Steven Erie All Manuals & Guides: L.A. sku-33938683

Steven Erie's hardcover Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development is listed under All Manuals & Guides, SKU sku-33938683. Drawing on history and policy analysis, Erie explains how Los Angeles, despite having no natural harbor and a city center 20 miles from the coast, became the world's ninth largest economy and a major trade and transportation center.

He argues that physical infrastructure, local political institutions and public entrepreneurs drove the region's growth, challenging accounts centered on information flows, intellectual property rights or social capital. The book follows railroad and harbor disputes from the late nineteenth century through Los Angeles's rise as a trade gateway to the Pacific Rim in the twentieth century.

It also covers port development, LAX expansion, the Alameda Corridor rail link and NAFTA border infrastructure. Erie describes pre-1990s L.A. as resembling a city-state whose semi-autonomous development agencies and entrepreneurial leaders planned major projects.

He discusses how community and environmental opposition and post-9/11 security concerns could affect future development and competitiveness. David Perry, Director and Professor at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, praises the book as a significant contribution to urban development studies.