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Title: Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915 by Kevin Starr ISBN: 0195042336 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful Book!!!
Comment: Kevin Starr has written a fantastic book. In Americans and the California Dream the reader is introduced to the giants of the age--Herbert Hoover, Leland Stanford, David Star Jordan, John Muir, John C. Fremont, etc. I also loved the fact that he included the lessor known personalities as well. Mr. Star clearly relates the truth behind all the myth and romance with regards to the Gold Rush. While Bret Harte is thorougly debunked, Starr acknowledges that the Gold Rush continues to hold the lure and romance that it always possessed. Anyone who wishes to be introduced to the wonderful history of California must read this. I will immediately purchase the second book of the series.
Rating: 5
Summary: highly recommended
Comment: There are two good places to start if you want to know the history of California: the work of Carey McWilliams and this book. Starr really did his homework, and the range of detail is amazing. Like McWilliams, he knows how to tell a story, and he usually has the back-stage lore on whatever public events he describes in his lucid and very readable prose. That a fact or two occasionally get out of place (the San Diego Mission was not founded by Father Altimiri but by Junipero Serra; and San Antonio de Padua is actually in Monterey County) does not diminish the power or scope of this worthy book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great introduction to the meaning of California
Comment: Having lived in CA since I was 15 and not being able to imagine living somewhere else, I thought this volume is a must-read for all Californians, whether born here or "naturalized". Being specifically a San Francisco resident, this book shed more light on the history of this city's beginning and "teenage years" than any other source I have come across. Here you will not just read facts about people like Jack London, Frank Norris, John Muir, John C. Fremont and Richard Henry Dana. You will learn what they contributed to the idea of California and their influence on what this state has turned out to be, for good or bad. You will also learn of lesser-known figures such as Thomas Starr King, Thomas Jordan, Isidore Duncan all of whom were immensely powerful figures in their day, but hardly known today by the average Californian. The writing got a little ploddy at the end for me. Maybe I was just tired. Until I got to the last two chapters, I would have given it a 5 score, mostly on the criteria of how much I learned from it. I look forward to reading the next few volumes.
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Title: Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era by Kevin Starr ISBN: 0195042344 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1986 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920's by Kevin Starr ISBN: 019507260X Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr on Demand Pub. Date: October, 1991 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Americans and the California Dream) by Kevin Starr ISBN: 0195157974 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California (Americans and the California Dream) by Kevin Starr ISBN: 0195118022 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950 (Americans and the California Dream) by Kevin Starr ISBN: 0195124375 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
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