UEPI Books

Books By UEPI Staff

Featured Book

The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City
By Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos, Regina M. Freer, and Peter Dreier.
January 2005
UC Press
More info from UC Press!

At its most lively, this book provides an intelligent insider's account of the construction of Progressive Los Angeles Network, or PLAN, and the emergence of a powerful labor-Latino bloc that provides progressive L.A. with much of its heart and soul. But the book offers readers more, including details of a grassroots-driving progressive agenda and a revealing social and political history. . . .The authors don't shy away from discussing problems and challenges. . . .A good starting point for any serious student of forward-looking municipal politics. "--James Goodno, San Francisco Chronicle

"Far and away the best single book for understanding the politics of Los Angeles. In light of that city's statewide influence, it is also a must read for those interested in the future of state politics. The book's inspiring accounts of grassroots victories is perfect for getting activists in an upbeat mindset for the start of a new year. And that is something we all need."--Randy Shaw, Beyondchron.org

"With this rich account of its community and labor struggles, the city of angels--and apocalypse--becomes the city of hope."--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

"This wonderful book, with its evocations of LA's alternative histories, and its bold templates for social and environmental justice, is proof that the American Left is alive and well, especially in Southern California."--Mike Davis, author of Dead Cities

"A rare book combining history, analysis, strategy and a platform - and it may well be carried out in this decade."--Tom Hayden, former State Senator, Los Angeles

Other Books

Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement
Revised Edition
Robert Gottlieb
June 2005
Island Press

Forcing the Spring challenges standard histories of the environmental movement by offering a broad and inclusive interpretation of past environmentalist thought and a sweeping redefinition of the nature of the contemporary environmental movement. Robert Gottlieb demonstrates the centrality of environmental concerns to a wide range of social movements of the past century as he explores the connections between pressures on human and natural environments and the role of these pressures in shaping society. His analysis provides fundamental new insights into the past and future of the American environmental movement by placing it within the larger context of American social history.

More info at the Island Press site

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century
Second Edition, Revised
Peter Dreier, John Mollenkopf, and Todd Swanstrom
December 2004
University Press of Kansas

New edition of a classic. Three distinguished scholars challenge us to put the urban crisis back on the national agenda, both as a moral challenge to our conscience and an economic challenge to America's prosperity and our families' pocketbooks. Focusing on the growing concentration of poverty in our cities and older suburbs and the mounting costs of suburban sprawl, they argue that these problems have political origins and can thus be resolved through political means--but only if we fully understand the power of place.

More info at Powells.com

Winner of the Michael Harrington Book Award

Up Against the Sprawl: Public Policy and the Making of Southern California
Jennifer Wolch, Manuel Pastor Jr., and Peter Dreier, editors
Foreword by Michael Dear
2004
University of Minnesota Press

Los Angeles's experience in managing urban growth and change.

America's first truly twenty-first-century metropolis, Los Angeles is often depicted as diverse, fragmented, polarized, and ungovernable, a city without a unifying geographic center or civic culture. The sprawling evolution of the city and its infamous problems—traffic, pollution, growing inequality—are usually attributed to a Wild West version of capitalism—the triumph of an unregulated free market over comprehensive urban planning. But market choices and lack of planning did not set the terrain of Southern California: Los Angeles has been profoundly shaped by a wide range of local, state, and federal public policies and programs.


More info at the University of Minnesota Press web site

Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change
Robert Gottlieb
August 2002
MIT Press

In Environmentalism Unbound, Robert Gottlieb proposes a new strategy for social and environmental change that involves reframing and linking the movements for environmental justice and pollution prevention. According to Gottlieb, the environmental movement's narrow conception of environment has isolated it from vital issues of everyday life, such as workplace safety, healthy communities, and food security, that are often viewed separately as industrial, community, or agricultural concerns. This fragmented approach prevents an awareness of how these issues are also environmental issues.


More info at the MIT Press web site

Regions that Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together
Manuel Pastor Jr., Peter Dreier, J. Eugene Grigsby III, and Marta López-Garza
2000
University of Minnesota Press

Offering a new vision of community-based regionalism, this book arrives just as "smart growth" measures and other attempts to link cities and suburbs are beginning to make their mark on the political and analytical scene. The authors make a powerful case for emphasizing equity, arguing that metropolitan areas must reduce poverty in order to grow and that low-income individuals must make regional connections in order to escape poverty.

More info at the University of Minnesota Press site

Reducing Toxics: A New Approach to Policy and Industrial Decisionmaking
Robert Gottlieb
April 1995
Island Press

In Reducing Toxics, leading experts address industry, technology, health, and policy issues and explore the potential for pollution prevention at the industry and facility levels. They consider both the regulatory and institutional settings of toxics reduction initiatives, prescribe strategies for developing a prevention framework, and apply these principles in analyzing industry case studies.

More info at the Island Press site