Past Events
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IN CONVERSATION Series
THE GREAT OCEAN: PACIFIC WORLDS FROM CAPTAIN COOK TO THE GOLD RUSH
The Pacific of the early eighteenth century was not a single ocean but a vast and varied waterscape, a place of baffling complexity, with 25,000 islands and seemingly endless continental shorelines. But with the voyages of Captain James Cook, global attention turned to the Pacific, and European and American dreams of scientific exploration, trade, and empire grew dramatically. By the time of the California gold rush, the Pacific's many shores were fully integrated into world markets-and world consciousness. The Great Ocean draws on hundreds of documented voyages--some painstakingly recorded by participants, some only known by archeological remains or indigenous memory--as a window into the commercial, cultural, and ecological upheavals following Cook's exploits.
David Igler, UCI
April 24, 2013
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Trent Dames Lecture in the History of Civil Engineering
PAVING THE PAST: THE LOS ANGELES RIVER AS FLOOD CONTROL DEVICE
As Los Angeles grew to metropolitan maturity with the arrival of the 20th century, one landscape feature became increasingly tagged as a problem, even a menace.
The tiny and generally unreliable Los Angeles River proved, as winter rains caused it to leap its banks and fill much of the basin with floodwater, to be a tempestuous and even dangerous obstacle to regional growth. Enter, by way of innovations in engineering and hydrology, the long-range plan to pave the river into submission. This lecture explores that history and, along the way, investigates the ways in which large-scale environmental projects such as cementing a river can inevitably reveal much about regional culture and identity.
William Deverell, USC
April 22, 2013
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Pacific Standard Time Presents:
INEXPLICABLE LOS ANGELES: GHOSTS AND TRACES, 1940-1990
This panel discussion with distinguished thinkers and writers about Los Angeles ponders the astonishing Southern California Edison archive of 70,000 images devoted to the expansion of electrification in the Los Angeles basin. This event showcases the online exhibition about landscape and form in Los Angeles, which is part of The Getty's initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents, an exploration of the rise of modern architecture in Los Angeles, 1940-1990.
The discussion and slide show feature images and narratives drawn from the Edison archive at The Huntington Library. Panelists include writer D.J. Waldie, USC University Professor Leo Braudy, USC history professors Bill Deverell and Philip Ethington, independent curator Claudia Bohn Spector, and filmmaker Josh Oreck.
April 15, 2013
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ICW and The Huntington Library: Getty Edison Exhibit Launch and Blog
"BETTER LIVING THROUGH ELECTRICITY:" LOS ANGELES, 1940-1990
Join us for an evening’s discussion and presentation of images about architecture, culture, and electricity in modern Los Angeles. Panelists include project organizers Greg Hise and William Deverell, exhibit curators Jessica Kim and Peter Westwick, project designer Kris Mun, photographer Robbert Flick, and Los Angeles Times architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne.
April 1, 2013
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USC History Department and ICW present:
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ENERGY: HISTORY, CULTURE, AND ENERGY IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY UNITED STATES
A panel featuring presentations by three scholars:
Chris Jones (University of California-Berkeley) - “Landscapes of Intensification: Infrastructure and Energy Demand”
Darren Dochuk (Washington University) - “There Will Be Oil: A Religious History of Pipeline Politics”
Jim Feldman (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) - “Permanence, Justice, and Nuclear Waste”
The history of energy generation and use in the United States is not only technical and geographic; it is cultural and political. This panel will examine the relationship between people and different energy regimes by discussing the Holtwood hydroelectric dam on the Susquehanna River and how infrastructure shaped patterns of use and personal behavior; the history of oil patch religion, evangelical Protestantism, and wildcat entrepreneurialism; and the ongoing search for a nuclear waste repository at the intersection of national policy, local interests, and long-term sustainability.
March 12, 2013
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USC History Department and ICW present:
THE BATTLE FOR THE AMERICAN MIND: THE CULTURE WARS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Andrew Hartman, Illinois State University
Whether the culture wars in higher education during the 1980s and 1990s had political consequences is debatable. But that they had enduring historical significance is inarguable. Shouting matches about academia reverberated beyond the ivory tower to lay bare a crisis of national faith, demonstrating that the culture wars did not boil down to any one specific issue or even a set of issues. Rather, the culture wars often hinged on a more epistemological question about national identity: How should Americans think?
