Smile, Southern California, You're the Center of the Universe: The Economy and People of a Global Region

Journalist Flanigan argues that the 22-million-strong region at the nexus of Latin America and the U.S. has moved from the periphery to the center of the American economy via specific innovations, endowments and long-term trends that have not only helped create the new global economy but point the way to U.S. prosperity in a dramatically changed global marketplace. Profiling small business owners, inventors, academic researchers, and business and finance pioneers (including broadband innovator Henry Samueli and financier Michael Milken), Flanigan gives an informed sense of key transformations in both SoCal's economy and international trade attendant on developments in communications technology. Dismissing gloomier forecasts by the likes of Mike Davis and Joan Didion, Flanigan aligns himself with the “reasoned optimism” of authors like historian Kevin Starr and journalist Peter Schrag, but it must be said his is a more narrowly focused treatment than this company suggests, which leaves the book overly sanguine at points. Nonetheless, this is a valuable explication of the meaning and challenges of “globalization” for the region and the U.S. generally. (Mar.)