Customer Reviews

Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003, the 7th installment of Kevin Starr's "Americans and the California Dream" series, brings the great California story through the 1990s and into the first years of the 21st century. He begins by taking a look at how some of California's enduring themes took shape during this period (things like leading the way and dabbling in unconventional religion), moves next to a look at the ways the California dream went bad during the early 1990s, continues by looking at its resurrection during the late 1990s, and then closes the book with a discussion of how, in the early years of the new millennium, the state showed signs of returning to the dark days that began this period.

Earthquakes, fire and flood continued to roll through with alarming regularity during these years, and crime continued to sail up, up, and away, most of it involving drugs, guns and gangs. Immigrants from around the globe continued to pour in during these years, too, and their coming to precipitate clashes with the state's existing residents on issues ranging from health care and welfare to childhood education and equal opportunity in the workplace. But despite these clashes, one thing was clear: the ethnic face of California was changing and a new generation of Californians was determined to make a place for itself amidst the state's existing population. No matter how difficult that process might turn out to be, it was one that could be counted on to continue.

As always with a book by Kevin Starr, the sheer breadth of erudition is impressive, and for those who like this kind of thing of thing (which I do), his soon-to-be-released Finding the Dream: California, 1950-1963 can be expected to provide more of the same. If you like this book, you will also like Carl Palm's The Great California Story: Real-Life Roots of an American Legend (2004). The Palm book explores the question of just what it is that makes California so different from other places and puts the realities of California life during the late 20th and early 21st centuries within the larger context of the state's ever-evolving world image as place very much unlike other places.

In Americans and the California Dream Kevin Starr began a project of immense dimensions that would have intimidated persons with less vision. He wanted to detail the culture of California and explain what makes us different from the rest of the country to his fellow Californians as well as anyone else who had interest. Over that volume and the subsequent ones he gave us both an interesting history and a great synthesis of what makes California different.

This is the concluding volume of the series which brings his original vision back to the present. That is a tough task to do - but Kevin rises to the mission. In an unvarnished fashion he presents the contradictions of the current California - but he renews the argument that he did in the first volume that we who live here - in the most diverse of the 50 states (economically, culturally, ethnically and believe it or not even politically!) have a set of aspirations and interests that make us different.

We rise, and fall, in different proportions to the rest of the country. We have been best with a series of former and current perils and yet remain in a mindset that is fundamentally different. This book presents clearly a lot of information about the highs and lows we have lived through in the last fifteen years.

Among the volumes in this series, each has presented a mix of history and reflection - but this with the first, is the most provocative and challenging. It is a good read - not to be rushed but to be savored!

Kevin Starr's book, Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003, provides much interesting material on the recent history of California, but there is also much to disagree with. In particular, the book applies a double standard to racial and immigration issues in California. Remarks that demean the United States are often quoted approvingly or without comment, but those that express concern about the rising tide of illegal immigration in the state or that attempt to protect American jobs are condemned as racist or at least insensitive.
An example of this double standard is the depiction of the behavior of a crowd during a soccer match between Mexico and the United States on February 15, 1998, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Before the match, according to Starr, the largely Mexican crowd drowned out the American National Anthem and pelted American players with bottles, fruit rinds, etc. This is simply dismissed as "... yet another disconnect, in which people could look at the same matter in mutually incomprehensible ways." (p. 193) However, if the roles were reversed, if American fans had drowned out the Mexican National Anthem with hisses and boos and thrown bottles and fruit rinds at the Mexican players, they would undoubtedly have been condemned as racists.
On the other hand, opposition to leaf blowers is portrayed as "cultural warfare" between affluent Anglos and Asians on the one hand and Latinos on the other (pp. 193-194). This implies that the residents' opposition is not to the leaf blowers themselves but to those using them, and that if the leaf blowers were operated by, say, Lithuanians or Czechs, there would be no objection.
Again, reaction to Sumitomo Corporation's successful bid to build rail cars in Los Angeles is portrayed as part of the "anti-Japanese feeling" or "Japan bashing" that arose in the early 1990s, as was the initiative on the June 1992 ballot granting most favored nation status to locally produced goods and services (pp. 286-287). On the other hand, the statement by the speaker of the lower house of the Japanese diet, Yoshio Sakurauchi, that "...the root of America's economic troubles lay in its lazy and illiterate workforce," (p. 287) is cited without comment. If an American official had made a similar statement about the workforce of Japan, Mexico, or any other country, the official would undoubtedly be condemned as a racist.
In reality, the majority of Southern Californians opposed the choice of Sumitomo not because of any animus they felt toward the Japanese, but out of a desire that the jobs would go to American citizens, who sorely needed them during a severe recession.
The book also casts aspersions on Morris Knudsen, an American firm that lost the bid to Sumitomo, by claiming that "... its engineering expertise [had been] criticized." (p. 287) But the book never states who had made the criticism or even what the criticism was. The reader is thus unable to determine whether this criticism was justified or not, and is left with the impression that Morris Knudsen was less qualified than Sumitomo and that opposition to Sumitomo was due solely to anti-Japanese feeling.
The book cites approvingly Alexander Cockburn's remark that the Sierra Club's attempt to pass a referendum on immigration was "'... something much more sinister and dangerous than [a Klan rally]... a middle-class, do-gooder movement with public credentials paddling in the most polluted political waters of American political life.'" (p. 183) Thus, those who wish to protect America's borders and thus the country are portrayed as worse than the Ku Klux Klan, and thus racist. This is the primary tactic that those who are in favor of illegal immigration use to stifle opposition to it, and it seems incredible that the former Librarian of the State of California would resort to this tactic.
Finally, Starr states that, "...California was becoming once again Mexico, and Los Angeles once again a ranking Mexican city." (p.293) Mr. Starr needs to be reminded that whatever its ethnic composition, California is in reality the thirty-first state of the United States, and furthermore that one cannot maintain an adherence to multiculturalism if one insists that California is of only one ethnic group.

"Coast of Dreams" is a rich and much-discussed mixture of journalism and California history-written by a master of both disciplines, Dr. Kevin Starr. Here are some reactions to Starr's latest book about California. [Compiled by Kenneth Press Nemzer, Tiburon, California]

"Coast of Dreams" is for anyone fascinated by the issues of our time. The book's aim is not to resolve the issues, but to enrich the debate.

"Journalism is history in a hurry," as Kevin Starr says. His book shows that history can be journalism in patient mode.

With a columnist's style, Dr. Starr reviews the past 14 years through vivid snapshots of California life.

Dr. Starr, a celebrated Professor, adds to his narrative an overlay of interpretation. His evident goal is not to be authoritative-the events are too recent for that-but to evoke discussion.

Like a Sierra prospector, the author pulls nuggets of history from his mind's huge reserve of data-nuggets that add texture and gravitas to the book.

Dr. Starr peppers each passage with references to prominent Californians. With those names as handles, each reader can relate the story to his/her own experience.

Starr writes with the insight of one who has known the characters, in his careers as historian, columnist, and State Librarian (now Emeritus).

One of Dr. Starr's techniques is to describe California scenes in pairs, side-by-side. He offers familiar urban contrasts like SF and LA, but also innovative pairings-such as Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, two faces of opulence in repose.

Coast of Dreams combines the depth of history with the liveliness of a daily column. Those who read it will be glad they did.