The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans and the California Dream)
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List Price: $60.00 $60.00 Oxford University Press, USA Kevin Starr
Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 979.4052EAN: 9780195100792ISBN: 0195100794Label: Oxford University Press, USAManufacturer: Oxford University Press, USANumber Of Items: 1Number Of Pages: 512Publication Date: 1997-05-08Publisher: Oxford University Press, USAStudio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Reviews: Starr previously chronicled how Californians absorbed the thousand natural shocks of the Great Depression--unemployment, strikes, Communist agitation, reactionary conspiracies--in Endangered Dreams, the fourth volume of his classic history of California. In The Dream Endures, Starr reveals the other side of the picture, examining the newly important places where the good life flourished, 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 went and changed his view of the universe), and college towns like Berkeley. We read about the rich urban life of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in newly important communities like Carmel and San Simeon, the home of William Randolph Hearst, where, each Thursday afternoon, automobiles packed with Hollywood celebrities would arrive from Southern California for the long weekend at Hearst Castle.
The 1930s were the heyday of the Hollywood studios, and Starr brilliantly captures Hollywood films and the society that surrounded the studios. Starr offers an astute discussion of the European refugees who arrived in Hollywood during the period: prominent European film actors and artists and the creative refugees who were drawn to Hollywood and Southern California in these years--Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Man Ray, Bertolt Brecht, Christopher Isherwood, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Mann, and Franz Werfel. Starr gives a fascinating account of how many of them attempted to recreate their European world in California and how others, like Samuel Goldwyn, provided stories and dreams for their adopted nation. Starr reserves his greatest attention and most memorable writing for San Francisco. For Starr, despite the city's beauty and commercial importance, San Francisco's most important achievement was the sense of well-being it conferred on its citizens. It was a city that "magically belonged to everyone."
Whether discussing photographers like Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, "hard-boiled fiction" writers, or the new breed of female star--Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, and the improbable Mae West--The Dream Endures is a brilliant social and cultural history--in many ways the most far-reaching and important of Starr's California books.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: The Dream EnduresComment: 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.Customer Rating: Summary: More of the same, which is a good thingComment: 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.Customer Rating: Summary: Key Los Angeles HistoryComment: 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.
