In Books, the California Promise and a Century of Reinvention

Since the nation’s founding, Americans have gone west in search of dreams. For some, that dream was gold. For others, work—any sort would do. Later, it was stardom. The blinding rays of the sun weren’t bright enough; they needed movie lights. But if America represented the dream, California was its fever. Millions went looking for opportunity. Plenty got work, but most lost out on the big time. In Of Mice and Men, Crooks, the bitter stable-hand, deflates Lennie’s fantasy of owning some land with George and raising chickens, “Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”

The Great Depression should have ended the dream. But while 15 million Americans were unemployed, Fred Astaire danced with Ginger Rogers, wearing a top hat and tails and singing about the loveli...