| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Catherine Mulholland. William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2000. Pp. xxi, 411. $35.00.

William Mulholland, arguably one of the most important figures in the history of Los Angeles, has not been well served by historians. It is distressing to read so many books and articles that repeat earlier errors, fail to do the research necessary for a balanced portrait, or begin with a preconceived, biased viewpoint. Yet this has been Mulholland's fate as putative biographers and writers (it really hurts to see some of the authors of hatchet jobs referred to as historians) have created a general impression of Mulholland and his adopted city that permits the movie Chinatown (1974) to be accepted as a "historical" source. 1

Historians delving into the Owens Valley-Los Angeles water dispute, still controversial almost a century after its inception, have skirted the biographical issue, utilizing the controversy's main participants without examining their lives and careers. Omitting biographical research reduces the people involved to names representing political positions and robs a narrative of vitality and a sense of the human condition. It also masks less than a total research effort. . . .

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