February 25, 2013
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Keith Woodhouse featured in video
KEITH WOODHOUSE
Keith is one of the USC Dornsife postdocs featured in this video representing a variety of disciplines that span the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and behavioral sciences.
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ICW In Conversation series
JON WIENER
In HOW WE FORGOT THE COLD WAR: A HISTORICAL JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA, Jon Wiener criss-crosses the U.S., visiting almost two dozen Cold War museums, monuments, and historical sites. What he finds is remarkable: Despite the 1991 appropriation of $10 million to create a program that would help future generations appreciate the significance of the Cold War, the monuments weren’t built, the historic sites have few visitors, and many of the museums have shifted focus to other topics. The problem: the public has not embraced the conservatives’ view that “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War.” Instead, public response to that message has ranged from apathy, to skepticism, to resistance.
Jon Wiener is professor of history at UC Irvine and a contributing editor of The Nation magazine.
November 30, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
FREDERICK HOXIE
While American Indian political activists have long been dismissed as “assimilated” people cut off from the mainstream of tribal life, this new monograph demonstrates that Indian political activism is older than the United States and that the activists’ political agenda emerged from the struggles of dozens of individuals working in a variety of cultural settings. Frederick Hoxie’s newest book, THIS INDIAN COUNTRY, demonstrates that Native activists were the principal authors of the ideas opened a space for Native people, both in the law and in American society. Hoxie is Swanlund Professor of History, Law and American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.
November 5, 2012
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ICW L.A. History & Metro Studies Group
2012-2013 Meeting Schedule
ALL ROADS LEAD TO EAST L.A.: FREEWAYS AND THE FREEWAY REVOLT IN LOS ANGELES
Eric Avila, UCLA
April 12, 2013
ZONING PRIVACY: REGULATING ADULT ENTERTAINMENT IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA, 1965-1980
Clayton Howard, College of the Holy Cross
HOUSING THE LIBERATION: THE FIGHT FOR EQUITABLE HOUSING AND THE POLITICS OF GAY ACTIVISM IN METROPOLITAN LOS ANGELES, 1960-1984
Ian Baldwin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
March 15, 2013
RELIGION AND METROPOLITAN HISTORY
Roundtable discussion: Samuel Chu, Brie Loskota, Richard Flory, Eileen Luhr, Mark Wild
February 22, 2013
PILGRIMS' METROPOLIS: POSTWAR MIGRATIONS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RELIGIOUS MARKETPLACE
Eileen Luhr, CSU Long Beach
January 22, 2013
L.A. JEWS AND THE QUESTION OF RACE - a dual-paper seminar
AMERICAN JEWISH DIVERSITY: CONVERSION, RACE, AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY L.A.
Genevieve Okada, UC San Diego
NOT QUITE WHITE: RESIDENTIAL PATTERNS OF LOS ANGELES JEWS, 1920-2000
Bruce Phillips, Hebrew Union College
December 7, 2012
METROPOLITAN HISTORY: WHAT IS IT AND WHERE IS IT GOING?
Roundtable discussion: Lauren Hirschberg (UCLA), David Levitus (USC), Janice Reiff (UCLA), Andrew Wiese (SDSU)
October 12, 2012
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PAST TENSE at the Huntington Library
2012-2013 Seminar Schedule
WRITING THE STAGECOACH NATION: THINKING THROUGH LOCALITY, COMMUNICATION AND THE HISTORICAL NOVEL IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Ruth Livesey (University of London and Huntington Short-Term Fellow)
April 19, 2013
"THE INTERNAL ENEMY:" NARRATING SLAVERY IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY VIRGINIA
Alan Taylor (UC Davis and Huntington Long-Term Fellow)
March 8, 2013
UNDERSTANDING INNER LIVES FROM LINCOLN TO JOHN LENNON
Joshua Wolf Shenk (author and Huntington Long-Term Fellow)
February 1, 2013
STOP SAVING THE PLANET, ALREADY!: RACHEL CARSON, HISTORY, AND THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
Jenny Price (independent scholar and L.A. Urban Ranger)
December 14, 2012
REDUCING THE SCALE OF HISTORICAL OBSERVATION: MICRO-HISTORY, ALLTAGSGESCHICHTE, LOCAL HISTORY
Steve Hindle (W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, Huntington Library)
October 19, 2012
THE ART OF THE PROFILE: TELLING CHINA'S STORY, ONE LIFE AT A TIME
Jeff Wasserstrom (UC Irvine and Chinese Characters co-editor), Angilee Shah (journalist and Chinese Characters co-editor), James Carter (St. Joseph’s University and Chinese Characters contributor)
September 28, 2012
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ICW Workshop and Discussion
THINGS I'D LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT LOS ANGELES
Drawn in part from A Companion to Los Angeles, edited by William Deverell and Greg Hise (Blackwell-Wiley, 2010)
Participants include: Stephen Aron, Eric Avila, Peter Coveney, William Deverell, John Mack Faragher, Anthea Hartig, Christopher Hawthorne, Steve Hindle, Greg Hise, Josh Kun, Ruben Martinez, Jim Newton, Michelle Nickerson, Angela Oh, Manuel Pastor, Jane Pisano, George Sanchez, Josh Sides, Raphael Sonenshein, Susan Straight, Dell Upton
September 8, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
MICHELLE NICKERSON
Michelle Nickerson is Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University, Chicago where she teaches U.S. women’s, gender, and urban history. Nickerson recently published MOTHERS OF CONSERVATISM: WOMEN AND THE POSTWAR RIGHT, which documents the grassroots activism of conservative women in Cold War Los Angeles and explores the impact of that activism on the emerging American right. This work has led to her interest in regional and metropolitan political-economic development, which she examines in a volume essays, co-edited with historian Darren Dochuk called SUNBELT RISING: THE POLITICS OF PLACE, SPACE, AND REGION published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2011.
September 7, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
SAM WATTERS
When Progressives took on the elevation of American culture and taste after the perceived vulgarities of the Gilded Age, women participated through the beautification of house and garden. In 1913, wives of the period’s one percenters corralled family and friends to found and fund the national Garden Club of America. Determined to promote by example horticultural standards and professional landscape design, members commissioned photo-journalist Frances Benjamin Johnston to document for publication and illustrated lectures gardening successes East and West.
July 27, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
WADE GRAHAM
Wade Graham explores what four hundred years of garden making in America reveal about our values, politics, and dreams, and how our evolving relationship with Nature in our gardens forms a unique window onto the continuing process of fashioning a national identity in his newly-published book, AMERICAN EDEN: FROM MONTICELLO TO CENTRAL PARK TO OUR BACKYARDS, WHAT OUR GARDENS TELL US ABOUT WHO WE ARE (HarperCollins 2011). This social history of gardens in America is an expansive and penetrating exploration of how our evolving relationships with our gardens and landscapes have reflected our national identity over the course of time.
June 14, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
MIROSLAVA CHAVEZ-GARCIA
Miroslava Chávez-García is Chair and associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at the University of California at Davis. She received her doctorate in History from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1998 and is the author of NEGOTIATING CONQUEST: GENDER AND POWER IN CALIFORNIA, 1770s to 1880s (University of Arizona Press, 2004) as well as articles on gender, patriarchy, and the law in nineteenth century California.
Her most recent book, STATES OF DELINQUENCY: RACE AND SCIENCE IN THE MAKING OF CALIFORNIA'S JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM (University of California Press, 2012) uses one of the harshest states—California—as a case study for examining racism in the treatment of incarcerated young people of color. Using rich new untapped archives, Delinquency is the first book to explore the experiences of young Mexican Americans, African Americans, and ethnic Euro-Americans in California correctional facilities including Whittier State School for Boys and the Preston School of Industry.
June 1, 2012
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ICW and USC Visions and Voices present
THIS GREAT AND CROWDED CITY: WOODY GUTHRIE'S LOS ANGELES
In conjunction with the Visions and Voices program at USC and the GRAMMY Museum of Los Angeles, ICW is proud to present a major conference honoring the life, legacy, and centenary of Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie.
The conference took place on April 14th, 2012, at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus. Speakers and musicians will highlight Guthrie’s music and rise to fame in Depression-era Los Angeles. Individual presentations discuss such topics as Guthrie’s influences, the power of radio in 1930s Los Angeles, Guthrie’s ties to John Steinbeck and the Joads, as well as the contemporary resonance of Guthrie in folk music and folk migration across borders and boundaries in North America.
