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The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes As Public History
Winner, 1995, category of Archeology and Anthropology, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Based on her extensive experience in the urban communities of Los Angeles, historian and architect Dolores Hayden proposes new perspectives on gender, race, and ethnicity to broaden the practice of public history and public art, enlarge urban preservation, and reorient the writing of urban history to spatial struggles.
In the first part of The Power of Place , Hayden outlines the elements of a social history of urban space to connect people's lives and livelihoods to the urban landscape as it changes over time. She then explores how communities and professionals can tap the power of historic urban landscapes to nurture public memory.
The second part documents a decade of research and practice by The Power of Place, a nonprofit organization Hayden founded in downtown Los Angeles. Through public meetings, walking tours, artists's books, and permanent public sculpture, as well as architectural preservation, teams of historians, designers, planners, and artists worked together to understand, preserve, and commemorate urban landscape history as African American, Latina, and Asian American families have experienced it.
One project celebrates the urban homestead of Biddy Mason, an African American ex-slave and midwife active betwen 1856 and 1891. Another reinterprets the Embassy Theater where Rose Pesotta, Luisa Moreno, and Josefina Fierro de Bright organized Latina dressmakers and cannery workers in the 1930s and 1940s. A third chapter tells the story of a historic district where Japanese American family businesses flourished from the 1890s to the 1940s. Each project deals with bitter memories—slavery, repatriation, internment—but shows how citizens survived and persevered to build an urban life for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Drawing on many similar efforts around the United States, from New York to Charleston, Seattle to Cincinnati, Hayden finds a broad new movement across urban preservation, public history, and public art to accept American diversity at the heart of the vernacular urban landscape. She provides dozens of models for creative urban history projects in cities and towns across the country.
Based on her extensive experience in the urban communities of Los Angeles, historian and architect Dolores Hayden proposes new perspectives on gender, race, and ethnicity to broaden the practice of public history and public art, enlarge urban preservation, and reorient the writing of urban history to spatial struggles.
In the first part of The Power of Place , Hayden outlines the elements of a social history of urban space to connect people's lives and livelihoods to the urban landscape as it changes over time. She then explores how communities and professionals can tap the power of historic urban landscapes to nurture public memory.
The second part documents a decade of research and practice by The Power of Place, a nonprofit organization Hayden founded in downtown Los Angeles. Through public meetings, walking tours, artists's books, and permanent public sculpture, as well as architectural preservation, teams of historians, designers, planners, and artists worked together to understand, preserve, and commemorate urban landscape history as African American, Latina, and Asian American families have experienced it.
One project celebrates the urban homestead of Biddy Mason, an African American ex-slave and midwife active betwen 1856 and 1891. Another reinterprets the Embassy Theater where Rose Pesotta, Luisa Moreno, and Josefina Fierro de Bright organized Latina dressmakers and cannery workers in the 1930s and 1940s. A third chapter tells the story of a historic district where Japanese American family businesses flourished from the 1890s to the 1940s. Each project deals with bitter memories—slavery, repatriation, internment—but shows how citizens survived and persevered to build an urban life for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Drawing on many similar efforts around the United States, from New York to Charleston, Seattle to Cincinnati, Hayden finds a broad new movement across urban preservation, public history, and public art to accept American diversity at the heart of the vernacular urban landscape. She provides dozens of models for creative urban history projects in cities and towns across the country.
297 pages, Hardcover
First published April 18, 1995
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751 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 27, 2020
For History, Space, and Memory Grad Course
Would have received a higher rating had her take on the history of the Mormon church and its doctrines been not just so much false, but in having to deal with the awkwardness of the very works she footnotes to prove her case refuting her.
Would have received a higher rating had her take on the history of the Mormon church and its doctrines been not just so much false, but in having to deal with the awkwardness of the very works she footnotes to prove her case refuting her.
March 13, 2025
This book has just changed my life. This is the type of legacy I want to leave. Dolores Hayden, please sit down and have a conversation with me
November 12, 2008
Read this for a class. Somewhat interesting idea about using public art to commemorate the untold history of a place, but Hayden's obsession with herself becomes distracting and frustrating to read.
May 24, 2023
A fairly interesting book on public history in urban environments. Hayden describes a really cool project in LA called the Power of Place that brought a lot of neglected and overlooked communities (racialized, migrant, women, etc.) into the commemorated domain of public history.
The first part of the book focuses on theory that suggests new ways to conceptualize cultural landscapes in urban contexts, the relationship between the social, political, and aesthetic — particularly as it pertains to ethnic and women’s history. It theorizes on memory in relation to place, and the ways public history connects to architectural preservation, environmental protection, and public art. There's a lot of Henri Lefebvre in Chapter 2 in case you're into that sort of marxist theory.
