Few cities captivate the imagination as does Los Angeles. It is the locus of spectaculars: movies, earthquakes, freeways, riots, sunsets. In this fascinating desk reference, Leonard and Dale Pitt have gathered a sweeping array of information on the City of Angels. Bolstering their historical and humanistic approach with scientific and technical information, the Pitts include alphabetically arranged entries on history, geography, automobile culture, sports, movies, current events, architecture, flora, fauna, scandals, biography, the arts, politics, neighborhoods, and ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Quotations throughout provide provocative and amusing tidbits about the city that has been called "the fulfillment of the American Dream." Copiously illustrated and wonderfully anecdotal, this is a book for anyone with a question, large or small, about Los Angeles.
"It's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there."—Mark Twain
"At heart, Los Angeles is a vast cross-section of the Corn Belt set down incongruously in a Maxfield Parrish setting."—Irwin S. Cobb
"Hollywood is wonderful. Anyone who doesn't like it is either crazy or sober."—Raymond Chandler
"Great weather and automobiles."—Jamal Wilkes
Leonard Pitt is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Northridge, and author of Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 (California, 1966). Dale Pitt is a freelance writer, editor, and indexer.
"Los Angeles cannot be contained by any one description or category. Thanks to the ancient miracle of the alphabet, to their wide-ranging scholarship, and to their personal knowledge of this distinctive city, Leonard and Dale Pitt have come as close as anyone to squeezing the breathtaking variety of this multitudinous, complex city between the covers of one book."—Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California
"Captures the fascination and downright zaniness of the City of Angels in a manner that is appealing to both the serious researcher and the casual browser. . . . An exemplary aspect of the encyclopedia is its inclusiveness. . . . Serious researchers will fast find themselves sidetracked into the seemingly inexhaustible details and trivia found in this volume."—Melissa Rae Root, American Reference Books Annual
600 pp.7 x 10Illus: 305 b/w illustrations, 22 tables, 6 maps
9780520205307$29.95|£25.00Paper
Dec 2000