Southern California in the '50s

Southern California in the '50s PDF Author: Charles Phoenix
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318994
Category : California, Southern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Southern California in the '50s: Sun, Fun, and Fantasy--a treasury of retro car culture, spaceage style, suburbia, Hollywood, mountain, desert and seaside resorts, and America's favorite amusement parks. In the 1950s, Southern California was the place to be. The mood was up, prosperity ruled, and the standard of living was high. It was the land of plenty for a new generation of movers and shakers who reinvented the way America would live. Filled with colorfulmemorabilia, never-before-published vintage photos, and carefully researched historical text, Southern California in the '50scovers the phenomenon of the space-age promised land--L.A. And beyond--and the society that created a cultural explosion. See and read about how Southern Californians lived, where they worked, how they played and the way they got around. In these pages readers will cruise in hot rods to the drive-in theater, learn how McDonald'sinspired a fast-food revolution, and see the suburban spread of stylish tract homes, supermarkets, coffee shops, bowling alleys and shopping centers. Anyone who loves pop culture will relish every color-filled page of Southern California in the '50s

Southern California in the '50s

Southern California in the '50s PDF Author: Charles Phoenix
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318994
Category : California, Southern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Southern California in the '50s: Sun, Fun, and Fantasy--a treasury of retro car culture, spaceage style, suburbia, Hollywood, mountain, desert and seaside resorts, and America's favorite amusement parks. In the 1950s, Southern California was the place to be. The mood was up, prosperity ruled, and the standard of living was high. It was the land of plenty for a new generation of movers and shakers who reinvented the way America would live. Filled with colorfulmemorabilia, never-before-published vintage photos, and carefully researched historical text, Southern California in the '50scovers the phenomenon of the space-age promised land--L.A. And beyond--and the society that created a cultural explosion. See and read about how Southern Californians lived, where they worked, how they played and the way they got around. In these pages readers will cruise in hot rods to the drive-in theater, learn how McDonald'sinspired a fast-food revolution, and see the suburban spread of stylish tract homes, supermarkets, coffee shops, bowling alleys and shopping centers. Anyone who loves pop culture will relish every color-filled page of Southern California in the '50s

Golden Dreams

Golden Dreams PDF Author: Kevin Starr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199924309
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
A narrative tour de force that combines wide-ranging scholarship with captivating prose, Kevin Starr's acclaimed multi-volume Americans and the California Dream is an unparalleled work of cultural history. In this volume, Starr covers the crucial postwar period--1950 to 1963--when the California we know today first burst into prominence. Starr brilliantly illuminates the dominant economic, social, and cultural forces in California in these pivotal years. In a powerful blend of telling events, colorful personalities, and insightful analyses, Starr examines such issues as the overnight creation of the postwar California suburb, the rise of Los Angeles as Super City, the reluctant emergence of San Diego as one of the largest cities in the nation, and the decline of political centrism. He explores the Silent Generation and the emergent Boomer youth cult, the Beats and the Hollywood "Rat Pack," the pervasive influence of Zen Buddhism and other Asian traditions in art and design, the rise of the University of California and the emergence of California itself as a utopia of higher education, the cooling of West Coast jazz, freeway and water projects of heroic magnitude, outdoor life and the beginnings of the environmental movement. More broadly, he shows how California not only became the most populous state in the Union, but in fact evolved into a mega-state en route to becoming the global commonwealth it is today. Golden Dreams continues an epic series that has been widely recognized for its signal contribution to the history of American culture in California. It is a book that transcends its stated subject to offer a wealth of insight into the growth of the Sun Belt and the West and indeed the dramatic transformation of America itself in these pivotal years following the Second World War.

From Mission to Microchip

From Mission to Microchip PDF Author: Fred Glass
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520288408
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
There is no better time than now to consider the labor history of the Golden State. While other states face declining union enrollment rates and the rollback of workersÕ rights, California unions are embracing working immigrants, and voters are protecting core worker rights. WhatÕs the difference? California has held an exceptional place in the imagination of Americans and immigrants since the Gold Rush, which saw the first of many waves of working people moving to the state to find work. From Mission to Microchip unearths the hidden stories of these people throughout CaliforniaÕs history. The difficult task of the stateÕs labor movement has been to overcome perceived barriers such as race, national origin, and language to unite newcomers and natives in their shared interest. As chronicled in this comprehensive history, workers have creatively used collective bargaining, politics, strikes, and varied organizing strategies to find common ground among CaliforniaÕs diverse communities and achieve a measure of economic fairness and social justice. This is an indispensible book for students and scholars of labor history and history of the West, as well as labor activists and organizers.Ê

Southern Californialand

Southern Californialand PDF Author: Charles Phoenix
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781883318420
Category : California, Southern
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Phoenix presents the colorful region as the locals saw it through the lens of their cameras in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s--more than 170 images printed from the best of Phoenix's collection of other people's old slides. He takes us into the living rooms and backyards of real people, and travels with them uptown and downtown, visiting the famous attractions along the way. He shows the lifestyle and landscape from Santa Barbara to San Diego, from the desert to the sea, filled with futurism, escapism, the unconventional and the hauntingly normal.--From publisher description.

