Overview

Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angelestraces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city's growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman. In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a violent, dusty, 29-square-mile pueblo with a few thousand souls, largely unchanged since its founding in 1781. By 1930, its size had swelled to within 96% of its current 468 square miles, housing a staggering 1.2 million people. In just 50 years, L.A. had joined the ranks of other world-class cities. In the tradition of Mike Davis's classic workCity of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopiaand10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.)debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative thatsheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented inInventing Paradise,along with other little-known facts about L.A. history,including: How Los Angeles Times chief Harry Chandler pushed eugenics and endorsed ""white spots"" Henry Huntington's and Moses Sherman's trolley systems and the extortion-type practices that led to their expansion WhenLos Angeles was so desperate for water, it hired a miracle worker who promised rain How L.A.'s power elite peddled the lie that the Owens River used to flow into Los Angeles and rightfully belonged to the city WhenLos Angeles annexed a city in which monkeys cast votes HowVenice, California, was not the first Venice, California William Mulholland's game-changing construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which raised the city's population ceiling from 250,000 to 2.5 million Haddad also covers the heavy costs that came with creating paradise in such a short period of time, including car dependency, environmental problems, and deep-seated inequities between wealthy white Angelenos and people of color due to racist policies. All have left an imprint on present-day Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a city that should not exist-and yet it does. ThroughInventing Paradise, Haddad shows readers that Los Angeles is not a paradise found, but a paradise that was willed into existence, owing to the collective vision of these six Gilded Era-born tycoons.

Full Product Details

9781595801272

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Paul Haddad's Inventing Paradise is an enthralling, deeply researched account of the leaders of industry who built a small, agrarian riverside village into one of America's largest, strangest, most alluring cities. This is a story of speculation, trickery, and greed as well as earnest, almost realized visions of a true and accessible Utopia. The research is astounding, the writing propulsive, heartfelt, and even funny. Like the best histories, this work is about who and where we are, not only recounting the past but also illuminating the future.""--Jeff Hobbs, author, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (L.A. Times Book Prize winner) ""Paul Haddad has written a delightful and immersive account of the formative years of a great American city. With a novelist's sense of voice and detail and a historian's command of the national context, Haddad reminds us that no element of contemporary Los Angeles was pre-ordained--and invites us to reflect on the ways that the past shapes the places we call home.""--Henry Grabar, author, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World ""Inventing Paradise interweaves the lives of the city builders who are remembered in the names of Los Angeles's streets and neighborhoods--Chandler, Huntington, Sherman, Mulholland, and more--to reveal how and why L.A. grew into today's wacky sprawl of neighborhoods, canyons, and beachfront. Paul Haddad's captivating account describes how the city's boundaries, never planned out but assembled piece by piece over decades, formed from the hubris and greed of these men, who found their sun-warmed paradise between the mountains and the Pacific and grew audacious dreams into fortunes.""--Kevin Roderick, editor and publisher, L.A. Observed ""Paul Haddad's Inventing Paradise is a brilliant and entertaining look at the early history and development of Los Angeles, told via the lives of six towering figures who turned a dry, small town into a verdant, thriving, metropolitan paradise. It is destined to join such outstanding works as Mike Davis's City of Quartz and Gary Krist's The Mirage Factory as classics of L.A. history.""--Steve Soboroff, Los Angeles-based businessman, philanthropist, and civic leader ""In the tradition of Carey McWilliams, Kevin Starr, and D.J. Waldie, Haddad unveils with deep research and critical flair six historical power brokers who turned Los Angeles into a profitable (for some) urban paradise. By hoarding resources and controlling public information, these six men helped shape the city we love and struggle with today. A must-read for L.A. history buffs and urbanists alike!""--Pamela Prickett, author, The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels ""Compelling from start to finish, Haddad traces the seemingly impossible development of the Shangri-La of the Southland through the exploits of six titans that built Los Angeles. His rigorous research uncovers anecdotes, documents, and conversations that breathe life into each paragraph. Inventing Paradise is a brilliant read, and a must-own historical tome for anybody with even a passing interest in Los Angeles!""--Evan Lovett, L.A. in a Minute ""Paul Haddad does a fantastic job of telling the story of how Los Angeles went from a city with the largest rail system in the world to car-dominated, smog filled sprawl. Despite the last 80 years of car-centric planning, I'm optimistic that Angelenos have had enough of living with the consequences of building a city that forces them to drive for nearly all trips. Haddad's expert account of how we got here is a gripping tale of past mistakes, and also of future possibilities to create a better city.""--Michael Schneider, founder of Streets For All ""Sure, everyone knows how amazing L.A. is now . . . but do you know how we got to be this miraculous metropolis? Inventing Paradise is a fascinating and engaging exploration of the City of Angels, revealing just who made the city and how their motivations led to an imperfect paradise.""--Alex Cohen, Emmy award-winning journalist"

Author Information

Paul Haddad’s books include the critically acclaimed Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times bestseller 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 57 Walking Adventures, and High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years, 1977–1981 (named one of the Best Baseball Books of 2012 by the Daily News). As a Hollywood-born native, he has written about Los Angeles for the L.A. Times, LAist, and HuffPo. He has authored three novels, including the L.A. Noir Paradise Palms: Red Menace Mob. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Haddad has been nominated for multiple Emmys as a documentary producer. PaulHaddadBooks.com @la_dorkout

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available