William Deverell

California progressivism revisited

CONTRIBUTORS: William Deverell Tom Sitton Anne F. Hyde Mary Ann Mason Gerald Woods Sherry Katz Judith Raftery Mary Odem Douglas Flamming George J. Sanchez Jackson K. Putnam

Redemptive California? Re-thinking the post-Civil War

‘Redemptive California?’ asks about the role that California and the wider West played in post-Civil War America. Given that questions over the territorial expansion of slavery into the West hastened the coming of the Civil War, how did the wounded nation—and legions of wounded soldiers—look to the West after the war for convalescence, healing, even redemption? This essay suggests that historians have unaccountably ignored the impact of the Civil War on the West, c.1865 – 1910, and it poses one organizing theme—western convalescence—by which to begin to correct this scholarly blind spot.

Forget it, Jake: Searching for the truth in Chinatown

This article places the 1974 film Chinatown alongside the historical events that the film portrays. Rather than a simple comparison between fact and fiction, Deverell and Sitton instead explore what we can learn about the people, places, and events in both Chinatown and the history of the Los Angeles aqueduct.