A machine to move ocean and Earth The making of the port of Los Angeles--and America

The decision to build a port in Los Angeles's San Pedro Bay was driven by commercial interests, local and national politics, and personal agendas, not by thoughtful analysis of geography and geology, according to this enthralling debut. Historian Tejani documents the mid-19th-century political maneuvering and "machines of the modern state and corporate capital" that heedlessly "tore apart" 3,400 acres of mud and salt marsh, which engineers at the time considered wholly unsuitable for a commercial harbor. But others--among them landowners, surveyors, railroad magnates, shipping merchants, and U.S. senators--saw opportunities to get rich via land speculation, lucrative government contracts, and monopolistic port access. Tejani's narrative revolves around these men and the conflict, competition, and deception involved in their ambitious decades-long efforts to get the port built, which unfurled in parallel with America's westward expansion and displacement of Native peoples and the acquisition of Mexican territory by force. Powerful players massaged government policy on these and other issues in the direction most beneficial to the port, which subsequently became central to U.S. imperial aspirations in the Pacific. Tejani astutely conveys the deep entanglement of political and economic interests at the highest echelons of power. The result is a beguiling history of Southern California, early industrial development, and U.S. empire. (July)

A colorful study of the creation and development of the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere. Many history books about California focus on San Francisco, the gold rush, and the transcontinental railroad, but Tejani, associate professor of history at California State University, focuses on the creation of the Los Angeles port, a tremendous undertaking. Although slavery preoccupied 1850s America, day-to-day politics featured a major effort to absorb the western conquests and connect them to the east with a railroad. Southern states blocked approval of any but a southern route through New Mexico and Arizona. Few readers know that a second, all-weather transcontinental railroad reached Southern California in 1881 or that a major Civil War campaign was fought in the Southwest after Texas Confederate forces invaded New Mexico in 1861. In response, a Union army landed at the Los Angeles port of San Pedro and endured a grueling march across the desert. Paying less attention than other scholars to the 1869 arrival of the (northern) transcontinental railroad, Tejani focuses closely on the following 50 years, during which California's center of gravity moved south. Throughout the multifaceted narrative, he turns up an entertaining cast of mostly obscure political figures, entrepreneurs, military officers, and scientists who aimed to accomplish great things or simply line their pockets. Unlike San Francisco, San Pedro was not a natural harbor, but a great deal of commerce managed to pass though. By the 1870s, the railroads had arrived, local entrepreneurs were eager to share their bounty, and L.A. officials, bent on having a world-class port, worked hard and ultimately successfully to wrest control. This well-researched text, which often shifts perspectives, ends in the early 1900s. The author includes a generous selection of archival photos and a cast of characters. A compelling regional history with relevance for U.S. history in general. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.