The Left Coast
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Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics
by Daniel Hurewitz
University of California Press. 377 pages, $29.95

FOR ANGELENOS in the know, Hollywood is nothing more than a neighborhood, one not nearly as interesting as Silver Lake or Echo Park. In the first half of the 20th century, this hilly enclave just north of downtown L.A. was known as Edendale, although sometimes it was “Mount Moscow,” or the “Swish Alps.” In Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics, Daniel Hurewitz reconstructs the world of Edendale’s gay men, artists, and leftists, and sketches the origins of modern identity politics.

The story begins with two men who lived at the top of a hill near the Silver Lake Reservoir.