| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Kirse Granat May. Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, 1955–1966. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. 243. Cloth $49.95, paper $18.95.

California has long been touted as an earthly paradise: a land of golden sunshine replete with healthful climate, abundant resources, and unlimited opportunity. Kirse Granat May examines a particular manifestation of this California dream that swept the nation in the postwar era. In the 1950s and 1960s, advertisements, television programs, music, and films disseminated an image of mainstream, white, middle-class California youths throughout the United States. Tracing the rise and fall of this California image as it evolved from the opening of Disneyland to the Watts riot, May argues that the popular image of California youth had a profound impact on the identity and politics of the "baby boom" generation. 1

In 1955, on the outskirts of metropolitan Los Angeles, Walter Elias Disney Enterprises (WED) opened Disneyland, a modern-day theme park. As a combination fantasy toyland and shopper's paradise, the park catered to the desires of white, middle-class suburban families, promising good, clean fun embodied by an exclusionist and nostalgic image of small-town America. Disney's new television program, The Mickey Mouse Club, premiered three months after the opening. Showcasing "normal" white, middle-class kids from suburban Los Angeles, the show promoted moral behavior and traditional family values (p. 54). Through such programs and products, the Disney empire helped to shape and define the childhood experiences and fantasies of a generation of Americans, according to May. . . .

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