City of Promise: Race & Historical Change in Los Angeles by Martin Schiesl and Mark M. Dodge

City of Promise joins a stream of books published in the past two decades about Los Angeles's expanding and changing ethnic groups. In seven essays totaling barely two hundred pages, this book covers the experiences of Asian Americans, Latinos, and African Americans during the twentieth century. Three essays comprise the period up to 1945, the last four mostly after World War II, including Martin Schiesl's discussion on the Los Angeles Police Department and racial disorders.

As no anthology of such length could cover all aspects of Los Angeles's racial communities, this work takes various approaches to each group and period. Donald Hata and the late Nadine Hata (to whom the book is dedicated) present two broad overviews of Asian Americans. The formation of Chinatown and Little Tokyo and the discrimination against Chinese and Japanese are the focus of the earlier essay. The postwar period records the dispersal of Asians to various Los Angeles County neighborhoods and the group's ascent to political and economic success. Both essays are especially successful in including all substantial Asian populations, though this breadth in the later essay comes at the expense of analyzing topics beyond political offices.

The African American community presents similar contrasts before and after World War II. Delores McBroome's essay on the earlier period provides detailed information on black civic organizations but little on life, society, or culture on Central Avenue. ...