The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s

New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Paperback. New. xii, 480 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (pages 403-427) and index. Americans and the California dream; Variation: Starr, Kevin.; Americans and the California dream. [series].

Contents: I. The search for the good life: Good times on the coast: affluence and the anti-Depression -- Arcadian shores: college towns and other rusticated enclaves -- II. Urban and suburban perspectives: Unto the stars themselves: astronomy and the Pasadena perspective -- Gibraltar of the Pacific: San Diego joins the Navy -- One man's family: localism and well-being in pre-war -- Pershing Square: Los Angeles through the 1930s -- III. Refractions: An all-seeing eye: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and the landscape of California -- Angel's flight: social realism comes to California art -- Dreaming through the disaster: Hollywood battles the Depression; The boys and girls in the back room: minimalism and the California novel -- IV. War and rumors of war: War and peace and the survival of the species: Californians contemplate a world on the verge of self-destruction -- Ich bin ein Südkalifornier: life and art among the emigrés -- From catastrophe to covenant: Jews and Christians in exile together.

What we now call "the good life" first appeared in California during the 1930s. In The Dream Endures, Kevin Starr shows how the good life prospered in California - in pursuits such as film, fiction, leisure, and architecture - and helped to define American culture and society then and for years to come. 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, "hardboiled 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.

Crises économiques -- 1929 -- Californie. Civilization. Depressions. Emigranten. Intellectuelen. Tweede Wereldoorlog. Depressions -- 1929 -- California. Time: 1850-1999 Geographic: California -- Civilization -- 20th century. California -- History -- 1850-1950. Californie -- Histoire -- 1850-1950. California. California -- Civilization -- 20th century.