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In L.A. in the '20s, noted architectural historian and author Robert Winter explains this "architecture of entertainment"-the inherent beauty and mystery of the era when historic architectural styles became adventurous escapades.
Earthquakes have taught us much about our planet's hidden structure and the forces that have shaped it. This book explains how observing networks transformed an instant of panic and confusion into a field for scientific research, turning earthquakes into natural experiments at the nexus of the physical and human sciences.
Compton, California, is often associated in the public mind with urban America's toughest problems, including economic disinvestment, gang violence, and failing public schools. Before it became synonymous with inner-city decay, however, Compton's affordability, proximity to manufacturing jobs, and location ten miles outside downtown Los Angeles made it attractive to aspiring suburbanites seeking single-family homes and quality schools. As Compton faced challenges in the twentieth century, and as the majority population shifted from white to African American and then to Latino, the battle for control over the school district became symbolic of Compton's economic, social, and political crises....
Earth Sound Earth Signal is a study of energies in aesthetics and the arts, from the birth of modern communications in the nineteenth century to the global transmissions of the present day. Grounded in the Aeolian sphere music that Henry David Thoreau heard blowing in telegraph lines and in the Aelectrosonic sounds of natural radio that Thomas Watson heard in telephone lines, the book moves through the histories of science, media, music, and the arts to the 1960s, when the composer Alvin Lucier worked with the ""natural electromagnetic sounds"" present from ""brainwaves to outer.
The Conspiracy of the Good addresses nagging questions that are part of the public debate over schooling. Why do our public schools, especially those in poor and working-class communities of color, fail to live up to the promises of the American dream? Why do reforms, those standard items in political campaigns, fail to create meaningful change? This book argues that «progressive», well-meaning, good-hearted men and women, who often advocate «good intentions» in the name of «helping those in need», have ended up doing more harm than good. The Conspiracy of the Good explores how these «good intentions» go awry. Michael E. James argues that the core value of the American experience is conflict - not consensus - despite what mainstream historians have espoused over the last few decades.
Since its foundation in 1904, the Mount Wilson Observatory has been at the centre of the development of astrophysics. Perched atop a mountain wilderness, two mammoth solar tower telescopes and the 60- and 100-inch behemoth night-time reflectors were all the largest in the world. Research has centred around two main themes - the evolution of stars and the development of the universe. This first volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution describes the people and events, the challenges and successes that the Observatory has witnessed. It includes biographical sketches of forty of the most famous Mount Wilson pioneer astronomers working during the first half of the twentieth century. Contemporary photographs illustrate the development and use of some of the innovative instruments that filled the observatory during this time. This story brings together the elements that formed modern theories of stellar evolution and cosmology.
Histories of Pasadena are rich in details about important citizens, time-honored traditions, and storied enclaves such as Millionaires Row and Lamanda Park. But the legacies of Mexican Americans and other Latino men and women who often worked for Pasadenas rich and famous have been sparsely preserved through the generationseven though these citizens often made remarkable community contributions and lived in close proximity to their employers. A fuller story of the Pasadena area can be provided from these vintage images and the accompanying information culled from anecdotes, masters theses, newspaper articles, formal and informal oral histories, and the Ethnic History Research Project compiled for the City of Pasadena in 1995. Among the stories told is that of Antonio F. Coronel, a one-time Mexican Army officer who served as California state treasurer from 1866 to 1870 and whose image graced the 1904 Tournament of Roses program.
By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seism...
In a career spanning nearly sixty years, Ruth Shellhorn (1909–2006) helped shape Southern California’s iconic modernist aesthetic. This is the first full-length treatment of Shellhorn, who created close to four hundred landscape designs, collaborated with some of the region’s most celebrated architects, and left her mark on a wide array of places, including college campuses and Disneyland’s Main Street. Kelly Comras tells the story of Shellhorn’s life and career before focusing on twelve projects that explore her approach to design and aesthetic philosophy in greater detail. The book’s project studies include designs for Bullock’s department stores and Fashion Square shopping c...
Hometown Pasadena is a new breed of city guide, an in-depth, personality-rich, four-color book written by locals for locals. The five co-authors Colleen Dunn Bates, Jill Ganon, Sandy Gillis, Mel Malmberg and Mary Jane Horton are all longtime San Gabriel Valley residents, and the foreword authors are Larry Mantle (from NPR's KPCC) and Larry Wilson (editor of the Pasadena Star-News). The book is rich in history, arts, culture, restaurants, gardens, architecture, children's activities, sports and much more, and it is filled with interviews with people who make a difference in the community. It is written and designed with wit, style and intelligence. Hometown Pasadena became an immediate success, going into its fourth printing in less than one year. 256 pages, four-color throughout, flexibound binding with flaps, extensive photography and color maps