Photographing the Second Gold Rush: Dorothea Lange and the East Bay at War, 1941-1945 by Dorothea Lange and Charles Wollenberg

Dorothea Lange's photographs, which often made social statements of the lives of everyday people, helped create the field of documentary photography. The East Bay area during World War II (specifically 1941-1945) is the subject of the sixty photographs included in this book. Focusing on the cities of Oakland and Richmond and especially the shipyards therein, these photographs look at the lives of the people that made up the rapidly changing demographics of the time -- women entering the labor force, Japanese Americans being forced into internment camps, African Americans coming from different parts of the country, Mexican laborers brought in by the United States, and migrant agricultural workers displaced in the Dust Bowl era. The essay is helpful and interesting, but it is Lange's photographs that are truly powerful representations of this period in California history.

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: TR820.5 .L36 1995
3rd Floor Science & Technology Library
Review submitted by: Andrew Tessandori, Cataloging Assistant, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended