The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City

Los Angeles's history is a story of conflicting visions. Most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on L.A. as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl. The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. The authors chronicle efforts of progressive social movements that worked throughout the twentieth century to create a more livable, just, and democratic Los Angeles. These movements—what the authors call Progressive L.A.—have produced a new kind of labor movement, community-oriented environmentalism, and multi-ethnic coalition politics. This book shows how reformers have fought to transform a city characterized by huge economic disparities, concrete-encased rivers, and an endless landscape of subdivisions, freeways, and malls into a progressive model for regions around the country. The Next Los Angeles includes a decade-by-decade historical snapshot of the city's progressive social movements and an in-depth exploration of key trends that are remaking L.A. at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It examines L.A.'s changing political landscape, including grassroots initiatives to construct a new agenda for social transformation. At once a history, a policy analysis, and a road map for a progressive future, this book provides an exciting portrayal of a city on the cutting edge of many of the social, economic, and environmental changes sweeping across America.

History

Gottlieb, Robert

Freer, Regina

Vallianatos, Mark

Dreier, Peter

Americas

University of California Press

Los Angeles's history is a story of conflicting visions. Most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on L.A. as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl. The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. The authors chronicle efforts of progressive social movements that worked throughout the twentieth century to create a more livable, just, and democratic Los Angeles. These movements—what the authors call Progressive L.A.—have produced a new kind of labor movement, community-oriented environmentalism, and multi-ethnic coalition politics. This book shows how reformers have fought to transform a city characterized by huge economic disparities, concrete-encased rivers, and an endless landscape of subdivisions, freeways, and malls into a progressive model for regions around the country. The Next Los Angeles includes a decade-by-decade historical snapshot of the city's progressive social movements and an in-depth exploration of key trends that are remaking L.A. at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It examines L.A.'s changing political landscape, including grassroots initiatives to construct a new agenda for social transformation. At once a history, a policy analysis, and a road map for a progressive future, this book provides an exciting portrayal of a city on the cutting edge of many of the social, economic, and environmental changes sweeping across America.

While most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on Los Angeles as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl, The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. In a new preface, the authors reflect on the gathering momentum of L.A.'s progressive movement, including the 2005 landslide victory of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor.

Place Matters (Studies in Government & Public Policy)

Three distinguished scholars challenge us to put the urban crisis back on the national agenda, both as a moral challenge to our conscience and an economic challenge to America's prosperity and our families' pocketbooks. Focusing on the growing concentration of poverty in our cities and older suburbs and the mounting costs of suburban sprawl, they argue that these problems have political origins and can thus be resolved through political means--but only if we fully understand the power of place. 
Despite modern telecommunications--faxes, linked computers, etc.--where we live shapes our lives and fortunes as much as ever. Place affects our access to jobs and public services (especially education), our access to shopping and culture, our level of personal security, the availability of medical services, and even the air we breathe. Economic segregation is increasing in American metropolitan areas--the rich and poor continue to move apart from one another. This has devastating effects on those who are forced to live in areas of concentrated poverty. But it also imposes costs, often unrecognized, on middle class and rich families who in their effort to escape the problems of concentrated poverty, undermine the quality of their own lives by suffering the effects of unrestricted sprawl. 
The central thesis of Place Matters is that economic segregation between rich and poor and the growing sprawl of American cities and suburbs are not solely the result of individual choices in free markets. Rather, these problems have been powerfully shaped by short-sighted government policies. The first order of business must be to overhaul those policies. In the process, both urban and suburban citizens will gain a keener awareness that they are all ultimately bound by common interests and share a common fate. 
Not simply another polemic on the plight of the inner-city poor, Place Matters provides a practical road map for reform based on penetrating analyses of economic and demographic trends, voting patterns, and congressional politics. While "sounding the alarm," it also provides guidance and hope for elected officials at local, state, and federal levels, as well as policy makers, scholars, teachers, community activists, business leaders, economists, social workers, and the urban clergy. 
This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series.

Place Matters: Metropolitics For The Twenty-First Century

Swanstrom, Todd

Mollenkopf, John

Business & Money

University Press of Kansas

How can the United States create the political will to address our major urban problems—poverty, unemployment, crime, traffic congestion, toxic pollution, education, energy consumption, and housing, among others? That's the basic question addressed by the new edition of this award-winning book. Thoroughly revised and updated for its third edition, Place Matters examines the major trends and problems shaping our cities and suburbs, explores a range of policy solutions to address them, and looks closely at the potential political coalitions needed to put the country's "urban crisis" back on the public agenda. The problem of rising inequality is at the center of Place Matters. During the past several decades, the standard of living for the American middle class has stagnated, the number of poor people has reached its highest level since the 1960s, and the super-rich have dramatically increased their share of the nation's wealth and income. At the same time, Americans have grown further apart in terms of where they live, work, and play. This trend—economic segregation—no longer simply reflects the racial segregation between white suburbs and minority cities. In cities and suburbs alike, poor, middle class, and wealthy Americans now live in separate geographic spaces. The authors have updated the case studies and examples used to illustrate the book's key themes, incorporated the latest Census data, and drawn on exit polls and other data to examine the voting patterns and outcomes of the 2012 elections. They have expanded their discussion of how American cities are influenced by and influence global economic and social forces and how American cities compare with their counterparts in other parts of the world. And they draw upon the latest research and case studies not only to examine the negative impacts of income inequality and economic segregation but also assess the efforts that civic and community groups, unions, business, and government are making to tackle them. Fully up to date and far richer and more provocative, this new version surpasses its previous editions and will continue to be an essential volume for all who study urban politics and care about our cities.

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century- 2nd Edition, Revised (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

How can the United States create the political will to address our major urban problems—poverty, unemployment, crime, traffic congestion, toxic pollution, education, energy consumption, and housing, among others? That's the basic question addressed by the new edition of this award-winning book. Thoroughly revised and updated for its third edition, Place Matters examines the major trends and problems shaping our cities and suburbs, explores a range of policy solutions to address them, and looks closely at the potential political coalitions needed to put the country's "urban crisis" back on the public agenda. The problem of rising inequality is at the center of Place Matters. During the past several decades, the standard of living for the American middle class has stagnated, the number of poor people has reached its highest level since the 1960s, and the super-rich have dramatically increased their share of the nation's wealth and income. At the same time, Americans have grown further apart in terms of where they live, work, and play. This trend—economic segregation—no longer simply reflects the racial segregation between white suburbs and minority cities. In cities and suburbs alike, poor, middle class, and wealthy Americans now live in separate geographic spaces. The authors have updated the case studies and examples used to illustrate the book's key themes, incorporated the latest Census data, and drawn on exit polls and other data to examine the voting patterns and outcomes of the 2012 elections. They have expanded their discussion of how American cities are influenced by and influence global economic and social forces and how American cities compare with their counterparts in other parts of the world. And they draw upon the latest research and case studies not only to examine the negative impacts of income inequality and economic segregation, but also assess the efforts that civic and community groups, unions, business, and government are making to tackle them. Fully up to date and far richer and more provocative, this new version surpasses its previous editions and will continue to be an essential volume for all who study urban politics and care about our cities.

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

American Dream Foreclosed: Strategies for an Affordable Housing Revival

Bywood Pub Co

<div> <div>In Baseball Rebels&nbsp;Peter Dreier and Robert Elias examine the key social challenges--racism, sexism and homophobia--that shaped society and worked their way into baseball's culture, economics, and politics. Since baseball emerged in the mid-1800s to become America's pastime, the nation's battles over race, gender, and sexuality have been reflected on the playing field, in the executive suites, in the press box, and in the community. Some of baseball's rebels are widely recognized, but most of them are either little known or known primarily for their baseball achievements--not their political views and activism. Everyone knows the story of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color line, but less known is Sam Nahem, who opposed the racial divide in the U.S. military and organized an integrated military team that won a championship in 1945. Or Toni Stone, the first of three women who played for the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro Leagues. Or Dave Pallone, MLB's first gay umpire. Many players, owners, reporters, and other activists challenged both the baseball establishment and society's status quo. Baseball Rebels tells stories of baseball's reformers and radicals who were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America's broader political and social protest movements, making the game--and society--better along the way. &nbsp;</div> </div>

Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America

Elias, Robert

Sociology

University Of Nebraska Press

Review\nSince baseball’s inception as a professional sport, the entities that control it have sought to wring the maximum profit from the game, argue Elias and Dreier. Their book outlines myriad ways in which MLB team owners and league officials have manipulated laws and ignored morality in favor of money—often at players’ expense. Elias and Dreier also recount moments when players have countered major-league machinations. For instance, in the 1880s, hall-of-famer John Montgomery Ward organized possibly the first professional sports players union, in an ultimately failed attempt to secure fair wages for himself and his peers; the union hoped to do away with the reserve clause that forever tied players to a given team. Ninety years later, All-Star center fielder Curt Flood took a bold stance that helped bring about free agency and a new, stronger players union, headed by the extremely competent Marvin Miller. The book also examines the MLB’s decades of alignment with and tacit support of the U.S. military. Elias and Drier have exceptional insight on behind-the-scenes labor fights in the MLB; a fine depiction of capitalist avarice. A must for baseball fans. ― Library Journal\nYou're not seeing the whole game until you read Major League Rebels, a fascinating, eye-opening history of the real heroes of baseball, the ones who stood up to racists, war-mongers and their own greedy owners. -- Robert Lipsyte, New York Times sportswriter, Emmy-winning host of WNET/Thirteen, “The Eleventh Hour,” author of Heroes of Baseball, The Center Fielder, and The Accidental Sportswriter\nThis wonderful book by veteran baseball writers and political scientists Robert Elias and Peter Dreier offers a fascinating account of the historic rebels who challenged the labor exploitation and corporate monopoly of professional baseball. What makes this book such a good read is that the story is told principally of the players and others who fought team owners, the commissioner’s office, and corporate scoundrels in the decades-long struggle for fair pay, the abolition of the reserve clause, and social justice. 
-- George Gmelch, author of Inside Pitch, Playing with Tigers, In the Ballpark, and Baseball Beyond Our Borders\nMajor League Rebels is as radical and important a baseball book as I’ve read in a long time. It restores a history the minders of baseball would soon have us forget: battles over not only race, gender, and sexuality but also over worker rights and the uses of baseball as a tool for U.S. empire. -- Dave Zirin, host of Edge of Sports; author of A People’s History of Sports in the U.S., Game Over, What’s My Name, Fool?, Bad Sports, and The Kaepernick Effect\nIn Major League Rebels, Elias and Dreier focus on the fascinating and often forgotten stories of the players, managers, and promoters who challenged Major League Baseball’s labor, financial, and political policies. -- Robert Fitts, author of Issei Baseball, Mashi, Wally Yonamine, and Banzai Baseball\nBaseball began in the cities, from a nostalgic longing for an agrarian paradise more ideal than real. That idealism—a wish for fairness and harmony on a level playing field—animated all that came after and is splendidly delineated in Robert Elias and Peter Dreier’s new book. Who is in, who is out, and who gets to decide: that has been the banner under which all baseball's rebels have marched. 
-- John Thorn, Official Historian, Major League Baseball\nMost sports fans today know about Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James and how they have stood up for equal treatment for Blacks. They don’t know that there’s a long pedigree of professional athletes who have fought for player rights and worker rights for all Americans. Major League Rebels compellingly tells the story of these heroes from the 1870s to the 2020s and how their struggles have helped shape U.S. culture and politics. 
-- Andrew Zimbalist, author of Baseball and Billions, In the Best Interests of Baseball?, May the Best Team Win, and Circling the

Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers' Rights and American Empire

Industries

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

A hundred years ago, any soapbox orator who called for women's suffrage, laws protecting the environment, an end to lynching, or a federal minimum wage was considered a utopian dreamer or a dangerous socialist. Now we take these ideas for granted— because the radical ideas of one generation are often the common sense of the next. We all stand on the shoulders of earlier generations of radicals and reformers who challenged the status quo of their day.
 Unfortunately, most Americans know little of this progressive history. It isn't taught in most high schools. You can't find it on the major television networks. In popular media, the most persistent interpreter of America's radical past is Glenn Beck, who teaches viewers a wildly inaccurate history of unions, civil rights, and the American Left.
The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century, a colorful and witty history of the most influential progressive leaders of the twentieth century and beyond, is the perfect antidote.

The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Bold Type Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dreier, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dreier, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dreier, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City

The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City

The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City

Place Matters: Metropolitics For The Twenty-First Century

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century- 2nd Edition, Revised (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

American Dream Foreclosed: Strategies for an Affordable Housing Revival

Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America

Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers' Rights and American Empire

The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame