Customer Reviews

Bread & Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles

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This book is a well research, short account of the life of the American socialist Job Harriman and his founding of the socialist colony Rio del Llano.

I first became interested in the Rio del Llano site in the Antelope Valley after running into it on vacation three years ago. But the information in the ghost town guide books we had were too brief (and I've found inaccurate) to really understand what happened there. This short history is a well researched account of what happened along with some interesting photographs of the people and area a century ago. Though the authors are clearly sympathetic with Job Harriman (the colony's founder), it is largely a balanced account - a noteworthy accomplishment given the human emotion almost necessarily connected with the topic of socialism. Don't be put off by the obscure title of this book. The book is about Job Harriman, the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910, and Harriman's socialist community in the Rio del Llano. It will help you get the facts straight. I just finished reading the book, and I feel lucky I had the courage to purchase it sight unseen from Amazon.