Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915 [Paperback]

Highly readable...The book is full of surprises, it is constantly challenging...A fine performance. --Pacific Historical Review

[Starr] is bringing much to Western social and literary history. --American Historical Review

One devil of a fine book, a book only a native Californian could write...about the Inner Life of California, the psychic landscape that emerges from the works and ways of her writers, both native and self-adopted. The result is a mature, well-proportioned and marvelously diverse (and diverting) study. --The New York Times Book Review

A very important book. --Joseph H. Krause,California State University, Long Beach

Indispensable...Starr's book does for California what Henry Nash Smith's 'Virgin Land' did for the opening of the West: it demonstrates how idea, myth, misconception and hope shaped and often distorted a developing society. --Los Angeles Times

A vivid portrayal of the rich and varied intellectual forces which helped shape one of our most distinctive regional cultures. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An exceptional work, both in thought and magnitude...Both scholars and laymen will find this volume a worthwhile addition to their libraries. --History: Reviews of New Books

A highly original inquiry into the interplay of vision and event.' --Virginia Quarterly Review

A captivating narrative that documents the importance of myth and imagination in attracting Americans to California before World War I. --R.H. Limbaugh,University of the Pacific