The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993 Page: 455
681 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
of students and scholars, will ensure that Houston's heritage is not in fact
forgotten.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department CYNTHIA A. BRANDIMARTE
Fortress Calzfornia, 191o-1961: From Warfare to Welfare. By Roger W. Lotchin.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xviii+420. Preface, ac-
knowledgments, introduction, conclusion, notes, index. $45.00.)
While Fortress Calzfornza appears not to be related to Texas, it is to be hoped
that this important book will inspire a similar study of the Lone Star State's
relationship with the military-industrial complex (MIC).
Roger W. Lotchin, professor of history at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, has broken new ground with this work, the culmination of a
long series of studies. His detailed examination of the relationship between
urban boosters, defense manufacturers, and the armed forces makes very
plain the fact that boosters rather than the military successfully obtained the
various MIC establishments to boost their communities. Chambers of com-
merce teamed with politicians to get both the capital investment in facilities
and the payrolls which high tech establishments brought. Between i910 and
1945 they were very successful, arguing both a fair division of the contracts
and the necessities of national defense. In some ways it was urban boosters,
after the 1909 visit of the Great White Fleet, who successfully created the de-
mand for a Pacific Fleet. And it was little San Diego which beat out San Fran-
cisco and Los Angeles to obtain the major fleet base on the West Coast.
Lotchin shows clearly the heavily civilian aspect of these developments, the
investment chambers and municipalities were willing to make, and the conse-
quences of technological change. Los Angeles, for instance, acquired 6o per-
cent of the nation's aircraft industry.
After 1945 the Cold War helped keep this prosperity in place. But the advent
of peace is now causing significant change. The shrinking aircraft industry and
the reduction of the navy are causing California great fiscal problems, while in
Seattle Boeing switched the bulk of its business to airliners and became a global
industrial power.
Fortress California is a major contribution to American history and should be
read by anyone interested in the twentieth century. It does suffer from lack of
maps, though.
Kansas State University ROBIN HIGHAM
Gordon McLendon. The Maverick of Radio. By Ronald Garay. (New York: Green-
wood Press, 1992. Pp. xiv+ 248. Preface, acknowledgments, introduction,
references, index. $45.oo.)
Gordon McLendon was an archetypal Texas entrepreneur who became a
national leader in popular radio and had a brief, unsuccessful career in Texas
politics. Ronald Garay's biography provides a significant contribution to the455
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993, periodical, 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101215/m1/513/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.