Richard B. Rice

I lived in Los Angeles for nine years, and I enjoyed it. L.A. introduced me to audiobooks as an alternative to road rage. I remember fondly the year we bought Disneyland’s discounted Southern California Resident pass, before they discontinued them and jacked the price to a million dollars a day.

I wouldn’t be opposed to moving back if I could figure out how to afford it, but some can’t understand why I would consider moving to a state that’s a basket case by just about any metric. show more This history book is helpful for understanding that, truth be told, California has never been anything but a basket case.

The authors of this textbook get their arms around the sprawling weirdness of California by organizing its chapters by periods of history, from the Native American era through to the environmental and water wars at the dawn of the 21st century.

Until I read this book, I didn’t appreciate how much of California’s wonderful strangeness is driven by its geographical isolation. Its deserts and mountains set it apart as an island within a continent, such that even its pre-European tribes developed in relative (though not total) separation from others.

This isolation discouraged Spanish settlement and, later, weakened Mexican control to the point that it fell easily into American hands. Only the gold rush of 1848 ended California’s splendid isolation as a massive horde of treasure seekers transformed a rural backwater into an instant state.

Instant population creates instant problems, and the geographical unevenness of California’s regular and explosive growth cycles have forged a state that’s always large, always evolving, always unstable, and always difficult to govern. I can think of few jobs I’d want less than Governor of California.

One thing the authors of this book did really well is introducing major sections with a chapter on a human interest story, from the “Blind Boss” of San Francisco to the internments of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This brings the history to life, giving you a feel for each period of the state’s history.

The chapters are well written and engaging for a history text. The narrative dragged in later chapters, but that’s common for books of this type. As societies become more complex, they’re driven more by committees, bureaucracies, and movements. It’s hard to summarize these things in an interesting way.

Finally, I thought the authors were even-handed in their interpretations. Exceptions might be a bit of cheerleading for California’s environmental movement, and a bit of disdain for former governor Jerry Brown. They dislike Brown so obviously that it’s actually funny, given how balanced they tried to be elsewhere.

I recommend this as an excellent comprehensive history of California, although I also recommend you make a plate of sandwiches. This is a thick book and a dense read, so you won’t be going anywhere for a while. On the upside, you’ll come away with a better understanding of the state that everyone either loves or loves to hate. show less