The Golden Fortress

California's Border War on Dust Bowl Refugees

By: Bill Lascher

Narrated by: Jay Smack

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

In February 1936, Los Angeles police officers drove hundreds of miles to California’s state borders with one mission: turn back anyone deemed too poor to enter.

Myths of the Golden State’s abundance enticed thousands of Americans uprooted by the Depression, but those who created those myths saw only invading criminal “hordes” that they believed just one man could stop: James “Two-Gun” Davis, Los Angeles’ authoritarian police chief.

The Golden Fortress tells the story of Davis’s audacious deployment of hand-picked armed police slamming California’s door on America’s Dust Bowl refugees and Depression-displaced migrants. It depicts the sometimes deadly consequences of law enforcement politicized and weaponized against the poor, even in remote places like Modoc County, where a sheriff’s opposition to the blockade inflamed an already smoldering feud between an itinerant newsman and a publisher obsessed with her California heritage.

Davis, blessed by his city’s ruling business class and fueled by his own wild claims of communist conspiracies undermining America, deployed his “Foreign Legion” to California’s state lines, threatening democracy even as the nation’s cities and rural communities juggled the burdens of economic recovery, migrant aid, and public safety.

©2022 Bill Lascher (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Excellent On Many Levels

This book is well researched and well written. The audio version is also performed well. As a lover of California (indeed U.S.) history, as well as a follower of current events, I love this book. It introduces the us to people and movements that are historic, yet oh-so current, indeed timeless! From the depression era of the 1920s-30s through the early post war (WWII) era of the early 1940s, migrants fleeing poverty stricken states and Dust Bowl conditions (in OK and environs) were deemed "less than" citizens with rights to travel between states, or even to exist within a state like California, without "looking the part" of a "respectable" citizen" (by arbitrary and self-serving standards, no less!). Author Bill Lascher captures the moods, the attitudes, and the experience of so many disparate people from those seeking a new life, to those attempting to maintain the (wealthy) status quo by preventing opportunity seekers from realizing their dreams. This is a very good book, sometimes gritty and sad (as great stories often are), and worth reading by anyone who wants to expand their breadth of knowledge and gain a better understanding of history, events in the news today, and of human nature.

Terrific - a forgotten chapter of CA history

Despite being born and raised in Southern California, I had never heard this audacious story about 1930s interstate migration. The author does a brilliant job of weaving together individual stories from the time with the overall narrative, in addition to drawing parallels with our current border crises.

If you like reading historical non-fiction, this is a great read (or listen!)

Us v. Them

Disclosure: Yes, I am the author's mother. But as he will tell you, I am his harshest critic.

There is much more to The Golden Fortress than its underlying story about how Los Angeles Police Chief James Davis, backed by the business elite of the day, took it upon himself and the police force he commanded to try to keep “undesirables” out of California. The book reminds how dangerous it is when would-be authoritarians lie to advance “us v. them” agendas, especially when business backs the “us” side and the press cheerleads about the dangers “they” pose. I have never been to Modoc County, but it takes little imagination after reading this thoroughly documented tale to recognize that there are Modoc Counties everywhere. The leadership of any community can be coopted by the phony sense of security that Davis proffered if people don’t question what they’re told. The Golden Fortress is a cautionary tale that should be widely read (or, if you prefer, listened to; the audio recording is excellent).

Wide-ranging Insights

Through the lens of the 'bum blockade', the author presents a comprehensive discussion of California and Los Angeles' visions in the 1920s and 1930s, of the rest of the country and themselves. Beginning with the contrast between Los Angeles and Modoc County, the book steadily addresses the use and mechanics of vagrancy laws, Los Angeles' efforts to close itself off, and the rippling effects of decisions made at the California borders during the Great Depression, from effects on the power structure of Depression-era L.A., litigation over the Privileges or Immunities Clause, and a murder at the end. In terms of nits, the assignment of Davis as the villain from the outset was quick, and I would be interested in a book that took a favorable view of his tenure as a counterweight; also, I do not know how well the events in the book correspond to contemporary politics, which is a concern at the start and end of the book. Overall, though, this is an immersive and well narrated discussion of the Golden State in the second quarter of the 20th century and as someone who enjoys stories and histories from that era, I gained a great deal.

Had its high points

The author should have stayed to the history, and not sandwiched the subject with the demonization of modern fellow Americans. Frankly I found his approach disgusting.