Transforming California: A Political History of Land Use and Development

Review
"A thought-provoking work for environmental, urban, social, state, and regional historians."-- Choice


Review
"Stephanie Pincetl has written a timely book. Transforming California provides important background to the current, untenable state of affairs in land use planning, not only in California but across the American West. Pincetl's work leads her to issue a call for renewed civic attention to the perils of environmental and landscape degradation."--William Deverell, California Institute of Technology


Book Description
In Transforming California, Stephanie Pincetl argues that the transformation of nature in order to enhance economic development lies at the heart of much of the state's recent history. She sees late-twentieth-century California on a path of continued environmental degradation, gripped by cynicism about government. Transforming California describes the evolution of the state's institutions of government as they apply to land use and development, and it shows how land-use decisions affect people's quality of life and their daily interactions with each other and with their environment. Pincetl offers an alternative vision for the renewal of the democratic spirit and process in California and for a reconciliation with nature.


About the Author
Stephanie S. Pincetl is a research associate professor with the Sustainable Cities Program at the University of Southern California, where she also teaches classes in environmental studies. She has received Fulbright awards to work in France and has been a visiting scholar at the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique. She also serves as president of the board of Communities for a Better Environment, a nonprofit urban environmental justice organization in California.


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Pincetl (environmental studies, University of Southern California) shows that the transformation of nature in order to enhance economic development lies at the heart of much of California's recent history. She describes the evolution of the state's institutions of government as they apply to land use and development, and demonstrates how land- use decisions affect people's quality of life and their daily interactions with each other and with their environment. She emphasizes the political reforms of the Progressive era, and offers an alternative vision for reconciliation with nature. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)


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