{"product_id":"the-dream-endures-california-enters-the-1940s-9780195157970","title":"The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s","description":"What we now call the good life first appeared in California during the 1930s. Motels, home trailers, drive-ins, barbecues, beach life and surfing, sports from polo and tennis and golf to mountain climbing and skiing, sportswear (a word coined at the time), and sun suits were all a part of\u003cbr\u003ethe good life--perhaps California's most distinctive influence of the 1930s. In \u003cem\u003eThe Dream Endures\u003c\/em\u003e, 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.\u003cbr\u003eStarr previously chronicled how Californians absorbed the thousand natural shocks of the Great Depression--unemployment, strikes, Communist agitation, reactionary conspiracies--in \u003cem\u003eEndangered Dreams\u003c\/em\u003e, the fourth volume of his classic history of California. In \u003cem\u003eThe Dream Endures\u003c\/em\u003e, Starr reveals the other\u003cbr\u003eside of the picture, examining the newly important places where the good life flourished, like Los Angeles (where Hollywood lived), Palm Springs (where Hollywood vacationed), San Diego (where the Navy went), the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (where Einstein went and changed his view\u003cbr\u003eof the universe), and college towns like Berkeley. We read about the rich urban life of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in newly important communities like Carmel and San Simeon, the home of William Randolph Hearst, where, each Thursday afternoon, automobiles packed with Hollywood celebrities\u003cbr\u003ewould arrive from Southern California for the long weekend at Hearst Castle.\u003cbr\u003eThe 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\u003cbr\u003ecreative 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\u003cbr\u003eEuropean 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\u003cbr\u003eachievement was the sense of well-being it conferred on its citizens. It was a city that magically belonged to everyone.\u003cbr\u003eWhether discussing photographers like Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, hard-boiled fiction writers, or the new breed of female star--Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, and the improbable Mae West--\u003cem\u003eThe Dream Endures\u003c\/em\u003e is a brilliant social and cultural history--in many ways the\u003cbr\u003emost far-reaching and important of Starr's California books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Kevin Starr\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/28\/2002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 496\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.58lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.18h x 6.18w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195157970\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKevin Starr\u003c\/strong\u003e is State Librarian of California, Chairman of the State of California Sesquicentennial Commission, contributing editor of \u003cem\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e, and a member of the faculty at the University of Southern California. He is the author of a number of books, including \u003cem\u003eAmericans and the\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eCalifornia Dream\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eInventing the Dream\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMaterial Dreams\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eEndangered Dreams\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40110187577459,"sku":"9.7802E+12","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_6d3e7399-11fb-4021-b99d-998add8adf2f.jpg?v=1653401929","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/the-dream-endures-california-enters-the-1940s-9780195157970","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}