City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles

The opening of Dodger Stadium in April 1962 launched Los Angeles on a path to becoming a twenty-first century global supercity. But the bitter arguments over whether, where, and how to build the stadium nearly tore the city apart. Jerald Podair will read from his new book, City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles and discuss how a ballpark built on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles created seemingly intractable racial and class divisions in the city but also set the stage for Los Angeles to shed its provincial image and take its place as the world city we recognize today.  What is a city for? What purposes should it serve? How much should “progress” cost? The people of Los Angeles fought over the answers to these questions as Dodger Stadium was built between 1957 and 1962. That battle continues in the 21^st century in a modern “LA” that the stadium helped create, offering lessons to any American city wrestling with the price – human and otherwise – of growth and change.