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. This
is the seventh volume in Kevin Starr's widely acclaimed and
monumental history of California-Americans and the California
Dream. It covers the crucial postwar period-1950 to 1963-when much
of what has become California as we know it today was brought into
existence. As in previous volumes, Starr brilliantly illuminates
the dominant economic, social, and cultural forces in California in
these years. Among the topics discussed are the suburbanization of
California, with emphasis on the San Fernando Valley, Orange
County, the San Francisco Peninsula, and Marin County; life style
and the novels that reflected it; the rise of San Diego; the
"Golden Age of San Francisco," with its cultural roots and
influential minorities; Los Angeles, the Chandlers, the Music
Center, the Dodgers, and its special lifestyle; defense industries;
Cold War "think tanks," Palo Alto and the creation of the
transistor and later the computer industry; the new California
"Multiversity" and its director, Clark Kerr; public works, with
special emphasis on the burgeoning of freeways; and cultural events
and happenings, including jazz, the "Beats," the Hollywood "rat
pack" (Sinatra and friends) and the flowering of Palm Springs,
youth culture, and "Zen California."
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