The Los Angeles River

Gumprecht modestly claims that his interest in the Los Angeles River 'has always been more in its past than in its future.' But we require the past he presents, like water in our desert, to make the choices in our future intelligible. Another of the catastrophes of the river will be that too few Angelenos are likely to find and read this essential book... Over the past 150 years, amnesiac L.A. has looked at the space occupied by the river and misread it as dry land ready for development, a western barricade against immigrant neighborhoods, a water resource to be exploited, a perfectly engineered drain and finally a concrete void. Gumprecht gives a broad historical, geographical and human context to these misreadings, and he understands their seductions, particularly the current image of the river as a pathetic captive to be exhumed from its concrete coffin... In the contradictions of the river, Gumprecht reveals a broader conflict about the uses of space in Los Angeles, and that unresolved argument spills over into harder questions here and in every part of the country about the limits of environmental restoration. Confronting them in detail, as Gumprecht does, takes courage.

Gumprecht describes the crucial role that the river played in the settlement and growth of L.A. both as a water source and as a symbol of the region's Arcadian promise—and, conversely, how the river was remade in the image of the metropolis itself, becoming depleted and degraded by the very development it made possible. Like fellow L.A. historian Mike Davis, Gumprecht scatters an archive of startling photos throughout the book, from a man holding a 25-pound trout caught in the river in 1940 to the scene of a riverbed drag race broken up by police in 1950. Conjuring images of Roman Polanski's Chinatown, Gumprecht's river 'biography' breathes vitality into a subject that in the hands of a less enthusiastic author might be drier than the industrial wasteland that he describes.

In this well-written and beautifully crafted study, Blake Gumprecht provides a close look at the evolution of one of America's most urban rivers, focusing on the impact the river has had on human activities and how, in turn, those activities have altered the stream... This is an important book. Thoroughly researched and balanced in its findings, it is illustrated by well-chosen maps, diagrams, drawings, and photographs. Environmental, urban, and economic historians will find much to ponder in this study, which cuts across academic boundaries. Policy makers will also find it refreshing; interpretative without being overly judgmental, the book poses valuable questions to anyone trying to plan future urban developments.