Revisiting Early L.A. Reviews

The first two books in his series are Louis Adamic's "The Truth About Los Angeles" from 1927 and Morrow Mayo's 1933 book "Los Angeles". The books represent dated yet still relevant perceptions of the city.

"Adamic, perhaps best remembered as a historian of the labor movement, finds plenty to poke fun at in Los Angeles -- which he calls 'a young city, crude, wildly ambitious, growing' -- but saves his harshest disdain for its newest arrivals, the Midwestern refugees lured to Los Angeles by cheap rail fares and the promise of sunshine and leisure, many of them churchgoing retirees content, as he puts it, to 'live in bungalow courts and eat in cafeterias.'"