Building home : Howard F. Ahmanson and the politics of the American dream / Eric John Abrahamson.

By:

Abrahamson, Eric John

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: Berkeley : University of California Press, 2013Description: 1 online resource (x, 357 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0520273753
9780520273757
9781283860307
1283860309
9780520953420
0520953428

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Building home.DDC classification:

332.3/2092 B 23

LOC classification:

HG2040.5.U5 A627 2013eb

Other classification:

HIS036140

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction -- 1. Father as Mentor -- 2. Among the Lotus Eaters -- 3. Undertaker at a Plague -- 4. The Common Experience -- 5. Building Home -- 6. Scaling Up -- 7. Home and the State -- 8. Political Economy -- 9. Big Business -- 10. The Crest of a New Wave -- 11. Southland Patrician -- 12. Influence -- 13. Short of Domestic Bliss -- 14. Breakdown of Consensus -- 15. Crisis of the Managed Economy -- 16. A New Way of Life -- 17. A Personal Epic -- Conclusion.

Summary: "Building Home is an innovative biography that weaves together three engrossing stories. It is one part corporate and industrial history, using the evolution of mortgage finance as a way to understand larger dynamics in the nation's political economy. It is another part urban history, since the extraordinary success of the savings and loan business in Los Angeles reflects much of the cultural and economic history of Southern California. Finally, it is a personal story, a biography of one of the nation's most successful entrepreneurs of the managed economy --Howard Fieldstad Ahmanson. Eric John Abrahamson deftly connects these three strands as he chronicles Ahmanson's rise against the background of the postwar housing boom and the growth of L.A. during the same period. As a sun-tanned yachtsman and a cigar-smoking financier, the Omaha-born Ahmanson was both unique and representative of many of the business leaders of his era. He did not control a vast infrastructure like a railroad or an electrical utility. Nor did he build his wealth by pulling the financial levers that made possible these great corporate endeavors. Instead, he made a fortune by enabling the middle-class American dream. With his great wealth, he contributed substantially to the expansion of the cultural institutions in L.A. As we struggle to understand the current mortgage-led financial crisis, Ahmanson's life offers powerful insights into an era when the widespread hope of homeownership was just beginning to take shape."-- Provided by publisher

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-344) and index.

"Building Home is an innovative biography that weaves together three engrossing stories. It is one part corporate and industrial history, using the evolution of mortgage finance as a way to understand larger dynamics in the nation's political economy. It is another part urban history, since the extraordinary success of the savings and loan business in Los Angeles reflects much of the cultural and economic history of Southern California. Finally, it is a personal story, a biography of one of the nation's most successful entrepreneurs of the managed economy --Howard Fieldstad Ahmanson. Eric John Abrahamson deftly connects these three strands as he chronicles Ahmanson's rise against the background of the postwar housing boom and the growth of L.A. during the same period. As a sun-tanned yachtsman and a cigar-smoking financier, the Omaha-born Ahmanson was both unique and representative of many of the business leaders of his era. He did not control a vast infrastructure like a railroad or an electrical utility. Nor did he build his wealth by pulling the financial levers that made possible these great corporate endeavors. Instead, he made a fortune by enabling the middle-class American dream. With his great wealth, he contributed substantially to the expansion of the cultural institutions in L.A. As we struggle to understand the current mortgage-led financial crisis, Ahmanson's life offers powerful insights into an era when the widespread hope of homeownership was just beginning to take shape."-- Provided by publisher