Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (Americans and the California Dream)

by Kevin Starr (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0195042344

ISBN-10: 0195042344

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This second volume in Kevin Starr's passionate and ambitious cultural history of the Golden State focuses on the turn-of-the-century years and the emergence of Southern California as a regional culture in its own right. "How hauntingly beautiful, how replete with lost possibilities, seems
that Southern California of two and three generations ago, now that a dramatically diferent society has emerged in its place," writes Starr.

As he recreates the "lost California," Starr examines the rich variety of elements that figured in the growth of the Southern California way of life: the Spanish/Mexican roots, the fertile land, the Mediterranean-like climate, the special styles in architecture, the rise of Hollywood. He gives us a
broad array of engaging (and often eccentric) characters: from Harrision Gray Otis to Helen Hunt Jackson to Cecil B. DeMille. Whether discussing the growth of winemaking or the burgeoning of reform movements, Starr keeps his central theme in sharp focus: how Californians defined their identity to
themselves and to the nation.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

California seems to have been the source of almost every cultural trend that defines modern America--often in contradictory ways. Consider the waves of conservative and progressive politics, self-love and selflessness, sushi and Big Macs, great literature, and banal films. Inventing the Dream traces this extraordinary state through the early years of the 20th century, when Americans began to flock westward and Los Angeles grew from a town of 50,000 to a large city of 320,000 in justa couple of decades. By 1926, Starr writes, Hollywood was the United States' fifth-largest industry, grossing $1.5 billion a year and accounting for 90 percent of the world's films--and, of course, changing the values of whole cultures. This is a fine work of historical reconstruction, joining Starr's other well-regarded works of Californiana.

Review

"In this robust sequel to Americans and the California Dream (1973), Starr traces how Southern Californians 'defined their region to themselves and to others in the 1850-1920 period'....[Starr] persuasively presents the cultural ingredients that have made Southern California a symbol of America's
continuing with health, the good life, youth, sexual vitality, and entrepreneurial success."--Cultural Information Service

"An achievement deserving respect and certain to give lasting value."--California History

"[Starr] once more provides intellectual exploration at its best."--Pacific Historical Review

"Starr has written the best explanation yet of why the land south of Tehachapi is now the country's model and pace-setter."--Books of the Southwest

"A delightful and extremely thorough chronicle of a state that is almost a mythical kingdom. Nobody who is interested in any of the intellectual currents of American history, or of the roots of twentieth (perhaps even twenty-first) century thought can fail to enjoy this."--St. Louis
Post-Dispatch

"Having already given us Americans and the California Dream, Kevin Starr bids fair to become the foremost chronicler of that often fabulous region, imposing upon the dramatic elements of California history a novelist's imagination and a cosmopolitan and sophisticated intelligence."--Philadelphia
Inquirer

"An excellent book...[V]ividly written, thoroughly researched, rich in details and alive with interesting, and sometimes incredible people."--Los Angeles Times

"Readable and intelligent."--The New Yorker

"An impressive book...The grasp is sure, the learning awesome. The prose...has a drive that carries cities and industries and people and decades headlong toward their manifest destiny."--The New York Times

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (December 4, 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195042344
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195042344
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1500L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.39 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.96 x 6.24 x 0.98 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #597 in Journalism
- #2,037 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)
- #4,322 in United States History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
21 ratings

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2 star		7%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Frankie

If you value history this is a must read!

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019

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I am a bit of a slower reader so this took me a good while to read BUT....it was a page turner full of details that a presented in very engaging ways. I was awed by his depth and breadth of knowledge, grasp of both a micro and macro view of history and how entertaining it was from start to finish. Being born and raised in Ca. and having lived in many different parts of the state, I finally have an understanding of how it all happened, how it came together, who the players where and the outside forces and influences. Amazingly well done. BRAVO!!

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Sam Weller

Hopefully not inventing the facts.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2010

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"Inventing the Dream" offers a comprehensive view of California from the 1850's to the Progressive Era. Generous coverage of Southern California reveals great stories in some of its most influential characters that helped turn a pristine landscape into a booming economy and point of destination for Easterners in search of new challenges and endless opportunities.

Hollywood and the film industry serve as the emphasis for this book's final chapters. And there is in these ending chapters one story of Olive Thomas that I wonder about. In fact checking his account of her death, I found that most versions of her untimely death at the early age of twenty-five are attributed to her accidentally ingesting a bottle of mercury bichloride that was prescribed for her husband's bout with syphilis. Mr. Starr claims that she committed suicide and that it was most likely linked to an overdose of heroin. All accounts mention heavy drug use, however, mostly cocaine. Also, Mr. Starr seems to infer that the suicidal theory is one that was sanctioned by the Parisian police at that time, when again most accounts hold that the police determined that the death was accidental.