The pinnacle of the Los Angeles celebration took place on Saturday evening, April 14, with the second installment of This Land Is Your Land ~ The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration Concert at Club Nokia at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. Performing classic Guthrie songs will be Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Dawes, John Doe, Richie Furay, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Morello, Joel Rafael, Rob Wasserman and More.
April 14, 2012
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ICW In Conversation series
KEITH WOODHOUSE
Keith Woodhouse is a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Southern California and the Huntington Library Institute on California and the West. He has taught at several campuses in the University of Wisconsin system, as well as at U.S.C. His research focuses on the politics, ethics, and philosophy of radical environmentalism in the late-twentieth-century United States. In his conversation with Bill Deverell, he will discuss the debate over "ecoterrorism" from the 1980s to the present.
April 19, 2012
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RAILROADED: A CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD WHITE AND BILL DEVERELL
To mark the publication of historian Richard White’s new book (W.W. Norton, 2011), the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West hosted a workshop featuring commentary from four distinguished scholars and a response from the author. Participants include: Daniel Carpenter, Naomi Lamoreaux, Eric Rauchway, Steve Usselman, and Richard White.
March 1, 2012
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ICW and the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies present:
SUNBELT RISING: THE CALIFORNIA ORIGINS OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL RIGHT
Darren Dochuk, Purdue University
Darren Dochuk—author of FROM BIBLE BELT TO SUNBELT: PLAIN-FOLK RELIGION, GRASSROOTS POLITICS, AND THE RISE OF EVANGELICAL CONSERVATISM—will highlight some of the key (and until now, relatively hidden) political dimensions of evangelical conservatism as they emerged in Southern California in the decades following World War II. Connecting current events to deep-rooted historical trends, Dochuk will discuss Southern California evangelicalism's ongoing influence on our politics as well as some of the innovative and fascinating ways that scholars, journalists and students can uncover this component of American culture in its fullest dimensions.
March 1, 2012
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HEH Billington Lecture
A HOLE IN THE DREAM: THE GHOST DANCE AND THE CRISIS OF GILDED AGE AMERICA
The tragic climax of the Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890 has come to symbolize the end of the frontier, but it was more than that. According to Louis Warren, professor of history at UC Davis, the visions that gave birth to the movement and the complicated American response to its signaled the start of the twentieth century and its pervasive anxieties about environmental decay and racial animosity.
November 8, 2011
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Past Tense at The Huntington: 2011-12 seminar series
PAST TENSE WORKSHOP: CREATIVELY WRITING A HUNTINGTON OBJECT
April 27, 2012
WRITING ABOUT VIOLENCE
Susan Juster, University of Michigan
March 23, 2012
WRITING THE PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL IN THE SOUTHWEST BORDERLANDS
David Adams, Cleveland State
February 17, 2012
WHAT IS A BOOK? AND HOW DO WE WRITE ABOUT IT?
Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania
January 20, 2012
WRITING AND NEW MEDIA panel discussion
Jana Remy, Chapman and UCI; Elizabeth Losh, UCSD; Douglas Dechow & Anna Leahy, Chapman
November 18, 2011
EARLY MODERN WRITING ABOUT MUSIC
Carla Zecher, Newberry Library
December 9, 2011
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AxS Festival 2011: Fire and Water
FIRE SEASON
William Deverell and Philip Connors
FIRE SEASON is a conversation between William Deverell, Professor of History and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, and Philip Connors, acclaimed author and ardent wilderness look-out in the American Northwest.
Deverell and Connors discuss how FIRE and WATER have shaped the region - its politics, its economy and the lives of all of us living in the region, in fire zones and flood plains.
October 12, 2011
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Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation
BECOMING MEXICAN AMERICAN AND BEYOND
Professor George Sanchez's 1993 study, BECOMING MEXICAN AMERICAN: ETHNICITY, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY IN CHICANO LOS ANGELES, 1900-1945, is considered one of the most influential works on the formation of Latino ethnic identity and culture in pre-World War II Los Angeles. This symposium brings Professor Sanchez, scholars, educators, and others together for an in-depth exploration and discussion of Latino ethnic identity in the U.S., current research in the field, and the ongoing impact of Sanchez's important book.
