Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s (Americans & the California Dream)
Starr's excellent history of California here reaches a third volume (the earlier volumes are Americans and the California Dream: 1850-1915, LJ 7/73, and Inventing the Dream, LJ 5/1/85). Southern California--aka Los Angeles--has seized the floor. It's boosters are busy raiding land from the basin and water from the north, while Sister Aimee Semple McPherson soothes the crowds of new Californians. Colleges and culture begin to provide a sense of place and pride. Starr continues to employ social history and biography as a means of painting the greater picture. This method aptly suits the booming megalopolis, which is in large part the creation of idealists, visionaries, evangelicals, and eccentrics. Many of these stories have been told before, but they bear retelling by a writer with Starr's narrative gifts. Highly recommended.-Timothy L. Zindel, Hastings Coll. of the Law, San FranciscoCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.