Perpetuating the California Mythology of Progress

James Steele is Professor at the University of Southern California with both BA and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from USC in Urban Planning. He has written over 35 books on architecture focusing on both Southern California and the Middle East, where he previously taught. Steele is Director of History-Theory at the USC School of Architecture, as well as Director of the School's Foreign Studies Program in Asia, which he founded in 1998. The Asia Program, based at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, focuses on the design and construction of schools in underdeveloped parts of Southeast Asia.