Kevin Starr (1940–2017)
Author of California: A History
About the Author
Kevin Starr was born in San Francisco, California on September 3, 1940. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of San Francisco in 1962. After serving two years in the Army in West Germany, he received a master's degree in 1965 and a PhD in English and American literature in show more 1969 from Harvard University. He returned to San Francisco in 1973 and served as an aide and speechwriter to Mayor Joseph Alioto. After being appointed city librarian, he received a master's degree in library science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974. He wrote a column for The San Francisco Examiner and was appointed a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Southern California in 1989. In 1994, Governor Pete Wilson named him state librarian, a post he held for 10 years. He wrote numerous book about the history of California including the eight-volume California Dream series, California, Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge, and Continental Ambitions: Roman Catholics in North America, the Colonial Experience. In 2006, he received the National Humanities Medal for his work as a scholar and historian from President George W. Bush. He died from a heart attack on January 14, 2017 at the age of 76. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Kevin Starr
Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (Americans & the California Dream) (1985) 219 copies
Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 (Americans and the California Dream) (2009) 143 copies
Los Angeles: Portrait of a city; Porträt einer Stadt; portrait d'une ville {complete} (2009) — Contributor — 102 copies
Associated Works
Discover Los Angeles: An Informed Guide to L.A.'s Rich and Varied Cultural Life (1998) — Introduction — 20 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Starr, Kevin Owen
- Birthdate
- 1940-09-03
- Date of death
- 2017-01-14
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Place of death
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Cause of death
- heart attack
- Education
- University of San Francisco, (1962)
Harvard University (PhD|American Literature|1969) - Occupations
- historian
professor - Organizations
- University of Southern California
California State Library - Awards and honors
- National Humanities Medal (2006)
California Hall of Fame (2010)
Robert Kirsch Award (2012)
Members
Reviews
California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) by Kevin Starr
Very good
Exactly what I'd been looking for. A comprehensive history of CA in a digestible size. Really enjoyed reading this book.
It will be a long time before I have enough knowledge to compare this book with others; nevertheless, it is a fine, dispationate history, with enough details for coherence and interest but not so many to big the reader down. Has an ample bibliography, index, and endnotes.
Despite this being the highest rated book on California history, it is not a history of California. This is a history of California identity. In other words it is a history of how people thought of California.
Starr states this objective in the intro, but it took a couple if chapters for it to become clear what he meant.
You will not learn a lot about concrete California from this book, except maybe how identity shaped architecture. Starr assumes the reader knows California history and events are rarely discussed directly. For readers looking for a comprehensive history of this time period, I would definitely start elsewhere before circling back to this book.… (more)
Starr states this objective in the intro, but it took a couple if chapters for it to become clear what he meant.
You will not learn a lot about concrete California from this book, except maybe how identity shaped architecture. Starr assumes the reader knows California history and events are rarely discussed directly. For readers looking for a comprehensive history of this time period, I would definitely start elsewhere before circling back to this book.… (more)
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 32
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 2,413
- Popularity
- #10,627
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 53
- ISBNs
- 75
- Favorited
- 2
