Dissertation Information for Shauna Marie Mulvihill NAME: - Shauna Marie Mulvihill
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2005)
ADVISORS: - Janice L. Reiff
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Sharon Jean Traweek - Stephen Anthony Aron - Brian D. Taylor
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: A tale of two suburbs, or, The urban fortunes of El Segundo and Hawthorne, California, 1905--1960
Abstract: This dissertation compares the histories of two neighboring Los Angeles County suburban cities from their beginnings to 1960 and concludes that, despite their proximity to important aircraft industries, they owe much of their differences to circumstances and patterns from early in their history. At first glance, El Segundo and Hawthorne in 1960 had much in common: they were suburban cities in Los Angeles County, founded in the first quarter of the twentieth century, located just south and southeast of what was to become Los Angeles International Airport, and for much of the twentieth century, both depended on the aircraft industry to employ their residents and provide tax revenues.
El Segundo and Hawthorne, however, have always been very different places, and their differences persisted and shaped their later development in spite of the influence of the aviation industry. El Segundo, the site of a massive Standard Oil refinery, had corporate backing and functioned like a company town. Speculators founded Hawthorne, and for decades its residents and leaders struggled economically. During the 1910s and 1920s, El Segundo's politics were stable, and local politicians accommodated the needs of Standard Oil. Hawthorne politics were much more contentious; residents and leaders fought over how to secure economic prosperity in their community. During the Great Depression, El Segundo's tax base cushioned its government from depression and permitted city leaders to provide relief for residents, while officials of the impoverished Hawthorne reached out to obtain county, state and federal relief.
The onset of World War II changed the cities' environments, but wartime changes were ephemeral in El Segundo, while Hawthorne's economic base changed permanently. In the 1950s, Hawthorne entered a period of prosperity based on defense spending, which government leaders and residents welcomed. El Segundo grew rapidly in the 1950s, but residents clashed over land uses, and the strategy of relying on corporate wealth to protect the city's residents from urban problems faltered as the Los Angeles area modernized and urbanized. As the 1960s approached, aircraft production gave way to aerospace research, and the neighbors faced a future of deindustrialization burdened with different pasts.
| |
MPACT Scores for Shauna Marie Mulvihill A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-10 12:04:20
Advisors and Advisees Graph
generating graph, please reload |