Carlsbad: An Unabashed History of the Village by the Sea
By Charles Wesley Orton. Carlsbad: The Rubicon Press, 1987. Photographs. Bibliography. 72 Pages. $6.95 Paperbound.
Charles Wesley Orton's special centennial history of Carlsbad is a very chatty, informal piece. It is not a comprehensive history, with a coherent single narrative, a thesis to develop, or any particular interpretation to suggest. Rather it is a collection of short topical articles about people, places, or events in Carlsbad's past. Most of the articles are by Orton, but some are by other authors and some are reprints from a variety of newspapers. There is no documentation or index, although there is a brief bibliography. Orton has included some very helpful historical photographs (including some not frequently seen by most people), but unfortunately the magazine format also includes advertisements, and it is sometimes hard to separate the historical photographs from the commercial ones. Although fun, this unabashed history is no substitute for Marje Howard-Jones' Seekers of the Spring: A History of Carlsbad (1982).
