...Nancy Quam-Wickham Urban oil production is a key factor in Los Angeles’s environmental, social, and economic history. Oil workers and their families experienced hazardous conditions in oil-field communities that added to Los Angeles’s suburban sprawl. In response, oil workers were in the forefront...

... that polluted the air and contaminated the soil. Excess oil drained into sumps. Oil workers and nearby residents breathed petroleum fumes; their food and skin were coated with oil. Methane gas, a by-product which explodes in contact with air and a spark, caused horrible accidents and fires in the past...

.... The county also grappled with labor unrest. In 1914, oil-field workers in western Kern County, organized by the Industrial Workers of the World, initiated the first strike against the Standard Oil Company. In 1921 an even longer, more violent strike roiled West Kern, prompting accusations that law...

... a scarcity of materials, including copper pipes, wires, and cement that were needed for wartime production. However, the builders did reserve most of the units for war workers. Over 90 percent of the 403 employed renters in the tract held war-related jobs in aircraft, ship- yard, machine shop, or oil...

... of pipes conduits for the trans- mission of gas, sewage, electricity, steam, oil, telephone and tele- graph lines, and water. There were no permits and no inspections. Leaks were common and difficult to locate. Oil field work was hard and hazardous. Workers were killed or injured by gas and oil blow- outs...

... eucalyptus. Cali- fornians took the lead in adapting oil to run trains and ships. These additional uses increased the demand for oil.97 In all the excitement of the oil boom the Japanese truck gardners on Signal Hill were easily forgotten. Oil workers were paid premium wages to work fast. They drove trucks...

... University Press, 1990), 88. 11. Carr, 303 04. 242 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY control extraction, the issue of property rights, the impact of World War II on oil in Southern California, and the evolving perceptions of oil and oil companies. And finally, we ll take on oil from the perspec- tives of workers...

... of the military-industrial complex in the country, a network of defense firms, laboratories, and government facilities, [where] more than anywhere else, the great strategic, technical, and industrial competition with the Soviet Union was fought out. 4 By the 1970s Orange County had more workers in guided...

... that drove up wheat, corn, and oat prices worldwide. But one man s woes are another s opportunities. When acres of seedlings shriveled in the farmland soon to become Torrance, the land value dropped. That s when Jared Torrance (a Union Oil executive) and other industrialists and investors formed a syndicate...

... to study Japanese Ameri- cans as subjects in a sociological experiment, Japanese Americans employed by Thomas were designated as field workers and had less A view of a section of the lath house where guayule plants were propagated by experienced nurserymen in the guayule rubber experiment work...

... web page, httpwww.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p¼reprints. DOI: httpsdoi.org/10.1525/scq.2017.99.1.90. 90 THE HISTORIAN S EYE In 1888 the Eastman Kodak Company introduced a hand-heldcamera preloaded with a 100-exposure roll of film. It cost $25(equal to two-weeks of an office worker s pay). By 1900...

... into drivable inclines, and to fill canyons with earth. It was going to require moving workers and machines to work sites that, although in the middle of the city, were nonetheless separated from the city by miles of rugged terrain, and those workers and machines would have to be provided 8. See De Witt L...

... to permit disastrous assaults on every military objective, it reflects the alarm and suspicion among local authorities toward Japanese farmers, many of whom lived near the militarily important areas of Los Angeles County such as dams, oil refineries and tank farms, bridges, aircraft plants and other...

... steed. Look at a locomotive engine just after it has hooked on to its train and is about to start on a long run and you are pretty sure to see a man in overalls walking around the big machine with an oil can in his hand. One would naturally suppose him to be the fireman, such a prosaic job as oiling...

... served as a prelude to a new form of imperialism that coupled free market capitalism and coercive economic lending policies with military interventions 200 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY (209), all of which remade Los Angeles into a hub for trade, industrial production, oil, agriculture...

... significant accomplishments in my specific area of work, coastal management, are things one can NOT see the wetlands not filled, the public access not lost, the water pollution that does not occur, scenic vistas not spoiled, the subdivisions not approved, the offshore oil drilling that is not happening...

... was a place full of contrasts: it was populated by affluent health seekers from the East or Midwest, real estate speculators, and business owners, as well as by workers from different social and racial backgrounds. To some extent, the city s industries of tourism and agriculture rested on Mexican, Japanese...

...Brad J. Congelio (209), all of which remade Los Angeles into a hub for trade, industrial production, oil, agriculture, and entertainment. By the end of the book it is clear that this relationship has been far from mutually beneficial. Between 1990 and 2001, Los Angeles greatly benefitted from...

....$3.95paper.)ReviewedbyJohnE. Baur. SpencerC. Olin has ingeniouslycondensedCalifornia'sgrowth fromfrontietromoderneconomicempireanditsheroicbutnotalways successfual ttemptsto achieveeconomicjustice.He showshowalliancesofstategovernmenwtithprivatecorporationdsevelopedthrough gold,silver,oil...

... by Fred s father, although it was the discovery of oil on Bixby family property that provided the couple and their five children financial comfort (xi). Notably, the authors successfully integrate contemporary scholarship into their narrative of Rancho Los Alamitos and the Bixby family, acknowledging...