Abrahamson, Eric John

Berkeley. 2013. February 2013. University of California Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780520273757. 6 x 9. 22 b/w photos . 364 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Lia Tjandra. keywords: Biography California & the West . FROM THE PUBLISHER - 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 J. 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 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. inventory #26388 ISBN: 9780520273757.