Before L.A.

Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894

Torres-Rouff David Samuel

David Torres-Rouff significantly expands borderlands history by examining the past and original urban infrastructure of one of America's most prominent cities; its social, spatial and racial divides and boundaries; and how it came to be the Los Angeles we know today. It is a fascinating study of how an innovative intercultural community developed along racial lines, and how immigrants from the United States engineered a profound shift in civic ideals and the physical environment, creating a social and spatial rupture that endures to this day.

About the Author

David Samuel Torres-Rouff is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Merced.

Reviews

"An engaging and innovative study of nineteenth-century Los Angeles and the complex racial and ethnic relations that defined this time period, 'Before L.A.' is remarkable for its originality in scope and depth of analysis... A solid piece of scholarship that is brilliantly organized, analytically sound, and clear in its prose" – Rudy P. Guevarra, Jr., Arizona State University

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