Whether they were utopian communitarians, sun-seeking gurus, or Protestant health reformers, Southern California's spiritual seekers drew on the United States' deepening global encounters and consumer cultures to pair religious and personal reinvention with cultural and spiritual revitalization. Through a rereading of the region's cultural landscape, Golden States provides an alternative history of California religion and spirituality, showing that seekers developed a number of paths to fulfillment that enhanced the region's lifestyle brand. Drawing on case studies as varied as surfing and yoga practices, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, and the only designated "Blue Zone" in the United States, this work explores the long-term impact of alternative beliefs on the region. In doing so, it highlights the ongoing tensions between privileging personal choice and pursuing social good as communities navigated whether the commitment to the emotional and therapeutic needs and desires of individual believers should be pursued at the expense of broader efforts to achieve collective well-being.

About the Author

Eileen Luhr is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches US cultural history and history pedagogy and coordinates the History/Social Science credential program for teachers. Her previous book was Witnessing Suburbia: Conservatives and Christian Youth Culture.

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Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE. SPIRITUAL VISIONARIES, HISTORICAL IMAGINARIES, AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT AS
THERAPEUTIC LEISURE

1. “A Paradise for the Healthseeker and Retired Capitalist”: Katherine Tingley and
San Diego’s Early Therapeutic Religious Economy

2. “Efficient America,” “Spiritual India,” and America’s Transnational Religious Imagination

3. Message on a Bottle: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and the Evolution of a Spiritual Vision

PART TWO. RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL BEFLIEF IN CIVIC AND SOCIAL IMAGINARIES

4. Wellness in the “Blue Zone”: The Cultural Politics of Vegetarianism in Loma Linda

5. Seeker, Surfer, Yogi: The Progressive Religious Imagination and the Politics of Place

Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"This fantastically original book exposes the role of alternative religion in the rise of market-oriented individualism and neoliberal self-fulfillment in late-twentieth-century suburban California and beyond. I promise you will never see yoga, Dr. Bronner’s Soap, or Steve Jobs the same way again."—Lily Geismer, author of Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality

"A fascinating new look at California's seemingly endless ability to provide fertile soil for innovative religious groups. Eileen Luhr demonstrates that however new or exotic a group may seem, they are in fact drawing from, and reshaping, common cultural resources. This book breathes new life into the old saw of 'innovative California,' showing ultimately that regardless of its rebellious and idiosyncratic ways, California is America after all."—Richard Flory, Executive Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

"Golden States makes a powerful contribution to our understanding of the role that distinctly Californian versions of "the good life" have played in the American imagination. Rooted in rich archival research that paints a vivid tableau of Californian subcultures, this important book reaches far beyond the Golden State in its explication of how these cultures were formed and the profound impact they continue to have."—Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession

"Luhr's brilliant new book reframes California spirituality from stereotypes of cults and kooks to the leading edge of religious evolution in a market-driven, globalized world. Why are Americans losing their religion? How do we find meaning and purpose? What does spirituality even mean? Anyone interested in these questions needs to read Golden States."—Diane Winston, author of Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision

About the Book

About the Author

From Our Blog

How California’s Dr. Bronner’s Spiritual Messaging Became a Global Brand

Table of Contents

Reviews