Whitewashed adobe

"Chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity, William Deverell offers a unique perspective on how the city grew and changed. Whitewashed Adobe considers six different developments in the history of the city - among them the cementing of the Los Angeles River, the outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1924, and the evolution of America's largest brickyard in the 1920s. In an absorbing narrative illustrated by many previously unpublished period photographs, Deverell shows how a city that was once part of Mexico itself came of age through appropriating - and even…