WPA - Federal Writers Project; American Guide Series

San Diego: A California City

San Diego: San Diego Historical Society, 1937. First Edition, First Printing. Sponsored by the San Diego Historical Society. One of the earliest city guides produced as part of the WPA American Guide Series.

Illustrated wraps; The bindings are tight and square. Text clean, light even age-toning to the wraps. Moderate shelf handling wear. 8.75 inches tall; 130 pages with an index and extensive bibliography. Illustrated with maps; historical plate and many period photographs; folding map attached in the rear.

Unlatching a remarkable trapdoor into the past, this compact and charming document of the Depression era invites repeated browsing and is generously illustrated with striking black-and-white photographs that bring the period to life.

San Diego in the 1930s offers a lively account of the city's culture, roadside attractions, and history from the days of the Spanish missions to the pre-Second World War boom.

The guide is revealing both in the opinions it embodies and in the juicy details it records tidbits such as the bloodiest and most incompetently fought battle of the Mexican-American War, Emma Goldman's abruptly terminated speech to local Wobblies in 1912, and even a delightfully anachronistic way to beat a San Diego speeding ticket. 

Brimming with tours that can prove challenging to retrace, this book reminds us of the changes wrought by seven decades of intervening war, peace, and biotechnology. [questia]

During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as the biggest, fastest and most original research job in the history of the world.

Ref: CBH, 5

Item #19038

Price: $95.00