This is a bibliography of Los Angeles, California. It includes books specifically about the city and county of Los Angeles and more generally the Greater Los Angeles Area. The list includes both non-fiction and notable works of fiction that significantly relate to the region. The list does not include annual travel books, recipe books, and currently does not contain works about sports in the region.
History California histories containing significant material on Los Angeles Guinn, J. M. Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century (1902) 1019 pp by a professional historian. The first 200 pages contain histories of each county. The last 800 pages contain several hundred short biographies. . online
Kevin Starr Kevin Starr, former Professor of History and California's State Librarian has written many highly regarded books on the history of California including the multi-volume Americans & the California Dream Series which contain a significant amount of history about Los Angeles and the surrounding area.
California: A History. New York: Modern Library. (2007). 416 pp. Single Volume History of California. Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990–2003. New York: Knopf. (2004). 784 pp.
Americans & the California Dream Series by Kevin Starr Americans and the California Dream, 1850–1915. New York: Oxford University Press. (1973). 512 pp. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. New York: Oxford University Press. (1985). 416 pp. Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press. (1990). 496 pp. Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. New York: Oxford University Press. (1996). 432 pp. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. New York: Oxford University Press. (1997). 512 pp. Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940–1950. New York: Oxford University Press. (2003). 386 pp. Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950–1963. New York: Oxford University Press. (2011). 576 pp.
Los Angeles histories Abu-Lughod, Janet L. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities (U of Minnesota Press, 1999), Compares the three cities in terms of geography, economics and race from 1800 to 1990 Bills, Emily, "Connecting Lines: L.A.'s Telephone History and the Binding of the Region", Southern California Quarterly, 91 (Spring 2009), 27–67. Bollens, John C. and Geyer, Grant B. Yorty: Politics of a Constant Candidate. (1973). 245 pp. Mayor 1961–73 Brook, Vincent. Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles (Rutgers University Press; 2013) 301 pages Buntin, John. L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. (2009). 432 pp. Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Verso Books, 2006). Davis, Mike, & Wiener, Jon. Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties. (2020). New York: Verso Books. Emerson, Charles. 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great Warv (2013) compares Los Angeles to 20 major world cities; pp. 194–205.
Fogelson, Robert M. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850–1930 (1967), focus on planning, infrastructure, water, and business Friedricks, William. Henry E. Huntington and the Creation of Southern California (1992), on Henry Edwards Huntington (1850–1927), railroad executive and collector, who helped build LA and Southern California through the Southern Pacific railroad and also trolleys. Garcia, Matt. A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900–1970. (2001). 330 pp. Hart, Jack R. The Information Empire: The Rise of the Los Angeles Times and The Times Mirror Corporation. (1981). 410 pp. Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds. Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980. online; see index at p. 409 for list. Jaher, Frederic Cople. The Urban Establishment: Upper Strata in Boston, New York, Charleston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. (1982). 777 pp. Klein, Norman M. and Schiesl, Martin J., eds. 20th Century Los Angeles: Power, Promotion, and Social Conflict. (1990). 240 pp. Krist, Gary. The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles. (2018). 404 pp. Laslett, John H.M. Sunshine Was Never Enough: Los Angeles Workers, 1880–2010. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012. Lavender, David. Los Angeles, Two Hundred Years. (1980). 240 pp. heavily illustrated popular history Leader, Leonard. Los Angeles and the Great Depression. (1991). 344 pp. Lotchin, Roger W. ed. The Way We Really Were: The Golden State in the Second Great War (University of Illinois Press, 2000), essays by experts. Mullins, William H. The Depression and the Urban West Coast, 1929–1933: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. (1991). 176 pp. Nicolaides, Becky M. My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920–1965. (2002). 412 pp. O'Flaherty, Joseph S. An End and a Beginning: The South Coast and Los Angeles, 1850–1887. (1972). 222 pp. O'Flaherty, Joseph S. Those Powerful Years: The South Coast and Los Angeles, 1887–1917 (1978). 356 pp. Payne, J. Gregory and Ratzan, Scott C. Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream. (1986). 368 pp., mayor 1973 to 1993 and a leading African American Raftery, Judith Rosenberg. Land of Fair Promise: Politics and Reform in Los Angeles Schools, 1885–1941. (1992). 284 pp. Rolle, Andrew. Los Angeles: From Pueblo to City of the Future. (2d. ed. 1995). 226 pp.; the only historical survey by a scholar Schiesl, Martin J. "Progressive Reform in Los Angeles under Mayor Alexander, 1909-1913." California Historical Quarterly 54.1 (1975): 37-56. online Sitton, Tom and Deverell, William, eds. Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s. (2001). 371 pp. Standiford, Les. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles. New York: Ecco. (2015). 314 pp. Torres-Rouff, David Samuel. Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781–1894. New Haven: Yale University press, 2013. Verge, Arthur C. Paradise Transformed: Los Angeles during the Second World War. (1993). 177 pp. Verge, Arthur C. "The Impact of the Second World War on Los Angeles" Pacific Historical Review 1994 63(3): 289–314. 0030–8684 in JSTOR
Other nonfiction General
Fogelson, Robert M. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930 (Univ of California Press, 1967) online.
Lotchin, Roger W. The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego (Indiana University Press, 2003) online.
Pitt, Leonard, and Dale Pitt. "Los Angeles A to Z: An encyclopedia of the city and county." (University of California Press, 1997)0.
Architecture and urban theory
LGBT
Art and literature Peabody, Rebecca; Andrew Perchuk; Glenn Phillips; Rani Singh; Lucy Bradnock, eds.(2011) Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980. Getty Research Institute: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN : 9781606060728
Economics, business and labor Davis, Clark. (2001) Company men: White-collar life and corporate cultures in Los Angeles, 1892-1941 (JHU Press) online
Findley, James Clifford. (1958) "The Economic Boom of the 'Twenties in Los Angeles" (PhD Dissertation, The Claremont Graduate University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1958. 5904416).
Hernandez, Kim. (2010) "The 'Bungalow Boom': The Working-Class Housing Industry and the Development and Promotion of Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles." Southern California Quarterly 92.4: 351-392.
Hester, Yolanda, and Teresa Barnett. (2024) "Community and Commerce: Oral Histories of Black Business in Los Angeles." Public Historian 46.3 (2024): 7-37.
Kazin, Michael. (1986) "The Great Exception Revisited: Organized Labor and Politics in San Francisco and Los Angeles, 1870-1940" Pacific Historical Review 55#3 pp.371-402 .
Morales, Rebecca. (1986) "The Los Angeles automobile industry in historical perspective." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 4.3: 289-303.
Orsi, Richard J. (1991) "Railroads in the History of California and the Far West: An Introduction." California History 70.1 (1991): 2-11. Perry, Louis B., and Richard S. Perry. (1962) A History of the Los Angeles Labor Movement, 1911-1941 ( Univ of California Press). online
Stimson, Grace Heilman. (2022) Rise of the labor movement in Los Angeles (Univ of California Press) online Trevizo, Dolores, and Mary J. Lopez. (2016) "Neighborhood segregation and business outcomes: Mexican immigrant entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County." Sociological Perspectives 59.3: 668-693.
Guides, architecture, geography
Herman, Robert D. Downtown Los Angeles: A Walking Guide (2004) 270 pp. Mahle, Karin, and Martin Nicholas Kunz. Los Angeles: Architecture & Design (2004) 191 pp. Nelson, Howard J. The Los Angeles Metropolis. (1983). 344 pp. geography Pitt, Leonard and Dale Pitt. Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County. (1997). 605 pp. short articles by experts excerpts and text search
Contemporary issues Abu-Lughod, Janet L. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities (1999) online edition Bloch, Stefano. Going All City (2019) is an up close and personal analysis of 1990s graffiti and gang cultures. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-All-City-Struggle-Subculture/dp/022649358X Dear, Michael J., H. Eric Schockman, and Greg Hise, eds. Rethinking Los Angeles (1996) interprets LA in terms of "postmodern urbanism" model. It consists of several fundamental characteristics: a global-local connection; a ubiquitous social polarization; and a reterritorialization of the urban process in which hinterland organizes the center (in direct contradiction to the Chicago School model of cities). The resultant urbanism is distinguished by a centerless urban form termed "keno capitalism." Fine, David. Imagining Los Angeles: A City in Fiction. (2000). 293 pp. Flanigan, James. Smile Southern California, You're the Center of the Universe: The Economy and People of a Global Region (2009) excerpt and text search Fulton, William. The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles. (1997). 395 pp. Gottlieb, Robert. Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City (2007) excerpt and text search Scott, Allen J. and Soja, Edward W., eds. The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century. (1996). 483 pp.
Planning, environment and autos Bottles, Scott L. Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City. (1987). 302 pp. Davis, Margaret Leslie. Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles. (1993). 303 pp. Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. (1990). 462 pp. Desfor, Gene, and Roger Keil. Nature And The City: Making Environmental Policy In Toronto And Los Angeles (2004) 290 pp. Deverell, William, and Greg Hise. Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (2006) 350 pp. excerpt and text search Dewey, Scott Hamilton. Don't Breathe the Air: Air Pollution and U.S. Environmental Politics, 1945–1970. (2000). 321 pp., focuses on LA smog Hise, Greg. Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis. (1997). 294 pp.
Keane, James Thomas. Fritz B. Burns and the Development of Los Angeles: The Biography of a Community Developer and Philanthropist. (2001). 287 pp. Longstreth, Richard. The Drive-In, the Supermarket, and the Transformation of Commercial Space in Los Angeles, 1914–1941. (1999). 248 pp. Longstreth, Richard. City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, the Automobile, and Retailing in Los Angeles, 1920–1950. (1997). 504 pp. Mulholland, Catherine. William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles. (2000). 411 pp.