Los Angeles, the city that isn't supposed to have a past, has suddenly become the darling of history scholars.
Observers say record numbers of academics, working on dissertations, journal articles and mass-market histories, are scattered around Southern California, their labors aided by several improvements in archiving and historic preservation.
"Los Angeles has become one of the hottest topics on the table for scholars," said Tom Andrews, executive director of the Historical Society of Southern California. "Los Angeles no longer resides in a historical vacuum, reduced to a sentence or two in history classes or journals. People want to know how this city grew and
developed."
Gloria Riccu Lothrop, professor of history at Cal State Northridge, said, "We finally have the proper perspective to look back. Given its relatively recent beginnings and explosive growth after World War II, Los Angeles is the most obvious and perfect postmodern city."
Chicago was the typical American city to study in the 20th century, but the academic buzz now focuses on Los Angeles as the prototype for the 21st.
"L.A. is where things happened," including the suburbs and the freeway system mimicked around the world, Lothrop said.
The historical society's activities are a good illustration of the boom in scholarly work. In the 1960s, the society printed 22 institutional and biographical histories relating to Los Angeles, but from 1985 to 1999 it issued more than 100. The increase has been helped by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, a private organization that in 1997 began funding a program for scholars researching and writing on Los Angeles and Southern California.
"Once the word was out, we were contacted by students and PhD candidates from all over, including places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia and Colorado," said the historical society's Andrews, whose organization administers the program. Diane Cornwell, administrative director of the Hayes foundation, said she has seen an 80% increase in the number of historical study proposals in the last 10 years.
Other studies are being published by distinguished university presses such as Johns Hopkins, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Temple, focusing on subjects that include the Los Angeles River, Monterey Park and the role of the automobile in the city's history.
This newfound interest in Los Angeles does more than elevate the city's prestige.
