Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California
by Kevin Starr
Americans and the California Dream (Book 4)
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California, Wallace Stegner observed, is like the rest of the United States, only more so. Indeed, the Golden State has always seemed to be a place where the hopes and fears of the American dream have been played out in a bigger and bolder way. And no one has done more to capture this epic story than Kevin Starr, in his acclaimed series of gripping social and cultural histories. Now Starr carries his account into the 1930s, when the political extremes that threatened so much of the show more Depression-ravaged world--fascism and communism--loomed large across the California landscape. In Endangered Dreams, Starr paints a portrait that is both detailed and panoramic, offering a vivid look at the personalities and events that shaped a decade of explosive tension. He begins with the rise of radicalism on the Pacific Coast, which erupted when the Great Depression swept over California in the 1930s. Starr captures the triumphs and tumult of the great agricultural strikes in the Imperial Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, Stockton, and Salinas, identifying the crucial role played by Communist organizers; he also shows how, after some successes, the Communists disbanded their unions on direct orders of the Comintern in 1935. The highpoint of social conflict, however, was 1934, the year of the coastwide maritime strike, and here Starr's narrative talents are at their best, as he brings to life the astonishing general strike that took control of San Francisco, where workers led by charismatic longshoreman Harry Bridges mounted the barricades to stand off National Guardsmen. That same year socialist Upton Sinclair won the Democratic nomination for governor, and he launched his dramatic End Poverty in California (EPIC) campaign. In the end, however, these challenges galvanized the Right in a corporate, legal, and vigilante counterattack that crushed both organized labor and Sinclair. And yet, the Depression also brought out the finest in Californians: state Democrats fought for a local New Deal; California natives helped care for more than a million impoverished migrants through public and private programs; artists movingly documented the impact of the Depression; and an unprecedented program of public works (capped by the Golden Gate Bridge) made the California we know today possible. In capturing the powerful forces that swept the state during the 1930s--radicalism, repression, construction, and artistic expression--Starr weaves an insightful analysis into his narrative fabric. Out of a shattered decade of economic and social dislocation, he constructs a coherent whole and a mirror for understanding our own time. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Learn something new today!: I finally got around to reading "The Grapes of Wrath" and was ashamed to realize that the context of the story was all new to me. Right about then, Kevin Starr's book came out and was reviewed in my local paper. He's done a great, steady job of illuminating the rise of the unions and the treatment of the Okies. The only major flaw I found was the lack of a map of California included in the book. I'm from the east coast and found it difficult to keep the place names straight without a ready reference.
The Great Depression in California.
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32+ Works 2,684 Members
Kevin Starr was born in San Francisco, California on September 3, 1940. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of San Francisco in 1962. After serving two years in the Army in West Germany, he received a master's degree in 1965 and a PhD in English and American literature in 1969 from Harvard University. He returned to San show more Francisco in 1973 and served as an aide and speechwriter to Mayor Joseph Alioto. After being appointed city librarian, he received a master's degree in library science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974. He wrote a column for The San Francisco Examiner and was appointed a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Southern California in 1989. In 1994, Governor Pete Wilson named him state librarian, a post he held for 10 years. He wrote numerous book about the history of California including the eight-volume California Dream series, California, Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge, and Continental Ambitions: Roman Catholics in North America, the Colonial Experience. In 2006, he received the National Humanities Medal for his work as a scholar and historian from President George W. Bush. He died from a heart attack on January 14, 2017 at the age of 76. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California
- Important places
- American West; California, USA
- Important events
- Great Depression
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 979.4 — History & geography History of North America Great Basin and Pacific Slope region of United States California
- LCC
- HB3717 — Social sciences Economic theory. Demography Economic theory. Demography Business cycles. Economic fluctuations
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 207
- Popularity
- 157,870
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.33)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 2
