Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915

Americans and the California Dream #1

by Kevin Starr

Examining California's formative years, this innovative study seeks to discover the origins of the California dream and the social, psychological, and symbolic impact it has had not only on Californians but also on the rest of the country.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Westerns, Travel, Research

512 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 1973

About the author

Kevin Starr was an American historian, best-known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "America and the California Dream".

Reviews

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I found fascinating even though it seemed to drag on forever. I worked on it for over two weeks.

I'm a native Californian and this book taught me many new things. The content would have worked very well for the Cultural Geography of California course I took ages ago. The book was first published in 1972. I was surprised and pleased to find the content was quiet honest about many racist and cruel elements in California's past, and how that connected to the very title of the book. The quest to make California American was also often considered part of a manifest destiny against a Catholic dominion. The native peoples were enslaved. The original Mexican landholders found their legal rights ignored, their dominion overrun by squatters, their recourse limited.

The text goes into great depth on the psychology behind the Gold Rush, the founding of San Francisco, early historians of the state, Josiah Royce, John Muir, Jack London, the very self-destructive Bohemian artists and writers of San Francisco and Carmel, the "City Beautiful" movement, the founding of Stanford University, Gertrude Atherton, and the attempt to create California as a new Mediterranean. At almost 500 pages, it digs deep. I appreciated the constant use of primary sources of the period--there is a massive index and bibliography in the back--and I found out about several more books I want to read.

I knew this volume focused on northern California but I was a bit disappointed in how heavily it focused on San Francisco. I had hoped for more on the Central Valley, where I'm from. There were scattered mentions of the Mussel Slough Tragedy (a settler versus railroad face off that ended in death) and Fresno, but not much at all. Starr worked in the roles of women quite often, and the importance of early Mexican settlers like Vallejo, but the Chinese and Japanese were almost totally ignored despite their sizable representation. That really surprised me, especially with the emphasis on San Francisco.

I'll keep this on my shelf as a future reference, but I'll continue to search for better books on this time period in California.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

highly readable telling of the early history of California. covers the Spanish colonial period, the gold rush, the San Francisco earthquake, etc. Starr is clearly a proponent of the "great man" theory of history, i.e. that charismatic, powerful or intelligent individuals are the driver behind behind historical forces, trends and events. as such, his account focuses on a series of biographical sketches of the influential early settlers and leaders of California, from politics, commerce, arts & letters, society in general. to me, this makes any history much more readable and less dry. individuals are much more engaging and interesting to read about than broad collectives.

this is the first in an 8 volume history of the state, which Starr began (with this book) in 1973 and just finished within the last few years. this first volume provides a series of engrossing character studies of the men and women who defined old California, and in doing so creates a detailed backdrop of the social atmosphere that gave rise to the 20th century California we know today. people often refer to California as being "like" another country. this book shows that for much of its early history, it truly was another country, so the place comes by its unique (and often dysfunctional) character honestly. this otherness and the concept of the California dream (for Starr, this is an ideal related to, but distinct from, the American dream) were present at California founding and throughout its development, and continue to define it to this day.

recommended for anyone with an interest in frontier history or history of the American west, or anyone seeking to understand the historical backdrop for California's ongoing social and economic woes.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a native Californian (San Francisco) I read this book after seeing it cited again and again as an excellent entry point for a study of California history.
I was not disappointed. I believe this book is widely acknowledged as a classic in the field of California history, and I certainly wouldn't disagree with that judgment.

Prof. Starr attempts to illuminate the psychology of early California by providing mini-biographies of important California residents. These biographies are linked together by several recurrent themes. It is these themes that provide the thesis (theses?) of the book.

The themes are: The dark side of the optomism which characterizes the "California" personality; the harsh conflict in early times which affected the development of a Californian "civilisation" and the melding of cultures (Mexican and Californian, Northern and Southern) that produced Californian culture.

Starr focuses more on cultural rather then economic or political figures. Starr also shows a fondness for somewhat Freudian explanations for behavior (repressive parents, absent parents, neglectful parents). Given the age of the book (1975) it's hard to quibble with the inclusion of a perspective tilted towards psychological explanation.

On the whole it was a worthwhile read, and not too dense either. Recommended for those interested in the history of California and it's culture.

[Dree · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me 11 months, but I finally finished.

And I am very disappointed. I will not be reading the rest of this series, and am removing another book by the author from my tbr.

In spite of the title of this book, it is not about "Americans and the California Dream." Rather, it is about the elite in California, and what they thought of California, what they wanted it to be, and/or what they dreamed of it being. These were not Americans dreaming a dream and coming to California. These were the people trying to shape California through architecture, literature, education, politics. Thirty of these individuals have biographies within the book--politicians, religious leaders, academics, authors, environmentalist, artists, military men. Almost all men, almost all white.

Starr even admits that the elite are the focus of this book on page 417--"At the core of this dream was the hope for a special relationship to nature. A passion for beautiful California filled the souls of artists and intellectuals of the 1850-1915 period." That is the book he wrote. Unfortunately, I wanted to read the book the title implies--how did the California Dream change from the gold rush through the Civil War, late 19th century recessions, to 1915? How did it relate to the American Dream? Did people find the California Dream? Did friends/relatives follow them? Or did they give up?

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in a series of books Kevin Starr has written on California over the past 30-odd years. Given that these are often dredged up by modern policy-makers and political pundits, I was surprised to discover that this first one is predominately a literary history. It's mainly a series of biographies of California writers along with analysis of their work.

"Writers" is treated broadly though, with everyone from the philosopher Josiah Royce to politician Henry George to preacher Thomas Starr King thrown into the mix. Still, most of these short life-histories are superb. His chapter on Jack London is perhaps the loopiest. London was a socialist who said he is "first of all a white man and only then a Socialist," and who wore rough flannel to fancy dinners that "looked as if it had been specially laundered for the occasion." Others are presented more sympathetically, such as David Starr Jordan, the ebullient and visionary first president of Stanford. Jordan advocated practical education and specialization and encouraged businessmen to participate in the university, a credo that would lead to the Stanford Research Park and Silicon Valley in the 1950s. All the while he, like many of his California contemporaries, held strange semi-eugenic views (he opposed war because he thought it killed off the best of the species).

Starr does clutter this book with too many minor personages and sub-par writers, but luckily he does give the reader a sense of a distinct California literary tradition, something I hadn't even imagined before, one based on outdoorsy courage, rugged good health, combined with a surprising Mediterranean indolence. And luckily he wrote it all before faddish French theorists infected English departments, so its all readable and jargon-free.

[carl theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

i saw an interesting review of 'Golden Dreams California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963'.
upon a bit of research, turns out the author, has been writing a whole series on
Calyfornia , this first one published in 1973.

being cursed with being list oriented, i got inspired or perhaps infatuated to read
the set. i'm most interested in those 20s-60s years, kinda from
birth of hollywood to chinatown to summer of love , but the rules
of reading a list, self inflicted, say i have to start at the beginning, so
while not as thrilled with the earlier era, will go back to 1850.

the art deco covers are cool too.

in this first volume you are introduced to 30 primary shapers of california and a few
dozen more in supporting cast. I particularly liked the chapters on
Jack London's last years in Salinas, and the artists colony in carmel.

the section on the start of Stanford was also particularly interesting,
especially the rise and fall of football. that section could easily
describe the state of college football today.

My copy is the 1973 edition.

[Spiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a history of early California as a history of the intricate shifts of what California meant to those who settled here in the first fifty years after the regrettable discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. Starr also travels back before 1849 to visit the perceptions of pre-Gold Rush California in the writings of such New Englanders as Thomas Larkin and Walter Colton, who urged an accommodation with Californio culture, and Richard Henry Dana, who was much more ambivalent, and viewed the Mexican territory through his own neuroses. Starr focuses on the writings of Thomas Starr King, Josiah Royce, John Muir, and David Starr Jordan, men who saw in California's raw nature an inspiration for a new society; that these visions had but limited influence on the growing state in no way diminishes their grandiosity.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a history of California as a history of the IDEA of California in its pre-American and early American state. This necessarily includes a close examination of the leading religious, scholarly, and artistic figures and movements of the time. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot but found it tough sledding at times. Warning - this is not a basic history of the founding of California as an American possession--this book assumes you already know that--and there were moments indeed when I felt like I wandered into a graduate seminar without having taken the prerequisite classes! But I highly recommend if you like the subject matter.

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Kevin Starr’s Americans and the California Dream very slowly, in small passages and with no sense of pressure over a period of 8 months.
It’s not a chronology of large happenings, but rather a record and Starr’s literary cultural analysis of what others thought and wrote in and about the California of 1850-1915. Starr had, as his vantage point, substantial historical knowledge and a native son’s heart for ferreting out the antecedents of subsequent events and dynamic on-going consequences intended and otherwise.

In Starr’s words from the last page, he selected "acts of definition, moments when vision and event betrayed their interchange, and the aesthetic pattern and moral meaning of social experience became clear. History grants few such occasions.” (P. 444)

I construct a timeline for myself as I read any history. As much information as I am able to retain, dates often escape me. Starr presents his narrative as an ”act of memory” rather than a classic or linear analysis. It might help some readers to read the final page reflections in conjunction with the introduction to avoid what some reviews express as frustration and disappointment to this approach to history.

Any study of people, time and place is best done through the politics, history and literature of the period. Starr’s book is best read as an adjunct to both linear historical documentations and first hand accounts, journals and essays of the time. I have read many of the accounts to which Starr refers with some notable exceptions. I have never been able to read Gertrude Atherton and Starr’s assessment of her outlook helped me understand more clearly why I have resisted both her “history” and her novels. “For the sake of the establishment myth, and for the sake of her own role as a writer in that establishment, Gertrude Atherton did her best to sustain an illusion…”

And then there is a book to which Starr has alerted me that I plan to seek out. California Coastal Trails, a Horseback Ride from Mexico to Oregon, by J. Smeaton Chase, was published in 1913. Mr. Starr says that past, present and future converge in this elegant narrative and he likens it to an elegy and yet Chase shares his hope. In Starr’s words, “ In 1913 California-as-nature yet seemed capable of coping with California-as-history.”( P. 438)

Kevin Starr researched and wrote with hope himself and his work is testament to his belief that commitment to California does not preclude scrutiny, nor does admiration always blind one to her faults. Americans and the California Dream is work to read, but it is a worthwhile work.

[Keith W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Over time, reading this book became more of a chore than a pleasure. The author's aim is to explain and study how intelligent men and women who lived in or spent time in California during the time from 1850 to 1915 viewed the state as it was and for what it might become. A few chapters stand out in my mind but, quite honestly, I found most of them rather boring. Encouragingly, the first two chapters gave the book a good start. In Chapter I, Prof. Starr talked about how tranquil and serene (but perhaps a little boring?) life was during the time of the Spanish and Mexican occupations when the area was lightly populated, and the nature of human existence was very friendly to the marvelous natural environment. In Chapter II, this ideality (a word Starr uses repeatedly) is juxtaposed against the extreme violence and massive environmental devastation of the Gold Rush, making that time seem more repulsive than I ever imagined. Appropriately, Starr then muses about what kind of society California would have become if the Gold Rush had never happened and instead the ideality of California's early mission days had set the lasting pattern and tone for life in the Golden State. To me, the book became dull after that, focusing on the words of men and women of thought and letters we rarely think of anymore if we have ever heard of some of them at all (e.g., George Sterling and Gertrude Atherton). But, to Starr, these lives exemplified different varieties of California experience and gave rise to different points of view that he believed deserved consideration. Despite the dryness of most of these chapters, I was interested in reading about the experiences and thought of Richard Henry Dana, author of "Two Years Before the Mast," and I especially enjoyed the chapter on David Starr Jordan, first president of Stanford University, which should be of special interest to anyone who studied there. Prof. Starr, who was California's State Librarian from 1994 to 2004, became famous for his series of monographs on California's history and I have thought about reading some of them but I am now somewhat reluctant, given my failure to enjoy this first book.

[Augusta Moon]

The gold standard for California history.

[RC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, slightly repetitive, gracefully written, occasionally tending toward tedium. Starr sometimes gets a bit deeper into the weeds on certain topics of limited interest--the founding of Stanford, for example--than a reader looking for a general early cultural history of California might want or expect. That said, an important and necessary book in developing an understanding of the cultural development of California.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am simultaneously reading this book and Elaine Elison's "Wherever ther's a fight". Both are great California history books, but I think are better appreciated with a grounding in the basic timeline and rendition of historical events. "Wherever there's a fight" focuses on civil liberties (as per its title and the author's background w/ the ACLU). This is the "People's History of Calif." I was already knowledgeable about most of the events from my decades long submersion in lefty literature. Starr's book is comprised of lengthy topical essays that are well-written, interesting and cover topics new to me (at least in the depth he vcovers them). However, I regret reading this before Cal. history 101 - Starr references the Bear Flag Rebellion for instance frequently and with the assumption that the facts of the incident are common knowledge. They may be to someone who went to elementary school in Calif., but I'm a little lost. At any rate, I highly recommend Starr's book and look forward to the next volume.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing to recognize before reading this book is that it unabashedly follows the “great man” theory of history. This is NOT a people’s history of California (although later volumes might be). The book was first published in 1973, a different time in intellectual thought. It’s also not meant to be a “comprehensive” history of the state. Facts are assumed to be known. Wikipedia helps a lot here. The book is essentially a sequential series of essays and narratives about influential individuals – almost exclusively white men – who Starr believes made an important imprint in California’s history. Taking the book at face value and recognize it for what it is, I think it is a well written and thoughtful beginning volume to what I hope will turn out to be a worthwhile exploration of the Golden State.

[Paul Dinger]

I did enjoy the book mainly for the stories of Californians. I am a sucker for behind the scenes, and what you thought you know but really didn't books like this. The only fault I can see is that if you aren't aleady familier with the history of CA, this book will be difficult to follow. What makes it readable is the realistic view of much mythologized things such as the Gold Rush and the Mission eras. Starr isn't afraid to give the unvarnished truth and that makes this book very interesting. I want to read the rest of the books in the series.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was in 7th grade, I had a history teacher, Mr. Valente, who made history rise up from the classroom's floorboards and play out in front of my eyes. I was reminded of him often while reading Kevin Starr's chronicle of the astoundingly rapid settling of this state I've called home for so long. Especially gripping: the rise of San Francisco and the founding of Stanford University. Loved it and plan on reading the whole series.

[The Book Maven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried. I tried for 178 pages and three weeks, but I couldn't do it anymore. This book is an extremely academic and contemplative look not at the history of California as such, but rather the concept of California in the minds of the nation, its citizens, its explorers, its minister and miners and intelligentsia, etc.

At this point in my life, it's simply not a particularly engrossing read. Maybe at some other point, I'll try again.

[William Mooney]

This book has no ISBN but its LOC is 72-92299.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading for every Californian (and for those who love the state). See Starr's other works in this series.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin Starr is personally responsible for turning me into a history buff. Read it.

[Diane Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

i fell in love, i came home, i met my friends and heard their secrets - i was part of something larger than. this was the first of the series

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Previously read in 1988, 1997, 2009