George Sanchez
October 9, 2011
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Los Angeles History Research Working Group
Clark Davis Memorial Lecture:
RE-IMAGINING INDIAN COUNTRY: AMERICAN INDIANS AND LOS ANGELES
Nicolas Rosenthal, Loyola Marymount University
April 20, 2012
"SEASONED LONG ENOUGH IN CONCENTRATION": SUBURBAN HOMEOWNERSHIP AND TRANSNATIONAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE INLAND SOUTH BAY
March 16, 2012
LIBERALS AND THE LEFT IN METROPOLITAN HISTORY, PART II
Roundtable discussion:
Mark Clapson, University of Westminster, UK; Lily Geismer, Claremont McKenna; Becky Nicolaides, UCLA; Barbara Soliz, USC
February 16, 2012
LIBERALS AND THE LEFT IN METROPOLITAN HISTORY, PART I
Roundtable discussion:
Greg Hise, UNLV; David Levitus, USC; Alyssa Ribiero, University of Pittsburgh;Jess Rigelhaupt, University of Mary Washington; Mark Wild, Cal State Los Angeles
February 10, 2012
METROPOLITAN FRONDS: STREET PALMS AND THE FASHIONING OF LOS ANGELES
Jared Farmer, SUNY Stony Brook
January 17, 2012
PROFESSIONALIZATION AND INFLUENCE: THE LOS ANGELES REALTY BOARD AND THE GROWTH OF THE SOUTHLAND, 1903-1923
Laura Redford, UCLA
December 2, 2011
THE BELL POLITICAL CRISIS
Roundtable discussion:
Jeff Gottlieb, LA Times; Ruben Vives, LA Times; Jerry Gonzalez, University of Texas, San Antonio; Gilda Ochoa, Pomona College
November 4, 2011
REGIONAL EQUITY AND THE INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez, Whittier College
October 7, 2011
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Zocalo Public Square series
L.A. VS. SAN FRANCISCO: WHO RUNS CALIFORNIA?
For most of the past half-century, Southern Californians have dominated the highest state offices, including the state governorship. But in recent years, a young class of talented politicians, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris, has risen in San Francisco, while L.A.'s balkanized politics has produced fewer politicians with statewide aim. Compounding the trouble for Southern Californians, San Francisco voters are some of the most engaged in the state - 59 percent of them voted in the November 2010 general election, compared to 43 percent of Angelenos. Is this part of a natural cycle that will soon swing L.A.'s way once again, or symbolic of a permanent shift? Creator and publisher of LA Observed Kevin Roderick; founding editor of Buzz Magazine Allan Mayer; historical geographer and author Gray Brechin; and University of Washington historian Margaret O'Mara visit Zocalo to discuss the Los Angeles-San Francisco rivalry.
moderated by Conan Nolan
October 3, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
GREG FISCHER
Greg Fischer, Los Angeles Planning and Transportation deputy for Council District 9 (downtown) and a member of ICW’s Los Angeles Regional History Planning Group, has lectured to many groups about why Los Angeles exists and how it came to dominate Southern California. In his conversation with Bill Deverell, Fischer will share his research on Los Angeles visionary Arthur Letts, one of the most prominent men in L.A. from the mid-1890’s to the early 1920’s.
September 30, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
ANNE HYDE
EMPIRES, NATIONS, AND FAMILIES: A HISTORY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN WEST, 1800-1860 is part of a five-volume series published by the University of Nebraska Press that reassesses the entire field of Western history.
The book makes clear that the Louisiana Purchase did not involve virgin wilderness discovered by virtuous Anglo entrepreneurs. Rather, the United States was a newcomer in a place already complicated by vying empires.
The period covered in Hyde’s book spans the fur trade, Mexican War, gold rushes, and the Overland Trail, usually very male-dominated fields of study. Hyde has taken a different approach, and, using letters and business records, documented the broad family associations that crossed national and ethnic boundaries. According to Hyde, “These folks turned out to be almost entirely people of great wealth and status who loved and married across racial and cultural lines. It turns out that the West of that period is really a mixed race world that made perfect cultural and economic sense until national ideas made that cultural choice impossible in the 1850s."
