The Culture Broker by Margaret Davis - PDF - University of California Press

Reviews

“Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what makes modern Los Angeles tick. . . . Her earlier books made me a Davis fan, and I eagerly gobbled up every word of this lively and enlightening volume.”
— Www. Leonardmaltin.com

“From his long encouragement of Howard Ahmanson and his foundation, from the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, from the mighty Getty to the National Galley to the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History to the Norton Simon to the Kress Foundation to the Franklin D. Murphy sculpture garden at UCLA to the Skirball Cultural Center (for exploring the relationship between Jewish culture and American -ideals)--in ways large and small, modest and grand, Murphy built and left his monument for all the rest of Los Angeles, California, and the nation. . . . It was a magnificent achievement, now handsomely and fully told by Margaret Leslie Davis.”
— The Weekly Standard

“Margaret Leslie Davis' ongoing examination of Los Angeles through the lives of its civic and cultural leaders is a grand project, deserving of generous praise. More than any writer of our time, she is methodically supplying this city with an understanding of itself. . . . Davis' devotion to the task is evident in her choice of subjects . . . and in the rigorous research that is her signature. She is amassing a body of work without peer and, in the process, is delivering subtle lessons for today's leaders -- or what's left of them.”
— Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Los Angeles as a cultural capital did not exist in 1960 when Franklin D. Murphy, M.D., rode into town. Over the ensuing thirty years, more than any other single individual, it was he who put it on the cultural map. In a brilliant work that includes a set of now-it-can-be-told institutional histories, Margaret Leslie Davis writes the history of an exceptional city at an exceptional time through the life story of a little-known but utterly exceptional man."—Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize winner and Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Irvine

“Rarely has a city and a man been better suited to one another. In this fascinating biography, Margaret Leslie Davis tells us how one man—as chancellor, corporate leader, and cultural entrepreneur—supercharged the transformation of a regional city into a world-class metropolis.”—Kevin Starr, Professor, University of Southern California, and former California State Librarian

"Once again, Margaret Leslie Davis has chosen a fascinating subject and produced a compelling—and revelatory—biography. Franklin D. Murphy may not have been the most visible architect of the ‘new’ Los Angeles but he may well have been the single most influential figure of his time, leaving his fingerprints on everything from the expanded UCLA to the Getty Center. Anyone who lives in 21st century L.A. should learn about the man who shaped the city’s culture as we know it.”—Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian

"Franklin D. Murphy left an enormous imprint on Los Angeles because he touched so many different spheres. Thankfully, Murphy has a biographer whose protean knowledge rivals her subject's. Margaret Leslie Davis's fluency across topics—medicine and education; art and architecture; industry and media; philanthropy, politics and civic affairs—is absolutely stunning."—Rick Wartzman, Los Angeles Times columnist and author of The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire

"At the height of his cultural and educational authority, Franklin Murphy was everywhere in Los Angeles. In this fine biography, Margaret Leslie Davis has traced his extraordinary influence and legacy. The Culture Broker is a careful tracing of the life and work of arguably the most important cultural figure in all of 20th century Los Angeles."—William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

The Culture Broker

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Culture Broker

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews