Full name: The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America

Author: Lawrence Culver Year: 2010 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads ISBNs: 9780199891924 0199891923

Southern California has long been promoted as the playground of the world, the home of resort-style living, backyard swimming pools, and year-round suntans. Tracing the history of Southern California from the late nineteenth century through the late twentieth century, The Frontier of Leisure reveals how this region did much more than just create lavish resorts like Santa Catalina Island and Palm Springs--it literally remade American attitudes towards leisure. Lawrence Culver shows how this "culture of leisure" gradually took hold with an increasingly broad group of Americans, and ultimately manifested itself in suburban developments throughout the Sunbelt and across the United States. He further shows that as Southern Californians promoted resort-style living, they also encouraged people to turn inward, away from public spaces and toward their private homes and communities. Impressively researched, a fascinating and lively read, this finely nuanced history connects Southern Californian recreation and leisure to larger historical themes, including regional development, architecture and urban planning, race relations, Indian policy, politics, suburbanization, and changing perceptions of nature. Similar books: The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Brown Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand How Not to Die by Michael Greger The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. van der Kolk The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis Marley & Me by John Grogan Being Mortal by Atul Gawande Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom What If? by Randall Munroe Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer John Adams by David McCullough In Cold Blood by Truman Capote The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter