Raphael Sonenshein
American professor of political science
Raphael J. Sonenshein (born November 10, 1949, in Nutley, New Jersey) is Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles and was previously a professor of political science at California State University, Fullerton, where he also served as chairman of the department. An instructor at California State University, Fullerton from 1982 to 2012, Sonenshein holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Princeton University and a doctorate in political science from Yale University. His books, Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles and The City at Stake: Secession, Reform, and the Battle for Los Angeles detail the political history of Los Angeles in the last fifty years. He is currently working on a third book. Sonenshein recently returned to the United States after completing a semester teaching in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship. Sonenshein recently transferred to California State University, Los Angeles, where he was appointed Executive Director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs.
He was executive director of the Los Angeles Appointed Charter Reform Commission, which, along with the Los Angeles Elected Charter Reform Commission that operated simultaneously and with the same mandate, created a "unified charter" proposal for the ballot that provided the first successful and comprehensive update to the city's 1925 charter. The charter measure achieved a 60 percent approval at the polls in June 1999. It boosted the mayor's power and led to the creation of neighborhood councils and area planning commissions.
He is a nephew of retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Nathan Sonenshein.
“Raphael Sonenshein” enters the record as american professor of political science. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Raphael, Sonenshein and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Raphael Sonenshein” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Raphael, Sonenshein and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7294013. VIAF identifies the subject as 113159137. The Library of Congress control number is no90027714. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1982, 2012 and 1925.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Raphael Sonenshein”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Raphael Sonenshein primary sources, Raphael Sonenshein archive and Raphael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Raphael Sonenshein”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Raphael Sonenshein” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.