Of the many photographs in a new history of UCLA, one is especially arresting. The photo, from April 1929, shows the school’s first four buildings on its soon-to-open Westwood campus with little else around for miles but rolling hills and a few houses. “The campus is so far out in the country that it’s obvious only farmers will ever be the students’ neighbors,” the caption reads, quoting a not-particularly-far-sighted journalist at the time.
Clearly, the growth of UCLA and surrounding Westside neighborhoods was never a given. The school’s unusual journey to academic prominence — with political intrigue and student unrest along the way — is the basic narrative of “UCLA: The First Century,” a lavish 360-page coffee table book by Marina Dundjerski.
Pushing against the Berkeley-centric education establishment, Southern Californians undertook…
Learn more about the book, UCLA: The First Century, and about the UCLA History Project.