Mark E. Kann Middle Class Radicalism in Santa Monica, Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1986, 322 pp.
". . . One can bicycle down to old Main Street and be transported back to the 1890s by its wooded storefronts and stained glass windows, Victorian restorations, period restaurants, and sidewalk vendors . . . The more contemporary consumer can choose between Santa Monica Place, a new indoor center featuring major chain outlets, chic boutiques and gallleries, an lots of roofed-in greenery designed by a famous local architect . . .
"One item regularly produced and consumed in Santa Monica is culture. Simply living in Santa Monica is a form of cultural enrichment. One's neighbors are likely to be interesting if not important people in the world of ideas and the arts. The city houses an incredible concentration of scientists, professors, journalists and writers, architects, designers, doctors, and lawyers as well as producers and directors, actors, dancers, sculptors, painters, and artisans. These "captains of culture" for the Southern California region and beyond form a critical mass of support for public and commercial performances. Many of them contribute time, talents, and money to city cultural affairs, and many patronize the experimental theaters that germinate there. Furthermore, their avocational interests compose the demand that attracts an abundant supply of private schools and lessons that cater to middle class hobbyists.
"The source for Santa Monica's middle class affluence, consumption, and culture is marketable intellectual skills . . ." pp. 6, 7
"Southern California was founded on corporate promotion schemes that converted the climate into a marketable commodity and made rapid expansion the main business of the region. Santa Monica was also produced by corporate entrepreneurs who sought to control the city's future in order to reap monopolistic profits. But their bid failed, and early Santa Monica history is marked by a small town autonomy and a small business dominance that stood in sharp contrast to nearby burgeoning Los Angeles. Not until the post-World War II period was Santa Monica caught up in the maelstrom of regional growth. Local autonomy was eroded as the regional marketplace overspilled local boundaries; small business dominance was undermined by an influx of middle class professionals and managers, themselves escaping an unhappy existence in the metropolis. The result, by the 1970s, was a fragmented social structure and a political vacuum that created new opportunities for radicals who could appeal to middle class discontents." p. 29