New from Yale University Press: Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781-1894 by David Samuel Torres-Rouff.About the book, from the publisher:
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.David Samuel Torres-Rouff is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Merced.
“A major contribution to the urban history of the American West, along with environmental and Mexican American history. Before L.A. deepens our understanding of Mexican California and builds on the recent works that are invigorating the field of borderland history.”—Maria Raquel Casas, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
--Marshal Zeringue
