Embattled Dreams
By Kevin Starr (2002)
1. The onset of World War II was a critical time in the rise of California, according to the state’s pre-eminent modern historian, the fourth-generation Californian Kevin Starr. “Prior to 1940 the ambitions of California had been relatively modest and in many instances provincial,” Starr writes. In “Embattled Dreams,” he chronicles the changes wrought by the war years: among them, the growth of the state’s industrial sector thanks to war production, the influx of population drawn by factory work and “a growing sense of California as a significant instance of the American experiment.” Starr ushers us inside bright, bustling aviation plants, “the men strangely formal in their fedora hats, the women more industrial appearing in their bandannas.” A tight labor market led to new opportunities for women and minorities—and novel benefits for workers, including subsidized cafeterias, preventive health programs and matchmaking services. Another offering: short-term psychological counseling for those who had lost a loved one in the war.
