The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans and the California Dream) [Paperback]

Kevin Starr (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195157974 | ISBN-13: 978-0195157970 | Publication Date: November 28, 2002

The fifth volume in Starr's classic history of California, The Dream Endures shows how Californians rebounded from the Great Depression to emerge in the 1930s into what is now known as "the good life." Starr illustrates the ways the good life prospered in California--in film, fiction, leisure, and architecture. Starr looks at the newly important places where Californians lived out this sunny lifestyle: areas like Los Angeles (where Hollywood lived), Palm Springs (where Hollywood vacationed), San Diego (where the Navy went), the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (where Einstein changed his view of the universe), and college towns like Berkeley.
"In this, more than any other of Starr's monumental California histories, we see the stirrings of uniqueness in the social and cultural evolution of California. Starr's theme is relevant to all of America and the national destiny."--Neil Morgan, San Diego Union-Tribune
"Enormously sensitive and moving. Social and cultural history doesn't get any better."--San Francisco Chronicle
"In his monumental continuing study of California, Kevin Starr belongs in the company of the best."--Herbert Gold, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The late 1930s and early 1940s introduced to California culture some of the features that still characterize it today, at least in the view of outsiders to the Golden State: surfing, drive-in movie theaters, barbecues, motels, polo shirts, and recreational vehicles. The period brought equally enduring but less superficial changes, too: advances and setbacks alike in race relations, resource management, urban development, and transportation. Kevin Starr continues his multivolume history of California with this deeply learned, always fascinating account of California at the dawn of the modern age, with a cast of characters ranging from the Native American hermit Fig Tree John to violinist Yehudi Menuhin and hardboiled-fiction master Raymond Chandler. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This latest volume of California State Librarian Starr's series (after Endangered Dreams, LJ 10/15/95) revisits the Golden State during the Thirties and focuses on the cultural, geographical, and urban factors that have made "California dreamin'" so attractive to Americans in the last 50 years. Among the dreams are the promise of the good life in resort communities, the cultural diversity of San Francisco, the "horizontality" of Los Angeles, and California's prominence on the Pacific rim. Starr's explanation of artistic, literary, musical, and architectural trends as well as that most uniquely California creation, the movies, gives this book a bright, optimistic quality that differs from the pessimistic view of his previous volume. The author combines rigorous scholarship with colloquial literary expression to give a thorough but easily readable portrait. Highly recommended for California collections.?Mary Ann Parker, Calif. Dept. of Water Res. Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195157974
• ISBN-13: 978-0195157970
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #157,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Key Los Angeles History, June 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans & the California Dream) (Hardcover)

A great introduction to So Cal history with a comprehensive reviw of the whole cultural and historical landscape. Just as important, the writing is quick and entertaining.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More of the same, which is a good thing, October 10, 2005

By 

Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans and the California Dream) (Paperback)

If you've read any of Dr. Starr's California histories, you've got the idea. Generally they're excellent. And if you've read SEVERAL of Dr. Starr's California histories, you'll undoubtedly notice that he has his favorite subjects: Colleges and universities, churches and institutional architecture, preferably Gothic or Spanish Revival. Being a transplanted East Coaster, I like this kind of thing, but I can also see where a dedicated Westie might find it tedious and oh so dry. All of these books come down to basically the same thing: History of California institutions from an Ivy League perspective. Imagine if Henry Adams had lived another 80 years and had written a history of California.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Dream Endures, September 24, 2008

By 

Gryphonisle (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans and the California Dream) (Paperback)

This is the second book in this set I've attempted to read, and having just made another effort at it, I realized why I put it down: The pages are peopled only by the gifted few, the elite, who they knew (but only a brief mention there) and what they did (a snippet in most cases). History is full of books telling of the exploits of kings and generals, and titans of industry, and often they never leave the realm in which the main character lives. This book [series] purports to be a history of California, but where are the other Californians? The rest of us are mentioned by group associations, we're italians in San Francisco if that's how the reference points; we're The Middle Class(es) most of the time, but we're always faceless, a shadow down on the beach, a blur of cars on the street below. The book reads more like the society pages, and while it does manage, every now and then, to evoke California at a specific moment, it does so only briefly, then it's off to the list of names of the now mostly dead (and almost exclusively white) people, breathlessly mentioned so you know... Know what though? I've got a lot of books on California history, some are more entertaining than useful, this one is neither. It's just fluttering recitation of important names. I gave it two stars as at least Mr. Starr can write well enough to read what he's saying and not get distracted by the prose. It's still going to the Goodwill.