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.
