2. War and Peace – Chapter 9
As the United States moved in the direction
of becoming a global military power,
especially a sea power, the military
importance of California increased.
In 1914 the Navy established its Pacific
Fleet, supported by a growing naval
presence in San Diego. The Army was
expanding its presence through a series of
forts and installations in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
In 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced in
the Santa Barbara Channel and fired 25 five
inch shells across the Pacific Coast Highway
into oil storage tanks. Two American cargo
ships sank as well.
The “White California” crusade started in the
early 1900s against the states Japanese
immigrants. In 1913 the legislature passed
the Alien Land Act prohibiting Japanese
immigrants from owning land in the state.
The White California movement was racism
based on envy. Japanese immigrants to
California did well. After Pearl Harbor some
five hundred issei (Japanese noncitizens)
were in federal custody on Terminal Island
in Los Angeles Harbor.
3. War and Peace
The San Francisco Bay Area was
emerging as the premier military
command center and port of
embarkation and supply on the Pacific
Coast.
By the Battle of Okinawa toward the
end of the war, whole blood was
reaching combat troops within 48
hours of being donated in California.
By October 1942, the Hollywood
Canteen was opened by film stars such
as Bette Davis and John Garfield.
Servicemen and women visited while
they were on leave.
June 1943, the Zoot Suit Riots between
young servicemen and young Mexican
Americans were exacerbated by
Mexican American baiting by Los
Angeles newspapers. With the
Japanese Americans in camps, Mexican
Americans became the target of
racism. This was indicative of
unfinished social business of the United
States that would preoccupy the
postwar era.
4. War and Peace
As the draft began to diminish the male
population women workers – “Rosie the
Riveter”- became increasingly crucial to
shipbuilding.
The aircraft industry in Southern
California saw the creation of an industrial
culture was a great leap forward for
American labor, for women, and for
efficient and socially responsible
management.
The postwar era represented a boom that
would propel California into becoming, by
1962, the most populous state in the
nation.
The postwar era also saw the Cold War
and the Korean War. Suburban
development was centered on the defense
industries that were driving California’s
economic engine.
In the decade following the war, the
University of California went from a first-
rate regional university into a first-rate
world university. California conceptualized
itself as a higher-education utopia in
which all Californians would be offered the
opportunity to maximize their potential.
5. O Brave New World! – Chapter 10
California emerged as a society friendly
to the search for utopia through science
and technology.
April 4, 1853 the California Academy of
Sciences was established. Scientists
conducted surveys of California’s
environment which had long-term
importance.
In 1864 Lincoln signed a bill protecting
the Sierra land that included the
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big
Trees. John Muir played a role in having
the Yosemite Valley transferred to
federal jurisdiction in 1890.
The greatest mechanical invention out
of California was the Pelton turbine
which multiplied the power of running
water six fold and the premise of
hydroelectric generation of energy in
unheard of amounts.
The first heavier-than-air flight in
history took place in California. Over
the next century, aviation would shape
California and California would shape
aviation.
6. O Brave New World!
The names of aviation in California-
Glenn Curtiss, Allan and Malcolm
Loughead (later Lockheed), John
Nortthrup, Glenn Martin, Donald
Douglas, T. Claude Ryan- would
become brand names synonymous
with flight itself.
California-especially Southern
California-pioneered passenger flight.
By the mid-1920s four passenger
airlines were offering regular
scheduled service.
On August 26, 1929, the gigantic Graf
Zeppelin arrived in Los Angeles at
Mines Field, site of the present day
LAX. 150,000 visitors gathered to
catch a glimpse of the blimp.
Through aeronautical research at
Caltech, Donald Douglas made air
travel possible in the United States
with the DC-3, the most serviceable
aircraft in the history of aviation.
7. O Brave New World!
George Davidson, James Lick, and Richard
Samuel Floyd played key roles in establishing
astronomy in California.
In 1879, George Davidson built the first
astronomical observatory on the West Coast.
James Lick left funds for an observatory
supporting the most powerful telescope on the
planet. Lick chose Richard Samuel Floyd to fulfill
his dream. The Lick Observatory was ready for
business in 1892.
In Palo Alto, Lee de Forest invented the Audion
tube and sold it to American Telephone and
Telegraph for $50,000. This was used as an
amplifier for transcontinental phone calls.
PhiloT. Farnsworth created a orthicon that allowed
him to transmit a simple image through electronic
means, which was the basic technology of
television.
By the late twentieth century Palo Alto had
become the epicenter of high-tech venture
capitalism, serving the Silicon Valley start-ups.
By the millennium, forty percent of all
biotechnology research and manufacturing in the
United States was located in California.
8. An Imagined Place – Chapter 11
The twentieth century saw the debut of
film, radio, and television; dependent
upon electronic technologies developed
in California.
By the 1920’s the production of films in
Hollywood would become an
industrialized business.
Starting in the mid-1930s, the takeover
of Germany by National Socialism set in
motion a mass emigration of talented
Europeans to the United States. The
émigrés internationalized the film
industry.
The Cold War brought Hollywood to the
Un-American Activities Committee;
accusing the “Hollywood Ten” of having
sympathies with the Communist Party.
Hollywood reached another high point of
art and social commentary in the films
of the period: dark dramas dealing with
the issues of the time.
9. An Imagined Place
Robinson Jeffers was one of the most
noted poets in California during the 20th
century. He produced an array of poems
based on classical or biblical themes set
in the backcountry of Big Sur.
John Steinbeck used the Monterey coast
often as a background for his writings.
The Grapes of Wrath won Steinbeck the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
Two California photographers, Edward
Weston and Ansel Adams brought
photography to an elemental art,
capturing the beauty and realism of
Mexico and Yosemite.
California maintained its preference for
the Arts-and-Crafts shingle style of
architecture. Bernard Maybeck in the
Bay Area and Charles and Henry Greene
in the Southland was prevalent through
the first two decades of the 20th century.
10. An Imagined Place
In the 1940s, designer Cliff May
created the California Ranch style of
homes.
Daisy Dell, a canyon amphitheater in
Hollywood led to the establishment of
the Hollywood Bowl in 1922, which
Lloyd Wright designed the
performance shell that has emerged
as one of the primary icons of
Southern California.
The composer Igor Stravinsky moved
to Los Angeles and wrote the score to
Disney’s Fantasia
California turned the sports of elites
to a public recreation system that
included municipal pools, golf
courses, and tennis courts. Many
Olympic champions in the early 20th
century came from California.
Through sport and the arts California
participated and frequently initiated
the recreational and aesthetic
developments of the 20th century.
