Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920sOxford University Press, 1990 - 453 páginas Kevin Starr is the foremost chronicler of the California dream and indeed one of the finest narrative historians writing today on any subject. The first two installments of his monumental cultural history, "Americans and the California Dream," have been hailed as "mature, well-proportioned and marvelously diverse (and diverting)" (The New York Times Book Review) and "rich in details and alive with interesting, and sometimes incredible people" (Los Angeles Times). Now, in Material Dreams, Starr turns to one of the most vibrant decades in the Golden State's history, the 1920s, when some two million Americans migrated to California, the vast majority settling in or around Los Angeles. 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. |
Contenido
FOUNDATIONS IN WATER | 1 |
The Dreams and Realities of Social | 20 |
Foundations of Urban Empire | 45 |
THE CITY ON THE PLAIN | 63 |
Planning Development and Ballyhoo in JazzAge | 90 |
Oligarchs Babbitts and Folks | 120 |
The Emergence of Institutional | 151 |
MATERIALIZING HISTORY | 179 |
The Santa Barbara Alternative | 263 |
LIFE AND LETTERS IN THE SOUTHLAND | 303 |
Bibliophilia and Bohemia in Greater | 334 |
Pasadena Begins Its Literary | 362 |
Material Dreams | 390 |
Bibliographical Essay | 401 |
Acknowledgments | 427 |
The Santa Barbara Heritage | 231 |
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Términos y frases comunes
acres adobe American Angeles Public Library aqueduct architect architecture Armitage artists automobile Beach became began boosters Boulevard Bradbury Building building bungalow Charles Chicago Clark Powell Club Colorado River Company County culture Culver desert Dijon Doheny downtown dream early emerged engineer established film Fisher Frank garden George Chaffey Gill Guerra Hall Hill Hispanic Historical Photograph Collection Hollywood Hotel Huntington identity Imperial Valley irrigation Irving Gill Jake Zeitlin Jeffers Jordan-Smith land landscape later Lawrence Clark Lawrence Clark Powell literary McWilliams metaphor Mexican million Mission Santa Barbara Montecito Mulholland Myron Hunt Neff Occidental oligarchy Owens Valley Park Pasadena Paul Jordan-Smith president Ranch Reclamation region Robinson Robinson Jeffers Rockwood Rodia San Diego San Francisco School Shuler social Southern California Southland Southwest Spanish Revival Storke Street Theater tion Ward Ritchie West William William Hammond Hall William Mulholland Wilshire
Referencias a este libro
The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles William Fulton Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Olympic Dreams: The Impact of Mega-events on Local Politics Matthew Burbank,Gregory Andranovich,Charles H. Heying Vista previa limitada - 2001 |