false 114198 414084 081297753X 9780812977530 28 <![CDATA[California: A History]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174526770m/414084.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174526770s/414084.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/414084.California_A_History 3.62 87
Arguing that America’s most populous state has always been blessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing human diversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph.

For generations, California’s native peoples basked in the abundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to human habitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth century, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving in the region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passed before Spain exerted control over upper California through the chain of missions that stand to this day.

The discovery of gold in January 1848 changed everything. With population increasing exponentially as get-rich-quick dreamers converged from all over the world, California reinvented itself overnight. Starr deftly traces the successive waves of innovation and calamity that have broken over the state since then–the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons and the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the heroic irrigation and transportation projects that have altered the face of the region; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace.

Kevin Starr has devoted his career to the history of his beloved state, but he has never lost his sense of wonder over California’s sheer abundance and peerless variety. This one-volume distillation of a lifetime’s work gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 2005 285385 0679412883 9780679412885 6 <![CDATA[Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173412516m/285385.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173412516s/285385.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/285385.Coast_of_Dreams_California_on_the_Edge_1990_2003 3.33 15 Atlantic Monthly has called “breathtaking”–probes the possible collapse of the California dream in the years 1990—2003. In a series of compelling chapters, Coast of Dreams moves through a variety of topics that show the California of the last decade, when the state was sometimes stumbling, sometimes humbled, but, more often, flourishing with its usual panache.

From gang violence in Los Angeles to the spectacular rise–and equally spectacular fall–of Silicon Valley, from the Northridge earthquake to the recall of Governor Gray Davis, Starr ranges over myriad facts, anecdotes, news stories, personal impressions, and analyses to explore a time of unprecedented upheaval in California. Coast of Dreams describes an exceptional diversity of people, cultures, and values; an economy that mirrors the economic state of the nation; a battlefield where industry and the necessities of infrastructure collide with the inherent demands of a unique and stunning natural environment. It explores California politics (including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election in the 2003 recall), the multifaceted business landscape, and controversial icons such as O. J. Simpson.

“Historians of the future,” Starr writes, “will be able to see with more certainty whether or not the period 1990-2003 was not only the end of one California but the beginning of another”; in the meantime, he gives a picture of the place and time in a book at once sweeping and riveting in its details, deeply informed, engagingly personal, and altogether fascinating.]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 2004 450154 019507260X 9780195072600 7 <![CDATA[Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174875782m/450154.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174875782s/450154.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/450154.Material_Dreams_Southern_California_Through_the_1920s 4.12 16 In a lively and eminently readable narrative, Starr reveals how Los Angeles arose almost defiantly on a site lacking many of the advantages required for urban development, creating itself out of sheer will, the Great Gatsby of American cities. He describes how William Ellsworth Smyth, the Peter the Hermit of the Irrigation Crusade, the self-educated, Irish engineer William Mulholland (who built the main aquaducts to Los Angeles), and George Chaffey (who diverted the Colorado River, transforming desert into the lush Imperial Valley) brought life-supporting water to the arid South. He examines the discovery of oil, the boosters and land developers, the evangelists (such as Bob Shuler, the Methodist Savanarola of Los Angeles, and Aimee Semple McPherson), and countless other colorful figures of the period. There are also fascinating sections on the city's architecture the impact of the automobile on city planning, the Hollywood film community, the L.A. literati, and much more.

By the end of the decade, Los Angeles had tripled in population and become the fifth largest city in the nation. In Material Dreams, Starr captures this explosive growth in a narrative tour de force that combines wide-ranging scholarship with captivating prose.

]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 1990 463173 0195118022 9780195118025 2 <![CDATA[Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964566m/463173.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964566s/463173.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/463173.Endangered_Dreams_The_Great_Depression_in_California 3.92 13 Grapes of Wrath. These newcomers worked in the fields and stores for fifteen cents an hour while Hollywood made movies about their lot, Woody Guthrie sang songs about them, and union organizers tried hard to make a labor-based revolution. The fortunes of these "Okies" is just one of the sweeping topics that Starr, a fine writer and imaginative chronicler, takes on in this book.]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 1997 463169 0195042344 9780195042344 4 <![CDATA[Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964564m/463169.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964564s/463169.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/463169.Inventing_the_Dream_California_Through_the_Progressive_Era 4.27 11 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.]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 1985 196008 0195168976 9780195168976 3 <![CDATA[Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172598218m/196008.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172598218s/196008.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196008.Embattled_Dreams_California_in_War_and_Peace_1940_1950 4.00 11 114198 3.77 182 59 2003 6539321 0195153774 9780195153774 2 <![CDATA[Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255702210m/6539321.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255702210s/6539321.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6539321-golden-dreams 4.40 5 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.
Acclaim for AMERICANS AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAM series
"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 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
"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
"For ambition, narrative drive and breadth of research across the disciplines from culture through politics and demography to agronomy and water management, no recent project of American historical writing comes close to Kevin Starr's mammoth, multi-volume 'Americans and the California Dream'.... It is a magnificent accomplishment."
--David Rieff, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"This is ebullient, nuanced, interdisciplinary history of the grandest kind, drawing parallels and distinctions where perhaps no one ever thought to see them before. Starr's a born storyteller as well, mining a rich seam of anecdotal coal to animate the complex, enigmatic figures of California history.... Starr is an undervalued and irreplaceable public treasure."
--David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 2009 463171 0195157974 9780195157970 1 <![CDATA[The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964565m/463171.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174964565s/463171.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/463171.The_Dream_Endures_California_Enters_the_1940s 4.25 4 114198 3.77 182 59 1997 2659465 0195016440 9780195016444 4 <![CDATA[Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2659465.Americans_and_the_California_Dream_1850_1915 4.75 4 The emergence of California as a regional civilization in the late nineteenth century was far more than a dramatic and colorful chapter in American history. Probing the inner experience of California's formative years, Starr blends fact and historical vision with striking metaphor to re-create the nature of the California dream and reveal its significance as a social, psychological and symbolic enterprise. Commemorative in approach, this totally engaging work shows how the land and the people interacted to form a distinct and fascinating culture. While dramatizing the debate over what California was and what it should be, Starr also exposes the fallacies and contradictions inherent in the dream itself. All the ferment of the state's history is presented here as the citizens themselves lived through it.

]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 1973 630072 0070608806 9780070608801 0 <![CDATA[Land's End]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/630072.Land_s_End 3.00 2 114198 3.77 182 59 1979 6623280 3836502917 9783836502917 0 <![CDATA[Los Angeles, Portrait of a City]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255751134m/6623280.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255751134s/6623280.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6623280-los-angeles-portrait-of-a-city 5.00 1 Rise and Sprawl: How Los Angeles Came To Be


A pictorial history of the world's most enigmatic city



From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis.



Events that made world news including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.



About the editor:

Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.

]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 66997 4.30 171 12 2988817 5.00 1 0 2009 6650220 0 <![CDATA[Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6650220-material-dreams 4.00 1 114198 3.77 182 59 1990 7192340 1890771333 9781890771331 0 <![CDATA[Water and the Shaping of California: A Literary, Political, and Technological Perspective on the Power of Water, and How the Effort to Control It Has Transformed the State]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7192340-water-and-the-shaping-of-california 3.00 1 Water and the Shaping of California presents the natural history of water in California, and explores the forces of nature--flood and drought--and society--gold, grain and growth--that led to the water projects that created the California we know today and the conflict over competing uses.

Water and the Shaping of California features literary works by some of California's best know authors including Mary Austin, Joan Didion, John McPhee, William Saroyan, Gary Snyder, Kevin Starr, and John Steinbeck. Duotone photographs and illustrations along with excerpts from old journals and magazine articles by William Henry Brewer, Clarence King, John Muir, Mark Twain and others paint a picture of the California of yesterday.

Water and the Shaping of California is a large, capacious book, in which water is viewed both intimately and at the same time with an enlarged perspective that enables the reader to come away with a greater sense of the history of the state and the problems and opportunities we face.

]]> 3186678 3.00 1 0 114198 3.77 182 59 2000 3589421 0195100808 9780195100808 0 <![CDATA[Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3589421.Endangered_Dreams_The_Great_Depression_in_California 0.0 0 Grapes of Wrath. These newcomers worked in the fields and stores for fifteen cents an hour while Hollywood made movies about their lot, Woody Guthrie sang songs about them, and union organizers tried hard to make a labor-based revolution. The fortunes of these "Okies" is just one of the sweeping topics that Starr, a fine writer and imaginative chronicler, takes on in this book.]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 1996 3833171 0929722264 9780929722269 0 <![CDATA[Rise of Los Angeles As an American Bibliographical Center (The 1988 Coulter lecture)]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3833171.Rise_of_Los_Angeles_As_an_American_Bibliographical_Center 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1989 5098109 0789300044 9780789300041 0 <![CDATA[San Francisco (The Magnificent Great Cities Series)]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5098109.San_Francisco 0.0 0
Visalli has explored the financial district, its skyline punctuated with skyscrapers such as the Bank One of America and Transamerica buildings; Chinatown and the Japanese community, Ginza West, where East meets West in a medley of pagodas, antique stores, and exotic foods; historical San Francisco, with its nineteenth-century Victorian homes and refurbished developments, including the Cannery and Ghiradelli Square; and beautiful Golden Gate Park, teeming with activities as diverse as opera and kiteflying. Seaside cliffs, zigzag streets, intimate restaurants, smoke-filled night spots, public gardens, and cultural institutions--Visalli has photographed them all in varying light and weather for visitors and natives alike.

An essential seaport, San Francisco has become a world city, despite its small size and population. A crossroads between America and the East, it is a city of diverse cultures, peoples, and lifestyles. In this volume Santi Visalli brings together the historical and topical, creating a lasting tribute to this pearl of the Pacific Rim, San Francisco.
</div>]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 542941 4.00 2 1 1995 2438703 0917493303 9780917493300 0 <![CDATA[Circles of Influence: Impressionism to Modernism in Southern California Art, 1910-1930]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2438703.Circles_of_Influence_Impressionism_to_Modernism_in_Southern_California_Art_1910_1930 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 507592 0.0 0 0 2000 2925393 0195058186 9780195058185 0 <![CDATA[The Dream Endures: California Through the Great Depression]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2925393.The_Dream_Endures_California_Through_the_Great_Depression 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1996 6656252 0736659773 9780736659772 0 <![CDATA[Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression In California Part 2 of 2]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6656252-endangered-dreams 0.0 0 (4th in Starr's "HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA" Series)

The Golden State has always seemed to be a place where the hopes and fears of the American dream have been played out in a bigger and bolder way. And no one has done more to capture this epic story than Kevin Starr, in his acclaimed series of gripping social and cultural history. Now, Starr carries his account into the 1930s, when the political extremes that threatened so much of the Depression-ravaged world loomed large across the California landscape. In capturing the powerful forces that swept the state during the 1930s, Starr weaves an insightful analysis into his narrative fabric. Out of a shattered decade of economic and social dislocation, he constructs a coherent whole and a mirror for understanding our own time.

"...a fine writer and imaginative chronicler..." (Amazon.com)

]]> 114198 3.77 182 59 94049 3.47 19 9 2000 7184652 0195124375 9780195124378 0 <![CDATA[Embattled Dreams]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7184652-embattled-dreams 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1902 5608449 1887451021 9781887451024 0 <![CDATA[Over California]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5608449.Over_California 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1995 1598736 0911221174 9780911221176 0 <![CDATA[Sunset Magazine, a Century of Western Living, 1898-1998 : Historical Portraits and a Chronological Bibliography of Selected Topics]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185680770m/1598736.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185680770s/1598736.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1598736.Sunset_Magazine_a_Century_of_Western_Living_1898_1998_Historical_Portraits_and_a_Chronological_Bibliography_of_Selected_Topics 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1998 4324289 1871349443 9781871349443 0 <![CDATA[The Tote Guide to Horseracing and Betting]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4324289.The_Tote_Guide_to_Horseracing_and_Betting 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1999 6676839 0879050837 9780879050832 0 <![CDATA[Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6676839-americans-and-the-california-dream-1850-1915 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1982 4043804 0002237032 9780002237031 0 <![CDATA[Over California]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4043804.Over_California 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1992 3698901 0879051000 9780879051006 0 <![CDATA[California!]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3698901.California_ 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1980 6563947 0 <![CDATA[Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6563947-embattled-dreams 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 2002 6628287 0 <![CDATA[Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6628287-americans-and-the-california-dream-1850-1915 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1973 2259134 0195214366 9780195214369 0 <![CDATA[Kevin Starr's 5-volume History of California: Americans and the California Dream]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2259134.Kevin_Starr_s_5_volume_History_of_California_Americans_and_the_California_Dream 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1997 333877 3823854631 9783823854630 0 <![CDATA[Kalifornien. Pop-up- Buch.]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173836064m/333877.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173836064s/333877.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/333877.Kalifornien_Pop_up_Buch_ 0.0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 11585 4.37 161 32 191358 4.20 5 1 2001 2228200 1890449210 9781890449216 0 <![CDATA[Sacred Spaces]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2228200.Sacred_Spaces 0.0 0 800851 0.0 0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 385979 0.0 0 0 2004 1630011 0899511066 9780899511061 0 <![CDATA[Destined for Hollywood: The Art of Dan Sayre Groesbeck]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1630011.Destined_for_Hollywood_The_Art_of_Dan_Sayre_Groesbeck 0.0 0 754269 0.0 0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 171406 5.00 4 1 2001 3106226 0942087097 9780942087093 0 <![CDATA[Hometown San Francisco: Sunny Jim, Phat Willie, & Dave]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3106226.Hometown_San_Francisco_Sunny_Jim_Phat_Willie_Dave 0.0 0 387011 0.0 0 0 114198 3.77 182 59 1994 6242617 0810916088 9780810916081 0 <![CDATA[San Francisco]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6242617.San_Francisco 0.0 0 48119 4.24 17 4 463235 3.50 16 5 66932 3.78 69 18 107476 3.28 60 9 114198 3.77 182 59 207989 5.00 1 1 1985