herds of free-ranging cattle.Small villages and farms grew on the perimeters of the compounds that housed the troops, built around the missions.Thousands of Americans proudly trace their ancestral lineage back to those amazing pioneers, and to the aura of the almost "Shangri-la" little nation they developed and maintained for about fifty interesting years.Their politics, struggles, little wars, and amazing personalities provide brilliant auras in the history of our nation.Trading ships from all over the world, principally Boston and Nantucket, called at its ports, bringing manufactured goods and picking up hides and furs. The whole thing came to a head when two years of drought wiped out crops and pasture lands, followed by an invasion by American military forces, and the onslaught of a gold rush. But the Californios were there at Monterey to draw up and sign the new Constitution for what would become a new state. The age, however, remains golden in our histories.Doris Shaw Castro became fascinated with this history and her husband's Spanish-California ancestry, and began researching old mission records of births, marriages, deaths, military assignments, and news accounts, all carefully penned and maintained for posterity by the Spanish priests who were the anchors of this new world. She carried this into researching letters, diaries, journals and ship's logs, to complete this amazingly comprehensive, annotated geneology, to include virtually all of the families of that magical half-century. Anyone who has tried to compile a family tree, much less annotate it, understands what an endless task it turns into.Doris Shaw Castro spenta lifetime compiling it."CALIFORNIA COLONY" is the result.This should be the basic anchor book in any collection of California history, much less those searching for "Californio" ancestors. 600 Magazine-sized pages are filled with data, bunched by families but referenced by index to show the interelationship of families, and the introduction of New England and Hawaiian blood into the mix.My search started with my New England ancestors, only to discover that two generations back, my maternal great grandmother was the daughter of a Spanish don in Santa Barbara, "Alta California."Geneological libraries should automatically add this to their collections, as well. ... Read more