Kevin Starr is University Professor and professor of history at USC. His many articles and books, including his Americans and the California Dream series, have won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, five honorary doctorates, the Gold and Silver Medals of the Commonwealth Club, membership in the Society of American Historians, a Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA, Western Center, the Presidential Medallion from USC, the Centennial Medal from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, and the Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities. His most recent books are Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 and Golden Gate Bridge: The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Bridge.
photo: Irene Fertik