Jean Baudrillard once argued that “there is no theory of the media” (For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, 1981, p. 164). Perhaps one might say the same in regard to a theory of culture, but Ronald Schmidt helps move us toward a better understanding of both. His book helps us recognize the link between the media and political culture. Akin to Baudrillard, Schmidt discusses the rhetoric and images used by the economic and political elite to reinforce the latent social and political hierarchies in society.

Like many books about Los Angeles, Schmidt's discusses the city's rich history and culture as well as its dynamic politics. Although most of the characters and events that are described in the text will be familiar to many, the author weaves these familiar elements into a unique story. This story is not just about the city itself but about the ideas, images, and rhetoric that helped shape its politics and culture.

One of the central arguments of the book is that powerful elites attempted to build a utopian metropolis by crafting a particular image of Los Angeles and the role of its citizens. By presenting a “virtuous” image of city life and citizenship to the public, it was hoped that residents would emulate these ideas and behaviors. These ideas and images are presented by local elites as a form of civic education to instill values and to motivate citizens to achieve their untapped potential and “unrealized virtues” (p. 40). Schmidt examines these ideas and images that have permeated the history of Los Angeles, dissects them, and discusses their weaknesses and contradictions. But the author suggests that these models of civic life often represent a scripted demand for reverence for tradition and authority, rather than an example of innovation and excellence.

The book is organized into five sections. The first introduces the mimetic tradition in Los Angeles politics and American political culture in general. For republican democracy to survive, the citizens must be educated in the norms of republican and democratic ideals. Citizens are not born with these ideas but instead must be presented with scripts and role models to emulate. From Arendt to Cicero to Machiavelli, the author illustrates the concept of mimetics. He argues that “citizens engage in intense patterns of imitation and thus transmit the civic culture of their civilization” (p. xxi).

The first and second chapters discuss the role of the media and media moguls in shaping the city's identity and crafting a model of civic virtue. Schmidt elaborates on the models displayed by Harrison Gray Otis (founder of the Los Angeles Times), Louis Mayer (MGM), and the Warner brothers. From self-made man to small-town morals to rugged individualism, the author suggests a common theme in the messages delivered by the newspapers and films of the time: a conservative promotion of passive imitation, rather than active emulation. Numerous films, such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941), and The Maltese Falcon (1941), are discussed and evaluated in terms of their vision of civic life and the ideal citizen. Although the films are of different genres and offer different visions of society, there are observable themes. One is perhaps best illustrated by Warner Brothers Studio's motto “Combining Good Picture Making with Good Citizenship” (p. 40).

The next chapter focuses on William Parker and Daryl Gates of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and their attempts to shape both the substance and image of the city. Although not immediately apparent, the discussion of the LAPD fits well with the discussion of the media in the previous chapters. Schmidt elaborates on the LAPD's creation and use of the Public Information Division, Police Department Intelligence Division, and Parker's close association with the production of the popular TV show Dragnet.

The concluding chapter discusses how difficult it is to escape from these elite narratives and how the adherence to such utopian narratives can lead to dystopias. Schmidt discusses, at some length, the 1982 movie Blade Runner as a vision of what imitation holds for citizens, namely “industrial slavery.”

This Is the City is by no means a story of elite domination or conspiracy. It goes beyond simply denouncing mass media as a form of manipulation. In the end, the elites fail in their attempts to control the image of Los Angeles. True, they have had an important influence on the local political culture, but the production of meaning, messages, and signs is not an exact science, even for filmmakers and newspaper moguls. The author suggests that perhaps one of the reasons these attempts have failed is due to the contradictions and inconsistencies within the messages put forth by the media. The elite found that a message promoting emulation of the founding fathers and self-made men could lead to active competition against the current established hierarchies. The founders of Los Angeles (and the United States) were radically transforming the political, economic, and social system. This transformation is not what the current established elites wanted to elicit from the masses. They wanted, as Hans Magnus Enzensberger might phrase it, “minimal autonomous activity” (The Consciousness Industry, 1974). Recognizing this, the elites attempted to create a narrative of civic virtue that instills imitation: imitation of a script that reinforces deference to current hierarchies. In a sense, the elite were asking the public to “do what they say, not what they do,” but such contradictions are not lost on the audience. Imitation, of course, only allows the expression of the values and goals of the established system, not the improvement or reform of the system.

Overall, this is a compelling book that provides a new way to look at how rhetoric and images shape political culture. It is a rich narrative of the elites, media, politicians, and citizens of Los Angeles that will be accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in a political theory, an urban politics, or a media course.

The book does have some limitations. Although there are a good number of primary sources cited, such as newspapers, government documents, and speeches, the author relies heavily on secondary sources. Similarly, he has an occasional habit of linking ideas and arguments to historical figures that help his central point without providing any documentation or evidence. For example, he states that “Otis would argue that the U.S. was in a conflict between the forces of freedom, personified by the self-made man, and the threat of slavery at the hands of all opponents of the emulatory struggle for wealth and power” (p. 6), that “Mayer argued that his homespun heroes would show American audiences the way to ethical citizenship” (p. 34), and that “a model of civic excellence, Joe [Friday] was the sort of citizen Parker argued viewers should be like in whatever walk of life they occupied” (p. 78). All of these statements are interesting and highly relevant to the author's thesis but require documentation rather than supposition. In addition, the book covers only a few political actors in Los Angeles history (i.e., Harrison Gray Otis, Louis Mayer, Harry and Jack Warner, William Parker, Daryl Gates, Tom Bradley) which leaves the reader wanting more, but to be fair, this is not a history text. It is a book that is furthering our understanding of the development of political culture, the media, and civic education.