Books like Coast of Dreams by Kevin Starr

David Talbot explores San Francisco’s transformation from a quiet backwater to a vibrant cultural and political center between the late 1960s and early 1980s.

Presents the geography, history, people, economy, and culture of the Golden State. Each chapter includes a summary, words for study, and questions designed for review, thought, and discussion.

Kevin Starr traces how California’s 1930s "good life"—through film, literature, leisure, and architecture—shaped American culture and society, spotlighting Hollywood’s golden age, European refugees, and the flourishing arts of San Francisco.

Prophesying through water : hydraulic visions and historical metaphors -- Imperial ironies : the dreams and realities of social irrigation -- Aqueduct cities : foundations of urban empire -- From Oz to Oildorado : the rise of Los Angeles in the 1920s -- Boosting Babylon : planning, development, and ballyhoo in jazz-age Los Angeles -- The people of the city : oligarchs, babbitts, and folks -- USC, electricity, music, and cops : the emergence of institutional Los Angeles -- Designs for living : architecture in southern California, from the Bradbury Building to the Watts Towers -- Anacapa and Arcadia : the Santa Barbara heritage -- Castles in Spain : the Santa Barbara alternative -- Opinion and the aristocracy of art : the search for common ground in emergent Los Angeles -- The book triumphant : bibliophilia and Bohemia in greater Los Angeles -- On the blue train through Dijon : Pasadena begins its literary career -- Material dreams (from contents)