{"product_id":"material-dreams-southern-california-through-the-1920s-americans-and-the-california-dream-9780195044874","title":"Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s (Americans and the California Dream)","description":"\u003cp\u003eKevin Starr is the foremost chronicler of the California dream and indeed one of the finest narrative historians writing today on any subject. The first two installments of his monumental cultural history  \"Americans and the California Dream \" have been hailed as \"mature  well-proportioned and marvelously diverse (and diverting)\" (The New York Times Book Review) and \"rich in details and alive with interesting  and sometimes incredible people\" (Los Angeles Times). Now  in Material Dreams  Starr turns to one of the most vibrant decades in the Golden States history  the 1920s  when some two million Americans migrated to California  the vast majority settling in or around Los Angeles. In a lively and eminently readable narrative  Starr reveals how Los Angeles arose almost defiantly on a site lacking many of the advantages required for urban development  creating itself out of sheer will  the Great Gatsby of American cities. He describes how William Ellsworth Smyth  the Peter the Hermit of the Irrigation Crusade  the self-educated  Irish engineer William Mulholland (who built the main aquaducts to Los Angeles)  and George Chaffey (who diverted the Colorado River  transforming desert into the lush Imperial Valley) brought life-supporting water to the arid South. He examines the discovery of oil  the boosters and land developers  the evangelists (such as Bob Shuler  the Methodist Savanarola of Los Angeles  and Aimee Semple McPherson)  and countless other colorful figures of the period. There are also fascinating sections on the citys architecture the impact of the automobile on city planning  the Hollywood film community  the L.A. literati  and much more. By the end of the decade  Los Angeles had tripled in population and become the fifth largest city in the nation. In Material Dreams  Starr captures this explosive growth in a narrative tour de force that combines wide-ranging scholarship with captivating prose.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647593930805,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195044878","price":31.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195044874.jpg?v=1781694892","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/material-dreams-southern-california-through-the-1920s-americans-and-the-california-dream-9780195044874","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}