The third of Kevin Starr's monumental studies of the origins and development of the California dream covers the decade, which perhaps glittered the most brightly in the history of the Golden State - the 1920s. This was the era of colourful, larger-than-life individuals - from movie stars to evangelists to grandiose town planners; the era of Valentino, as well as that of William Ellsworth Smyth, tireless crusader for the irrigation of the desert. It was also the period in which the characteristics of Los Angeles' vital culture were established.

About the Author
Kevin Starr is the author of the series Americans and the California Dream, including the previously published Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915, and Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. The next installment is The Dream Endures: California through the Great Depression.

Reviews
`Material Dreams is a splendid achievement: impressively researched, expertly argued and nicely varied ... (Starr) has taken a sprawling, recalcitrant subject, at once encrusted with cliche and dogged by obscurity, and made it vivid and comprehensible.' Boston Sunday Globe
`Kevin Starr has written an engaging, eccentric history of Southern California in the '20s ... It is richly researched, informative, fun to read and the writing is bright (with substance, pace and vigor).' Los Angeles Times



Book Information
ISBN 9780195072600
Author Kevin Starr
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 739g
Dimensions(mm) 156mm * 228mm * 30mm