| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 263 words from this article are provided below; about 452 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. By Roger W. Lotchin. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. xii, 314 pp. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-253-34143-4. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-253-21546-3.)
Many old-time Californians (and not a few California historians) believe World War II was a second gold rush, an epic event that transformed the state much as the first gold rush did in the 1840s and 1850s. Old-timers often talk about "before the war" as the proverbial good old days, while "after the war" refers to an increasingly crowded and problem-ridden super-state. But, as he has done in previous works, Roger W. Lotchin here respectfully disagrees. He rejects the concept of a second gold rush and argues that the war was simply a "heroic interlude," an event that at best "accelerated trends mostly underway for many years" (p. 242).	1
Lotchin argues this and other points in an immensely informative book based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources. He covers familiar subjects—the Japanese American internment, the boom in shipbuilding and aircraft production, the multiethnic migrations. But he also discusses such overlooked topics as the importance of volunteerism, the experience of European immigrant groups, and the war's impact on local government. Although the book does not have nearly as many colorful personal stories as Kevin Starr's Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940–1950 (2002), Lotchin still provides some wonderful anecdotes, including an account of mounted members of the elite San Francisco Polo Club protecting the city's beaches from Japanese attack.	. . .

There are about 452 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.