August 5, 2011
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ALOUD at Los Angeles Public Library
FIRE MONKS: WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA - PODCAST
In Conversation with Bill Deverell
Colleen Morton Busch and Stephen H. Pyne
July 19, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
ERIC JOHN ABRAHAMSON
From the New Deal forward, the promotion of homeownership became a critical component of the regulated and managed economy. Seizing opportunities created by politicians eager to support this new American dream, Howard F. Ahmanson built an empire in Los Angeles that included the largest savings and loan in the nation and made him one of the richest men in America. He helped promote Southern California’s dramatic growth and encouraged the city’s cultural transformation. For policymakers, scholars and general readers struggling to understand the mortgage-led financial crisis of the 21st century, Ahmanson’s life and times offer insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the managed economy and the dream of widespread homeownership.
July 12, 2011
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ICW Western History Dissertation Workshop
The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, the Research Division of The Huntington Library, The Hemispheric Institute of the Americas at the University of California, Davis, The Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders at Yale University, the Institute for the Study of the North American West at the Autry National Center, and the Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West at Stanford University invite applications for the sixth annual "Western History Dissertation Workshop."
June 11, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
LAWRENCE CULVER
Author of THE FRONTIER OF LEISURE: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THE SHAPING OF MODERN AMERICA.
Southern California has long been promoted as the playground of the world, the home of resort-style living, backyard swimming pools, and year-round suntans. Tracing the history of Southern California from the late nineteenth century through the late twentieth century, The Frontier of Leisure reveals how this region did much more than just create lavish resorts like Santa Catalina Island and Palm Springs--it literally remade American attitudes towards leisure. Lawrence Culver shows how this "culture of leisure" gradually took hold with an increasingly broad group of Americans, and ultimately manifested itself in suburban developments throughout the Sunbelt and across the United States. This history connects Southern Californian recreation and leisure to larger historical themes, including regional development, architecture and urban planning, labor and race relations, Indian policy, politics, suburbanization, and changing perceptions of nature.
May 12, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
GABRIELLE BURTON
We know from history that Tamsen Donner, the pioneer heroine of the 1846 Donner Party, kept a journal, but it was never found. Combining years of historical research with insight and empathy, Burton imaginatively creates Tamsen’s lost journal, particularly during the four months she was starving and trapped in the mountains with her five daughters and dying husband. Anchored in Tamsen Donner's compelling story of adventure, love, and motherhood, Burton delves into larger questions about how people confront adversity: Why do some maintain hope, while others give up? At its heart, IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE: THE LOST JOURNAL OF TAMSEN DONNER is a story of hope, heroism, and the enduring human spirit.
May 5, 2011
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ICW Los Angeles History Research Group
Clark Davis Memorial Lecture:
MOTHER OF CONSERVATISM: WOMEN AND THE POSTWAR RIGHT
Michelle Nickerson, University of Texas at Dallas
April 16, 2011
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ICW In Conversation series
ERIKA ESAU
Fulbright Scholar and art historian Erika Esau has just published IMAGES OF THE PACIFIC RIM: AUSTRALIA AND CALIFORNIA, 1850-1935 (Power Publications) on the aesthetic connections between Australia and the American West. From gold rush photography to Spanish style houses, the absorption of images into the everyday life of these “new” Western societies constructed distinctive cultural iconographies and helped to create a sense of place based upon a shared ocean and climate. Esau works presently as librarian at LACMA’s Rifkind Center of German Expressionist Studies.
March 30, 2011
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ICW Los Angeles History Research Group
NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: CIVIL WAR TO CIVIL RIGHTS IN CALIFORNIA
Benjamin Cawthra, Michelle Antenesse, Bethany Girod - CSU Fullerton
March 12, 2011
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Autry Western History Workshop 2010-2011
EXTRACTING GRAVITY'S CAPITAL: CREATING THE COMSTOCK'S INDUSTRIAL WATERSHED
Robert Chester, University of the Pacific
April 12, 2011
People, Peoples, and Politics in Borderlands: Blood Talk in New Mexico
Brian Delay, UC Berkeley
Joint session with ICW Borderlands Group
March 8, 2011
- Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
- Department of History
- University of Southern California
- Los Angeles, California 90089-0034
- Email: kmatsuna@usc.edu