The second part of the book focuses on praxis, with real case studies from LA where most residents are women and people of colour. Another chapter focuses on working class lives and landscapes, in ranches, agricultural fields, and factories. Another chapter focuses on the life of an African American midwife, formerly enslaved and later freed in court. There’s a chapter on a union hall used by Latina and Russian Jewish garment workers, one on Little Tokyo, Japanese American immigrants, and the Japanese American National Museum.
A little passage from the introduction:
“These chapters sketch the story of Los Angeles as African American, Latina, and Asian American women and their families have known it, the often overlooked history of the majority of Los Angeles citizens. Each project deals with bitter memories—slavery, repatriation, internment—but shows how citizens survived and persevered to make an urban life for themselves, their families, and communities. “Storytelling with the Shapes of Time” sums up the transformations of roles and expectations that these projects demanded from many of the participants, and explores some of the obstacles to community processes and interdisciplinary work, as well as some of the rewards.”
A few other excerpts I appreciated:
"Broadway also included the Bradbury Building, an architectural treasure with a romantic interior courtyard, constructed by an obsessed draftsman of the 1890s who wanted to test ideas about architecture for a socialist city that were expressed in Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward."
"Edward Soja’s fascinating Postmodern Geographies portrays Los Angeles as the product of the spatial machinations of international capital, decipherable only by a new kind of Marxist analysis that stresses the regional and global structure of economic power and emphasizes space (geography) rather than time (history).
...Mike Davis’s absorbing City of Quartz also provides an extensive analysis of the white, male power structure, its police force and prisons, as well as its cultural apparatus and spatial aggressiveness. Missing in both Postmodern Geographies and City of Quartz are sympathetic accounts of women and ethnic communities, situated historically as well as spatially. The old conquest histories of the city relied on an outworn ideal of a universal, white male citzen, and relegated women and people of color—workers who should be at the center of any city’s story—to the fringes. For a new spatial analysis to be balanced, the active roles of diverse workers searching for a livelihood in the city need to be discussed as fully as the decisions of banks, corporations, police, and the military.* But Soja writes: “The centre has thus also become the per- iphery, as the corporate citadel of multinational capital rests with consummate agility upon a broadening base of alien populations.” In context, these “alien” populations seem to be new immigrants, but Soja has little interest in distinguish- ing them from people of color who have lived and worked in the city for a long time. He conflates them all, and women, in another description of the labor force: “the reserve army of migrant and minority workers (augmented by a massive entry of women into the workforce) has grown to unprecedented
levels.’’"
The first part of the book focuses on theory that suggests new ways to conceptualize cultural landscapes in urban contexts, the relationship between the social, political, and aesthetic — particularly as it pertains to ethnic and women’s history. It theorizes on memory in relation to place, and the ways public history connects to architectural preservation, environmental protection, and public art. There's a lot of Henri Lefebvre in Chapter 2 in case you're into that sort of marxist theory.
The second part of the book focuses on praxis, with real case studies from LA where most residents are women and people of colour. Another chapter focuses on working class lives and landscapes, in ranches, agricultural fields, and factories. Another chapter focuses on the life of an African American midwife, formerly enslaved and later freed in court. There’s a chapter on a union hall used by Latina and Russian Jewish garment workers, one on Little Tokyo, Japanese American immigrants, and the Japanese American National Museum.
A little passage from the introduction:
“These chapters sketch the story of Los Angeles as African American, Latina, and Asian American women and their families have known it, the often overlooked history of the majority of Los Angeles citizens. Each project deals with bitter memories—slavery, repatriation, internment—but shows how citizens survived and persevered to make an urban life for themselves, their families, and communities. “Storytelling with the Shapes of Time” sums up the transformations of roles and expectations that these projects demanded from many of the participants, and explores some of the obstacles to community processes and interdisciplinary work, as well as some of the rewards.”
A few other excerpts I appreciated:
"Broadway also included the Bradbury Building, an architectural treasure with a romantic interior courtyard, constructed by an obsessed draftsman of the 1890s who wanted to test ideas about architecture for a socialist city that were expressed in Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward."
"Edward Soja’s fascinating Postmodern Geographies portrays Los Angeles as the product of the spatial machinations of international capital, decipherable only by a new kind of Marxist analysis that stresses the regional and global structure of economic power and emphasizes space (geography) rather than time (history).