California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties

California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938922268
Category : Mountaineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The story told by the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties takes place against the larger backdrop of postwar America: Truman and Eisenhower, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Red Scare. Young people were embracing new symbols of non-conformity: Elvis Presley, Jack Kerouac, Marlon Brando and James Dean. All along the California coast, surfing became popular as heavy balsawood boards were replaced with lightweight ones crafted from polyurethane foam, fiberglass and resin. Meanwhile, climbers descended on Tahquitz Rock in the south and Yosemite Valley to the north to test handcrafted equipment that would set new standards for safety, technique and performance. The photographs in this volume include images of legendary surfers such as Joe Quigg, Tom Zahn, Dale Velzy and Renny Yater, in locations such as Rincon, Malibu, South Bay, Laguna and San Onofre; and famous climbers such as Warren Harding, Royal Robbins and Wayne Merry among others, photographed mostly in the Yosemite Valley by the likes of Bob Swift, Alan Steck, Jerry Gallwas and Frank Hoover. Soaked in surf, sun and adrenaline, the photographs in California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties depict the birth of an era and an exhilarating moment in Californian history.

The Cinderella Homes of Jean Vandruff

The Cinderella Homes of Jean Vandruff PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578543321
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
A history of the Cinderella Homes designed and built by Jean Vandruff.

Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles

Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles PDF Author: Paul Haddad
Publisher: Santa Monica Press
ISBN: 1595807861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social, economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of expressways whose very form—futuristic, majestic, and progressive—perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels. From the Arroyo Seco, which began construction during the Great Depression, to the Simi Valley and Century Freeways, which were completed in 1993, author Paul Haddad provides an entertaining and engaging history of the 527 miles of road that comprise the Los Angeles freeway system. Each of Los Angeles’s twelve freeways receives its own chapter, and these are supplemented by “Off-Ramps”—sidebars that dish out pithy factoids about Botts’ Dots, SigAlerts, and all matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are the only people in the country who place the word “the” in front of their interstates, as in “the 5,” or “the 101.” Freewaytopia also explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn’t have to imagine them—they’d already exist. Haddad notably gives voice to those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected—for better or worse—to the city’s freeways: The hundreds of thousands of mostly minority and lower-class residents who protested against their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers who excelled in a man’s field. Elected officials who helped further freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. And he pays tribute to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at their best, achieve architectural poetry. Finally, let’s not forget the beauty queens—no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their royal presence.

West of Jim Crow

West of Jim Crow PDF Author: Lynn M. Hudson
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252052226
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
African Americans who moved to California in hopes of finding freedom and full citizenship instead faced all-too-familiar racial segregation. As one transplant put it, "The only difference between Pasadena and Mississippi is the way they are spelled." From the beaches to streetcars to schools, the Golden State—in contrast to its reputation for tolerance—perfected many methods of controlling people of color. Lynn M. Hudson deepens our understanding of the practices that African Americans in the West deployed to dismantle Jim Crow in the quest for civil rights prior to the 1960s. Faced with institutionalized racism, black Californians used both established and improvised tactics to resist and survive the state's color line. Hudson rediscovers forgotten stories like the experimental all-black community of Allensworth, the California Ku Klux Klan's campaign of terror against African Americans, the bitter struggle to integrate public swimming pools in Pasadena and elsewhere, and segregationists' preoccupation with gender and sexuality.

The Watts Riot

The Watts Riot PDF Author: Liza N. Burby
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781560063001
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
Describes the 1965 riot in the Black neighborhood of Watts that shook Los Angeles and the nation.

Smogtown

Smogtown PDF Author: Chip Jacobs
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1590207645
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
“A zany and provocative cultural history” of LA’s infamous air pollution and the struggle to combat it from the 1940s to today (Kirkus). The smog beast wafted into downtown Los Angeles on July 26, 1943. Nobody knew what it was. Secretaries rubbed their eyes. Traffic cops seemed to disappear in the mysterious haze. Were Japanese saboteurs responsible? A reckless factory? The truth was much worse—it came from within, from Southern California’s burgeoning car-addicted, suburban lifestyle. Smogtown is the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic struggle against airborne poisons barraging their hometowns. There are scofflaws and dirty deals aplenty, plus murders, suicides, and an ever-present paranoia about mass disaster. California based journalists Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly highlight the bold personalities involved, the corporate-tainted science, the terrifying health costs, the attempts at cleanup, and how the smog battle helped mold the modern-day culture of Los Angeles.