Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 (Americans and the California Dream) [Hardcover]

Kevin Starr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2009 | Series: Americans and the California Dream

A narrative tour de force that combines wide-ranging scholarship with captivating prose, Kevin Starr's acclaimed multi-volume Americans and the California Dream is an unparalleled work of cultural history. In this volume, Starr covers the crucial postwar period--1950 to 1963--when the California we know today first burst into prominence.

Starr brilliantly illuminates the dominant economic, social, and cultural forces in California in these pivotal years. In a powerful blend of telling events, colorful personalities, and insightful analyses, Starr examines such issues as the overnight creation of the postwar California suburb, the rise of Los Angeles as Super City, the reluctant emergence of San Diego as one of the largest cities in the nation, and the decline of political centrism. He explores the Silent Generation and the emergent Boomer youth cult, the Beats and the Hollywood "Rat Pack," the pervasive influence of Zen Buddhism and other Asian traditions in art and design, the rise of the University of California and the emergence of California itself as a utopia of higher education, the cooling of West Coast jazz, freeway and water projects of heroic magnitude, outdoor life and the beginnings of the environmental movement. More broadly, he shows how California not only became the most populous state in the Union, but in fact evolved into a mega-state en route to becoming the global commonwealth it is today.

Golden Dreams continues an epic series that has been widely recognized for its signal contribution to the history of American culture in California. It is a book that transcends its stated subject to offer a wealth of insight into the growth of the Sun Belt and the West and indeed the dramatic transformation of America itself in these pivotal years following the Second World War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This volume concludes Starr's unprecedented seven-volume history of a single American state. While out of chronological order (Starr covered the period 1990–2003 in Coast of Dreams) and often ranging far beyond the book's stated dates, this final volume is of the same high quality as the previous ones: spirited in style, comprehensive and long. Starr covers a broad range of subjects: demography, water, freeways, politics, culture, the state's major cities, race relations. As in all other volumes, he hangs his story on sketches of many of California's often larger-than-life individuals, among them Buffy Chandler, Cardinal McIntyre, Pat Brown, Dave Brubeck, Clark Kerr, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Herb Caen. But too often biography substitutes for analysis. Letting others speak for him, Starr rarely lets an authorial voice shine through or a critical stance intrude. The result is wonderfully readable descriptive history, but not a history that leaves readers with a fresh take on the Golden State as a whole. That's a pity, for no one knows more about California than Starr. We could have used at least his concluding thoughts on the state's past and future. 30 b&w photos. (July)
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Review

"With the publication of Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963, Kevin Starr has completed his transformation from the state's greatest historian to its indispensable one.... His eight-volume series, published under the umbrella title Americans and the California Dream, constitutes as comprehensive a social, political, ethnographic, cultural and philosophical history as any state is ever likely to achieve. It was conceived in dazzling ambition and masterfully executed. The author's scholarship and erudition animate each volume without once falling into the trap of self-regard. It is, in sum, an achievement made even more remarkable by the fact that it is wonderfully readable."--Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"This final volume is of the same high quality as the previous ones: spirited in style... [a] wonderfully readable descriptive history...."--Publishers Weekly

"Monumental."--Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic

"Starr's masterly accounts of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco."--The Economist

"Who besides Kevin Starr could cover the entire social, economic, political and artistic history of California during the era and somehow extrapolate it into an engaging, dazzling account of the emerging American Century."--Phyllis Filiberti Butler, San Francisco Chronicle

"Starr's magnum opus-eight volumes to date, and still not complete- will endure the test of years, not least for its heft and its dogged ambition. Students of California history-of the history of the American West generally-have no choice but to confront this impressive oeuvre penned over decades by the State Librarian of California Emeritus, now a professor at the University of Southern California."--Books & Culture

"Kevin Starr's Golden Dreams...is marvellously cohesive and concise, and Starr's engaging style makes it a pleasure to read." --Times Literary Supplement Online

"Without parallel. Each volume in the series demonstrates again that this is one of the commanding achievements of American letters, and of the state he celebrates." --Western American Literature

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 564 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (July 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195153774
• ISBN-13: 978-0195153774
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #626,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars When California was cool August 29, 2009

By Jay C. Smith

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 (Americans and the California Dream)
Kevin Starr is himself a wondrous California resource. He seems to know all things California and this is the eighth volume in his "Americans and the California Dream" series. Opening it I felt like I was entering one of those latter-day off-beat supermarkets originating in the Golden State, encountering a cornucopia and expecting to be surprised by some of what I might find (or not). I was not disappointed.

Starr has a scholar's command of the material and a home-boy's affection for his subject. His great strength is as a compiler, distiller, and packager of the extensive historical literature on the state. This particular volume covers his own formative years (he is a San Francisco native) and it shows, favorably.

Golden Dreams is fact-jammed, but Starr renders it palatable by typically telling us just enough to humanize each of hundreds of persons whom he has selected to portray the culture, society, and politics of this period. Fortunately for both the author and his readers, California seems to have long had more than its share of memorable characters. Wisely, he does not adhere strictly to the 1950-1963 time boundaries when it is helpful to have retrospective context or to project toward later consequences.