...Mike Davis’s absorbing City of Quartz also provides an extensive analysis of the white, male power structure, its police force and prisons, as well as its cultural apparatus and spatial aggressiveness. Missing in both Postmodern Geographies and City of Quartz are sympathetic accounts of women and ethnic communities, situated historically as well as spatially. The old conquest histories of the city relied on an outworn ideal of a universal, white male citzen, and relegated women and people of color—workers who should be at the center of any city’s story—to the fringes. For a new spatial analysis to be balanced, the active roles of diverse workers searching for a livelihood in the city need to be discussed as fully as the decisions of banks, corporations, police, and the military.* But Soja writes: “The centre has thus also become the per- iphery, as the corporate citadel of multinational capital rests with consummate agility upon a broadening base of alien populations.” In context, these “alien” populations seem to be new immigrants, but Soja has little interest in distinguish- ing them from people of color who have lived and worked in the city for a long time. He conflates them all, and women, in another description of the labor force: “the reserve army of migrant and minority workers (augmented by a massive entry of women into the workforce) has grown to unprecedented
levels.’’"
October 1, 2017
Read for Public History Seminar
March 31, 2019
Had to read it for class. Hayden points out some good examples of inclusion in public history. Her commentary on race is less relevant today then in the 90s.
June 2, 2019
hadn't finished the last chapter but i will
May 23, 2022
Hayden is a god. like a personal one. I would do anything for this woman and I hope she keeps writing as prolifically as she historical has, and keeps cranking out those poems. 100% Hayden stand.
February 20, 2017
Fantastic read about urban history and how preservation laws have overlooked women's history and minority ethnic groups over the years. The book is now slightly outdated (1999) but still somehow relevant.
August 2, 2007
Hayden highlights the history of Los Angeles, particularly focusing on displaced/disenfranchised communities and activism. Hayden focuses a great deal on Biddy Mason one of my sheroes. What's great about this book is that Hayden gives you another level of appreciation for the spaces in which we live - not only our homes, but the broader community, cities, and ultimately country we live in. Suggesting that "lived space" is so much more than perhaps we understand. I found the conceptual maps Hayden asks residents to draw, as examples of how privilege, race, and class impact one's knowledge of the city one lives in to be very powerful and interesting. Now when I think of my own city, the lovely Chocolate City (DC) I appreciate the places I know and am more keenly aware of the places I might not know and why.
June 5, 2012
I enjoyed this, mainly for the case studies of public history projects around LA, but I'm not really sure how I could use this in public historical practice. The moral of the story seems to be that PH projects dealing with urban landscapes are very complex and destined to run into a ton of roadblocks, and each one is going to play out differently, with different complications. It is good to learn about previous projects that worked, but I don't think reading these stories will really prep me for the kinds of problems that I will run into- they will be unique to my projects. It is good to read this just to start thinking about ways that common people's history can be preserved/commemorated/memorialized. I was having lots of little interesting ideas while I read it that played off of projects Hayden was writing about.
February 1, 2011
Dolores Hayden is an accessible and engaging writer. As she acknowledges in the Preface, "Power of Place" is intended for a variety of audiences -- from planners to students to nonprofit professionals to historians to artists to laypeople -- and her direct approach to the theoretical, historical and practical subject matters allows for each tier of this varied audience to engage with this material. Furthermore, the histories told in this book, as well as the important (and underacknowledged) work that Hayden's orgazization Power of Place was doing, are critical narratives for anyone hoping to engage in public history, historic and social prservation and space reclamation, in addition to public art practitioners.
A HIGHLY recommended, great read!
A HIGHLY recommended, great read!
May 17, 2017
Using Los Angeles as a case study (based in her own professional projects) Hayden argues for shifting the public history paradigm in urban places to acknowledge a more diversely gendered, racial and ethnic past. The case studies are preceded by a brief examination of urban public history in other American locations. Hayden's text is accessible to a broad readership, but at times the narrative might have benefited from greater depth of exploration.
August 5, 2008
An intriguing look at the use of collective memory and social landscapes to create spaces the empower communities. I reviewed this as an assignment, but found myself drawn in to her detail and analysis as though it was a novel. Anyone who enjoys thinking about Urban spaces and the meanings behind social memory and the power of collective experience will enjoy this book.
August 8, 2016
This book is my jelly and my jam. It has all the things I love in a book about planning. It centers place, people, and the particularity of the way people produce landscapes of meaning. Hayden also foregrounds, appropriately, the often political implications of the way public history is constructed or suppressed via landscape neglect, renewal or preservation.
November 29, 2020
I stumbled upon a photo of my good friend as a child and a family photo of my great-great grandpa, great-grandpa, and grandpa. That alone did it for me, haha.
Read
February 25, 2007i dont remember much about this one, but i think i liked it.
July 31, 2007
Demonstrates how place and collective memory effect history and meaning. I think social workers would get a lot out of it.
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July 29, 2011Great example on how to use the museum to support community development.
November 17, 2013
I love Dolores Hayden, but this isn't one of my faves. Her approach to thinking about landscape is great, though, and this is a perfect read for anyone interested in society and space.
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June 24, 2016307.7609 H414p 1997
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews