Michael R. Adamson, PhD (UC Santa Barbara, 2000), has taught history at a number of institutions, most recently at California State University, and is an independent historical consultant. His research focuses on California business and urban history, natural resource development in the West, and US foreign economic policy. In 2006-2007 and 2008-2009, he was a fellow at the Huntington Library, where he researched the career of Ralph B. Lloyd, a southern California oil man and commercial real estate developer in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. His essays have appeared in American Sociological...