Building Home
Howard F. Ahmanson and the Politics of the American Dream
by Eric John Abrahamson
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon
Buy on BN.com
Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Feb 28 2013 | Archive Date May 15 2013
Smith Publicity | University of California Press
Description
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.
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.
Advance Praise
"In this blockbuster biography, Abrahamson brings the business history of Southern California--and the national postwar housing boom!--to new levels of scholarly presentation. Building Home offers readers the opportunity to examine the federally managed housing economy, now in disarray, at its highpoint of efficiency, as seen through the flamboyant figure of one of its most successful Mad Men practitioners!"--Kevin Starr, University of Southern California
"Eric John Abrahamson has accomplished a great feat: Using interviews and detective work in the archives, he chronicles the personality and vision of Howard Ahmanson, a man as elusive in the written records as he was imposing in the memory of those who knew him. Abrahamson tells an impressive history of Ahmanson's innovations in the savings-and-loan business, revealing how the man and his company left a long-lasting influence on the cultural as well as business landscape of southern California."--Adam Arenson, author of The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War
"Eric Abrahamson takes us back to an earlier era for America and Southern California when dreams were realized not only for a few but literally for millions. The optimism and nerve of howard ahmanson's times are displayed with balance and critical insight. But it's clear that we have lost much of our focus on home and family. The question for us is can we somehow restore the American dream before it devolves into the mists of history?"--Joel Kotkin, the author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, The City: A Global History
"Howard Ahmanson's gifts to culture in Los Angeles were enormous. As the sole owner of Home Savings, the nation's largest savings and loan, Ahmanson became one of the richest men in California by catering to middle-class dreams of home ownership. During his lifetime, he played a key role in funding the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Music Center, the Otis Art Institute and other civic organizations. With his endowment of the Ahmanson Foundation, he created an institution that provides $40 million a year in grants to benefit education, social services, healthcare and the arts in Los Angeles. Yet to most Angelenos, Ahmanson was and remains a mystery. Eric John Abrahamson's biography reveals the man and places him within the broader economic, political and cultural streams of mid-century America and Southern California."--Stephen D. Rountree, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Music Center
"Eric John Abrahamson has accomplished a great feat: Using interviews and detective work in the archives, he chronicles the personality and vision of Howard Ahmanson, a man as elusive in the written records as he was imposing in the memory of those who knew him. Abrahamson tells an impressive history of Ahmanson's innovations in the savings-and-loan business, revealing how the man and his company left a long-lasting influence on the cultural as well as business landscape of southern California."--Adam Arenson, author of The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War
"Eric Abrahamson takes us back to an earlier era for America and Southern California when dreams were realized not only for a few but literally for millions. The optimism and nerve of howard ahmanson's times are displayed with balance and critical insight. But it's clear that we have lost much of our focus on home and family. The question for us is can we somehow restore the American dream before it devolves into the mists of history?"--Joel Kotkin, the author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, The City: A Global History
"Howard Ahmanson's gifts to culture in Los Angeles were enormous. As the sole owner of Home Savings, the nation's largest savings and loan, Ahmanson became one of the richest men in California by catering to middle-class dreams of home ownership. During his lifetime, he played a key role in funding the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Music Center, the Otis Art Institute and other civic organizations. With his endowment of the Ahmanson Foundation, he created an institution that provides $40 million a year in grants to benefit education, social services, healthcare and the arts in Los Angeles. Yet to most Angelenos, Ahmanson was and remains a mystery. Eric John Abrahamson's biography reveals the man and places him within the broader economic, political and cultural streams of mid-century America and Southern California."--Stephen D. Rountree, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Music Center
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780520273757 |
| PRICE | $34.95 (USD) |
© 2025 NetGalley LLC
• All Rights Reserved