One person found this helpful

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S. Pactor

Should Be Called a History of Southern California

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2004

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... Not that I have a problem with that. This is the second volume in Starr's definitive six volume history of California. Starr writes history that combines straight forward "who, what, when" facts with digressions into literary criticism and pyschologlogical speculation. This is a blend that is quite apt for California, and I have found volume one and two to be rewarding.
Starr (who is also the state librarian for California) also includes excellent essays on his sources for each chapter, which makes further reading a snap! For example, after reading his first volume "Americans and the Californian Dream", I read "The Octopus" by Frank Norris and "Two Years Before the Mast" by Dana.
This book covers roughly the same time period as the first volume, and there is some overlap. After all, there wasn't THAT much going on in California from 1850 to 1900. However, while the first volume focuses almost totally on Northern California, this volume focuses almost totally on Southern California.
And by Southern California, I mean Los Angeles, with a little bit of Riverside thrown in. As a native of San Francisco and a current resident of San Diego, I simply couldn't believe at how little San Diego county came in for mention. Again, I'm hesitant to label this as a criticism, since I did love the book, but I just wonder what San Diego did (or didn't do) to get left out.
Starr spends ample time covering pre-American Southern California history. He charts the development of California agriculture, talks about the "Craftsman" movement and, as his wont, spends entire chapters talking about the artists and boosters of the time. Personally, after reading this book I have resolved to read at least one book of Mary Austin.
Towards the end of this volume Starr dishes out a hefty dose of the history of the Progressive movement in California. His essay on sourcing for this chapter reveals a penchant for the works of more traditional political history writers, and I felt like this chapter was kind of "eh."
His final chapter is on the growth of Hollywood. I don't feel like he adds anything to the voluminous literature on this subject, but hey, this is a survey of California history, and I suppose he had to include it.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. If you are more interested in Southern then Northern California, you may want to skip the first volume and proceed directly to this one.

21 people found this helpful

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Southern California through WASP eyes

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2008

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I love Kevin Starr's books. His multi-volume history of California deserves a Nobel Prize (for Literature) in my opinion, but there is something unique about Kevin Starr that potential readers should know: His heart may be in California (he was born in San Francisco), but his razor sharp mind is clearly in New England (he's a Harvard Ph.D.). Dr. Starr writes California history through the eye lens of a Boston Brahmin. Just like his first book in the series, he's very much concerned with the geographic, religious and (especially) academic pedigree of the important California founders he discusses. He mentions that Charles Fletcher Lummis is a "Harvard Man" what seems like a hundred times in the text, and his very East-coast interests are revealed in the topics he concentrates on the most: the founding of cultural and academic institutions, architecture, literature, religion and geographic origin. This book, as is the case with the absolutely marvelous AMERICANS AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAM, is very much about transplantation of European civilization from East to West.

Now, if you like that sort of thing, you'll love this book. Being a transplant from the East myself, I happen to like it, and I think this book is to Los Angeles what his earlier book is to San Francisco: The story of how restless, eccentric and talented Easterners came to the harsh, beautiful West and, in the process, disrupted their European sensibilities and invented a new type of civilization. It's a fascinating story, told with brilliant insight by this remarkable historian, with a truly profound lack of political subjectivity. It's rare to find this type of history being written today.

Dr. Starr's narrative skill is unmatched. Really. He has the pen of an Arthur Schlesinger or a Gordon Wood, without the political agenda and with a somewhat more plodding interest in dates, names and places akin to Henry Adams or Daniel Boorstin. His knowledge of the entire range of California history, from geographic formation to "The Governator" is so complete that Daniel Boorstin seems like an Amateur in comparison. Pun intended.

14 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

The man on the street.

An over-reliance on compiling bare facts stymies the authors overall intent to provide an historical narrative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2017

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I like the subject matter but I find Mr. Starr's [R.I.P.] style of writing very frustrating. He never seems to be able to tell which details are pertinent to his narrative and which are not. In this way he overloads the reader with often irrelevant facts and minor details that block the flow of the theme or point which he is trying to develop. This book is extremely well researched but greater self-editing on the authors part would have made the historical account clearer amongst the factual milieu.

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Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (Americans and the California Dream)

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