A USC Libraries Exploration
Dace Taube and Sue Tyson
To add to your enjoyment of the What Does California Mean? Visions and Voices event on April 15, the USC Libraries present a selection of resources for further study. We have also provided contact information for subject specialists in a variety of areas related to California history and the West.
A rare 1714 map by Gerard and Leonard Valck showing California as an island.
Selected Bibliography of the Panelists' Work
William Deverell
- Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Edited by William Deverell and Greg Hise. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.
- Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of its Mexican Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Janet Fireman
- “Invisible No More: The Place Called Los Angeles.” The Historian 66, no. 3 (2004): 517-523.
- “The Latitudes of Home: A Particular Place in Western History.” The Western Historical Quarterly 30, no. 1, (1999): 5-25.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
- “Fatal Couplings of Power and Difference: Notes on Racism and Geography.” The Professional Geographer 54, no. 1 (2002): 15-24.
Kevin Starr
- California: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2005.
- Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
D. J. Waldie
- Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
- Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles. Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2004.
Databases and Archival Resources
- America: History and Life covers the history of the United States and Canada. It includes key historic journals; state and local history journals; selected relevant journals in the social sciences and humanities; and book reviews. The database is listed on the USC Libraries electronic resources page for US and Canadian history.
- Chicano Database covers topics in the humanities and social and behavioral sciences related to Mexican-Americans and Chicano and Latino Studies. The database is listed on the USC Libraries electronic resources page for Chicano and Latino studies.
- History Resource Center—US includes journal articles; reference resources; and primary sources for many aspects of US History. The database is listed on the USC Libraries electronic resources page for US and Canadian history.
- L.A. as Subject is an alliance of over 230 research archives, libraries, and collections hosted by the USC Libraries. It is dedicated to preserving the rich history of the Los Angeles region.
- The Los Angeles Public Library holds many materials of interest to those studying California. LAPL’s history and genealogy department’s photo collection emphasizes the history of Los Angeles, Southern California, and California.
- The Online Archive of California brings together a wide range of historical materials, including images, documents, letters, and oral histories, from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives.
- ProQuest is an extensive, multidisciplinary database that includes access to other relevant databases, including Ethnic NewsWatch; GenderWatch; Historical Los Angeles Times (1881-1986); and Historical Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005). The database is listed under Quick Links on the USC Libraries Electronic Resources page.
- The Seaver Center for Western History Research is located at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The center contains print and manuscript holdings documenting the history of the trans-Mississippi West, with special emphasis on Southern California and Los Angeles. The USC Libraries work closely with the center to offer access to its research collection of books, serials, photographs, and maps.
- The Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research contains books and archival collections covering the topics of labor, women, civil rights, left culture, politics, and Los Angeles social history. The SCL and USC are currently collaborating on the Charlotta A. Bass and California Eagle digital projects.
- The USC Libraries Digital Archive makes accessible high quality digital images of unique materials with metadata to support research. It provides a gateway to an array of resources on Los Angeles and Southern California.
USC Libraries Subject Specialists for California History
Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American, Chicano and Latino Studies
- Barbara Robinson
- Call (213) 821-2261 or e-mail brobinso@usc.edu
- Chicano and Latino studies subject page
Los Angeles and Southern California History and Special Collections
- Dace Taube
- Call (213) 821-2366 or e-mail taube@usc.edu
- Los Angeles and Southern California history subject page.
- USC Libraries Special Collections resources for California history.
US and Canadian History, American Studies and Ethnicity, and the West
- Sue Tyson
- Call (213) 740-7044 or e-mail styson@usc.edu
- Subject page for US and Canadian history and the American West
- Subject page for American studies and ethnicity