My Blue Heaven

By Becky M. Nicolaides,

Book cover of My Blue Heaven

Book description

In the 1920s, thousands of white migrants settled in the Los Angeles suburb of South Gate. Six miles from down-town and adjacent to Watts, South Gate and its neighboring communities served as L.A.'s Detroit, an industrial belt for mass production of cars, tires, steel, and other durable goods. Blue-collar workers…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked My Blue Heaven as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

American suburbs are all tidy middle-class places like where I grew up, right? Wrong.

Do-it-yourself housing and shantytowns were never confined to the developing world. The fringes of Toronto and Cleveland and Los Angeles could look a lot like the fringes of Sao Paolo or Istanbul in the first half of the twentieth century.

My Blue Heaven is a revelation about DIY community building on the south side of Los Angeles at the same time high-end developers were creating Pasadena and Beverly Hills. 

From Carl's list on suburbs around the world.

Want books like My Blue Heaven?

Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like My Blue Heaven.

Browse books like My Blue Heaven

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the working class, California, and Los Angeles?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about the working class, California, and Los Angeles.

The Working Class Explore 100 books about the working class
California Explore 363 books about California
Los Angeles Explore 318 books about Los Angeles