Sharpsteen, Bill

Berkeley. 2011. 1/1/2011. University of California Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780520261938. b/w photographs, 1 map. 311 pages. hardcover. . keywords: History California & the West Urban Studies. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Sharpsteen has almost a novelist's talent for using human interest profiles. Here is working knowledge not only of how the Port of Los Angeles functions, but of its crucial importance to the region, nation, and world economy.' - Gray Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco. The Docks is an eye-opening journey into a giant madhouse of activity that few outsiders ever see: the Port of Los Angeles. In a book woven throughout with riveting novelistic detail and illustrated with photographs that capture the frenetic energy of the place, Bill Sharpsteen tells the story of the people who have made this port, the largest in the country, one of the nation's most vital economic enterprises. Among others, we meet a pilot who parks ships, one of the first women longshoremen, union officials and employers at odds over almost everything, an environmental activist fighting air pollution in the diesel death zone, and those with the nearly impossible job of enforcing security. Together these stories paint a compelling picture of a critical entryway for goods coming into the country - the Port of Los Angeles is part of a complex that brings in 40 percent of all U.S. waterborne cargo and 70 percent of all Asian imports - yet one that is also extremely vulnerable. The Docks is a rare look at a world within our world in which we find a microcosm of the labor, environmental, and security issues we collectively face. inventory #37756 ISBN: 9780520261938.