The book includes five major sections covering suburbanization, the major cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego), politics and public works, selected aspects of culture, and what Starr calls dissenting opinions (primarily environmental and civil rights issues). The "Politics and Public Works" section, for example, ably documents how California prosperity was built on public investment, especially in the defense and aerospace industries, highways, water works, and higher education.

Certain imperfections are noticeable but tolerable in this expansive survey. Some readers may question the relative emphases Starr (or his editor) gives to certain life and culture topics. For example, there is an entire chapter on San Francisco regional literature, which in this context seems inordinately inclusive of many comparatively minor writers. So too, four pages on Tiki restaurants seem too much. On the other hand, I enjoyed his chapter on jazz (others may not, but I am a fan), and I felt it justified to balance West Coast contributions against those of New York, New Orleans, and Chicago, for instance.

As in one of the new-fangled California supermarkets, a few staples are missing. Surprisingly, Starr does not give sufficient attention to certain of the state's major industries. While he discusses the water and migrant labor politics of agriculture, we are mostly left to wonder about its variety, technologies, transformations, environmental impacts, and contribution to the state's economy. And although he identifies particular films and television shows and their stars to support various points throughout, he offers no systematic discussion of these industries as businesses during this period. Nor does he assess at any length how the advent of television viewing altered the lives of not just Californians, but Americans generally.

Starr's coverage overwhelmingly focuses on Southern California and the Bay Area, fair enough based on the population distribution. However, the counties north of Marin and Sonoma are left out altogether (except for occasional mention in relation to statewide political issues), the Central Valley receives very little attention, and Sacramento is noted only as a place where politics are done and Joan Didion grew-up.

On the whole, however, Golden Dreams is not only highly engaging, it serves as a good reminder of how much certain things changed both during the fifties and since. San Francisco, for example, was still "fundamentally conservative politically," although elements had long been "liberal in matters of private life." I had forgotten that the Republican national conventions in both 1956 and 1964 were in San Francisco (what could be more far-fetched today?).

Starr believes that "the national experience and the California experience became, increasingly, a converging phenomenon" in this period. California certainly exercised a major influence on the broader popular culture. Back then this Midwestern youth, and virtually all of my peers as I recall, thought California was the place to be. Surely, however, the state's image was idealized - it was not so golden for many groups, especially the poor.

As development has overcome parts of the state and as public investment now unravels the Golden State is less the model for dreams and emulation that it was in the fifties. Nevertheless, most readers are likely to be highly appreciative of Starr's satisfying re-creation of that time and place. I would look forward to his volume to cover the remaining period in this series, 1964 to 1989, if indeed one is forthcoming.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars History "lite" and fun. August 27, 2009

By W. Tuohy

Format:Hardcover

This is the latest in the author's outstanding and unique survey of California history. He identifies key themes and trends in culture, demographics, politics, etc., then organizes his presentations around people central to those events and trends. Often this reads like a gossip column. But all in all this approach makes the book (and its predecessors) interesting and readable.

To persons deemed most central to the events and trends, the author dedicates paragraphs and sometimes pages. Others (and their haunts, as in clubs, etc.) are mentioned, often in long, encyclopedic lists (so-and-so in Burbank, so-and-so in LA, so-and-so in San Francisco, etc.). This style characterizes most sections of the book. Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions receive most of the author's attention, especially in relation to the arts and intellectual life more generally.

Note the opening to the previous paragraph: "persons deemed most central..." Herein lies something of an issue. Starr is doing the "deeming," that is, conveying a sense of cause and effect for the various cases. Fine, but he does not really (in depth, with careful analysis) back up these choices/attributions of cause. In the words of the very thoughtful Publishers Weekly review cited by Amazon, "too often biography subsitutes for analysis." This is why I headed my own review as "lite," and only gave it 4 stars.

Like one of the previous reviewers, I found factual errors, perhaps in part deriving from the author's desire to jam pack the book with names and putative "facts." In any case, they don't spoil the overall effect, and do (as with gossip) spice up the tales.

I highly recommend the Amazon reviews of another Starr book - The Dream Endures - for insightful criticism of this author's approach. They probe much deeper than my brief comments into aspects of Starr's analyses.

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Someone didn't proof read very well July 15, 2009

By La BugZ

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've read all of the other volumes of Mr. Starr's history of California and think for the most part they are quite fascinating and have a knack for giving forth little known facts as well as well known ones in a way that is not banal, but fresh and interesting. But I have been appalled by the number of errors in spelling: 'Liseux' for Lisieux; 'Glen Rowell' for Galen Rowell; 'Tehema County' for Tehama County. There were others but why belabor a point? The problem with this kind of error occurring is that is challenges the credibility of the writing. For example, I thought I'd read it wrong except that I hadn't, that in Mr. Starr's book California he gave the year of the Moscone-Milk murder as 1979 and it having been such a monumental event in the lives of most northern Californians, the date was 1978. I gave the book away as I didn't want to face any more such errors which should not have happened. Nonetheless, there was much to be learned from this volume and all of the volumes on the history of the state.