Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics [Paperback]

Daniel Hurewitz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520256239 | ISBN-13: 978-0520256231 | Publication Date: April 30, 2008 | Edition: 1

Bohemian Los Angeles brings to life a vibrant and all-but forgotten milieu of artists, leftists, and gay men and women whose story played out over the first half of the twentieth century and continues to shape the entire American landscape. It is the story of a hidden corner of Los Angeles, where the personal first became the political, where the nation's first enduring gay rights movement emerged, and where the broad spectrum of what we now think of as identity politics was born. Portraying life over a period of more than forty years in the hilly enclave of Edendale, near downtown Los Angeles, Daniel Hurewitz considers the work of painters and printmakers, looks inside the Communist Party's intimate cultural scene, and examines the social world of gay men. In this vividly written narrative, he discovers why and how these communities, inspiring both one another and the city as a whole, transformed American notions of political identity with their ideas about self-expression, political engagement, and race relations. Bohemian Los Angeles, incorporating fascinating oral histories, personal letters, police records, and rare photographs, shifts our focus from gay and bohemian New York to the west coast with significant implications for twentieth-century U.S. history and politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this fascinating, accessible history of Los Angeles's Boho world in the first half of the 20th century, Hurewitz shows how "groups of individuals who engaged in similar activities and sought to adopt a shared self-definition" made a major social impact. Focusing on the community of Edendale, on the edge of Silver Lake Reservoir, Hunter College history professor Hurewitz begins by examining the social circle of the once world-famous drag performer Julian Eltinge and the gay male scene in the 1930s. He moves from there to Edendale's incredibly productive arts scene in the 1930s. In outlining the ties between artists, homosexuals and Communist-based community organizers in the postwar years, Hurewitz makes an intriguing and convincing case that art and politics were the perfect mix in "constructing an organized community." His book is particularly illuminating on the very public "fairy and pansy" subcultures of the 1930s and '40s and how they provoked a right-wing backlash from city government that also resulted in hysteria about a Communist menace. Hurewitz concludes with a discussion of homosexual Communist Harry Hay, who formed the first gay rights group, the Mattachine Society, in 1950. Filled with groundbreaking research, this engaging study dovetails nicely with Lillian Fademan and Stuart Timmon's recent work on Gay L.A., and deserves its own popular readership. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Stakes new claims upon the history of queer Los Angeles, mapping broad potentialities onto a small locale."--Jrnl of the History of Sexuality

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520256239
• ISBN-13: 978-0520256231
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move over Stonewall! Silverlake is where gay politics really began!, January 9, 2007

By 

Silverlake Scrivener - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics (Hardcover)

From drag queens to communists, Bohemian Los Angeles is full of characters and stories from L.A.'s surprising secret past. As a resident of Silverlake--the hillside neighborhood that provides the focus of this book and which was the epicenter of so much early social activism--I was particularly fascinated to learn about the history under my feet. But I think anyone would be charmed by this nostalgic portrait of a world that has been lost--and yet is the foundation of our own. Congratulations to Daniel Hurewitz for this important and engrossing book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars history made vivid, October 3, 2009

By 

call me Zeno (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics (Paperback)

Hurewitz, a professor of history at Hunter College, shows himself to be not just a scholar but a writer with this fine work. Provocative in subject and evocative, factual yet novelistic in style, "Bohemian Los Angeles" is a singular achievement in gay history. Hurewitz's story comes from reams of archival papers neatly joined with facts based on interviews with many now-deceased members of said B.L.A. We are lucky to have a sympathic and analytic account of this under-reported time in the country's cultural life.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific read and an excellent history, March 11, 2007

By 

Edumaven Rose "edumaven" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics (Hardcover)

Daniel Hurwitz has written a fascinating history of an unusual slice of life in Los Angeles. His book should be of interest to anyone who likes to read about gay history and urban history. Hurewitz is a graceful writer and a careful historian. He clearly spent a great deal of time digging through little-known archives and interviewing people who were key figures in his story. This is a terrific read!