Founded in 1957, the Southern California suburb prophetically named City of Industry today represents, in the words of Victor Valle, "The gritty crossroads of the global trade revolution that is transforming Southern California factories into warehouses, and adjacent working class communities into economic and environmental sacrifice zones choking on cheap goods and carcinogenic diesel exhaust." City of Industry is a stunning exposé on the construction of corporate capitalist spaces. Valle investigated an untapped archive of Industry's built landscape, media coverage, and public records, including sealed FBI reports, to uncover a cascading series of scandals. A kaleidoscopic view of the corruption that resulted when local land owners, media barons, and railroads converged to build the city, this suspenseful narrative explores how new governmental technologies and engineering feats propelled the rationality of privatization using their property-owning servants as tools. Valle's tale of corporate greed begins with the city's founder James M. Stafford and ends with present day corporate heir, Edward Roski Jr., the nation's biggest industrial developerùco-owner of the L.A. Staples Arena and possible future owner of California's next NFL franchise. Not to be forgotten in Valle's captivating story are Latino working class communities living within Los Angeles's distribution corridors, who suffer wealth disparities and exposure to air pollution as a result of diesel-burning trucks, trains, and container ships that bring global trade to their very doorsteps. They are among the many victims of City of Industry.

Incorporated on June 18, 1957, the City of Industry is located 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The city's founding was based on providing a dedicated area for industrial employment in between two major railroad lines. Starting with about 50 businesses, this young municipality grew rapidly and had a national reputation for attracting large manufacturers like Mattel, Inc., Schwinn Bicycle Company, and Libbey, Inc., within its boundaries. The city is known as the "Economic Engine" of the San Gabriel Valley, and currently, it provides 68,000 jobs for the valley's population of 1.7 million people. In the 1970s, the city developed the internationally renowned Industry Hills Resort and Conference Center and the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum. As the last portions of Industry's 12 square miles are being developed, this dynamic economic base is continuing its dedication to businesses and to its neighboring residents by way of charitable giving, public/private partnerships, and innovative community programs.

Ob Birmingham, Rotterdam oder Wolfsburg: Industriestädte haben nicht nur völlig unterschiedliche Gesichter, sie unterliegen auch einem bemerkenswerten zeitlichen Wandel. Die Autoren behandeln die Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft der Industriestadt als europäisches Phänomen. Aus soziologischer, historischer, geografischer und medialer Perspektive erörtern sie unterschiedliche historische Modelle und Typen von Industriestädten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, diskutieren die Frage nach der Zukunft von monostrukturellen Industriestädten sowie mediale Repräsentationsformen industrialisierter Städte. Mit Beiträgen vonChristoph Bernhardt, Hans-Peter Dörrenbächer, Simon Gunn, Christine Hannemann, Martina Heßler, Martin Jemelka, Henry Keazor, Robert Lewis, Timo Luks, Rebecca Magdin, Jörg Plöger, Richard Rodger, Rolf Sachsse, Adelheid von Saldern, Ondrej Sevecek, Judith Thissen und Clemens Zimmermann.

In the course of the tremendous political and economic upheaval starting in 1989/1990 many industrial cities and regions in Central and Eastern Europe have been confronted with profound problems. This book presents eleven detailed national reports which describe the situation in such cities and regions as well as the strategies which have been employed to cope with structural change. The country reports are complemented by short case studies of selected cities and regions. An introduction gives background to such topics as structural change and the ramifications of EU enlargement. Finally some conclusions are drawn and recommendations offered for future policy.

Recounts the story of Los Angeles. He tells a tale of greed, manipulation, power and prejudice that has made Los Angeles one of the most cosmopolitan and most class-divided cities in the United States.