Publisher's Weekly Review
In his first full-length effort, beach tans, bungalows, and the California dream drive historian Culver's smart and insightful exploration of the region's lasting association with tourism and recreation. While Culver views the promotion of leisure in Southern California as the coincidental result of a national phenomenon, he argues that this new attitude towards recreation played a big part in the country's development during the 20th century. The region as a realm of Anglo-American leisure was created by Charles Fletcher Lummis, a writer and California "booster," in the 1870s, Culver contends. And the newly-established Los Angeles appealed initially to the unwell but drew hordes of tourists and home-seekers by the 1920s, solidifying the region's identity as an exotic, libertine escape from East-coast labor, a myth that was aggressively promoted by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, among others. Culver also notes frequent historical attempts to limit recreation in Southern California to affluent whites and the resulting racial tension, but is primarily interested in the effect the area's leisure culture had on the country, influencing not only the construction of suburbs and homes, but the way that Americans think about nature, modernity, and play. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Choice Review
Leisure has always been a part of the American dream, but not until the 20th century did technology make leisure commonplace--a development that coincides with the rise of Southern California. With its seemingly ideal weather, Southern California introduced a regional culture focused on outdoor living, casual dress, and physical fitness, and the ranch house with patio, pool, and barbecue safely secluded from prying eyes on the street. If people in the East made money, people in Southern California made a life, and the latter notion spread across the US after WW II. Although Culver (history, Utah State Univ.) makes a persuasive argument, readers need to be careful not to accept wholeheartedly his tunnel-vision approach. He makes passing reference to other places of leisure culture, but in this treatment these pale in comparison to Southern California. Though Culver acknowledges issues of ethnicity and poverty, he minimizes the place of those who are insufficiently well-to-do to enjoy the amenities of leisure. This book is best read alongside such books as Josh Sides' L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (CH, Oct'04, 42-1124a) and Richard Gassan's The Birth of American Tourism (CH, Sep'09, 47-0470). Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D. R. Jamieson Ashland University