Product Description
California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land of countless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. Now the Golden State’s premier historian, Kevin Starr, distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, this is the story of a place at once quintessentially American and utterly unique.

Arguing that America’s most populous state has always been blessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing human diversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph.

For generations, California’s native peoples basked in the abundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to human habitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth century, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving in the region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passed before Spain exerted control over upper California through the chain of missions that stand to this day.

The discovery of gold in January 1848 changed everything. With population increasing exponentially as get-rich-quick dreamers converged from all over the world, California reinvented itself overnight. Starr deftly traces the successive waves of innovation and calamity that have broken over the state since then–the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons and the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the heroic irrigation and transportation projects that have altered the face of the region; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace.

Kevin Starr has devoted his career to the history of his beloved state, but he has never lost his sense of wonder over California’s sheer abundance and peerless variety. This one-volume distillation of a lifetime’s work gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

A brilliant synopsis of California history
Kevin Starr, a brilliant Harvard historian now academically at USC, remains a San Franciscan at heart. His multi-volume history of the state, still in progress, will doubtlessly prove the ultimate reference for those interested in digging deep into the inception, progress and multi-cultural evolution of this most fascinating of states. Meanwhile, Starr has given us a synopsis in advance in this abridged version of his magnum opus. Since Starr is as gifted a writer as he is a distinguished historian, this book is simply a great read, whether or not you're a Californian.

Pretentious, Verbose, Boring & Pulped
California, A History, Kevin Starr; The Modern Library (Random House; 2005)


Snoooooooooze.

No, I don't know how a dull book about California can be written.But I am certain that Starr succeeded.

Purchased in hardcover at The Book Loft in Solvang, CA during our 2005-06 Santa Anita Opening Day trip, I had reasonably high hopes for what looked, at first glance, to be a winner.

But all of its positive aspects - the upfront chronology of state events between 1510 & 2005; the provision of numerous exact dates of significant events in the text; the extensive index, & the admirable quality of the paper it was printed on - were wasted on an academic hack.

I made repeated attempts to pick it up & resume where I left off.But the only time that this worked was the day when the racing card at Monmouth Park in 2007 was so boring, CAH looked exciting in comparison.

And I could have done without the author using - in the opening of his preface, "A Nation State," without having the decency of acknowledgement - Winston Churchill's rhetorical technique: "Where did it come from - this nation-state, this world commonwealth, this California?"

When you've swiped from the best & you still can't write well...

Pretentiousness Prattle: Violence did not occur; it was "wrought" ("Whatever violence [Fremont's army] wrought..."- p. 69.On the previous page, mercenary Delaware Indians were dubiously described as Fremont's "praetorian guard").

The book had a decent amount of residual value as a reference resource, but I don't care (pulped on 09/03/10).The Spirit of '76 (the page that marked the end of forward progress), for once, was an admission of defeat, not pugnacious resilience.

One can only hope that the Californian wildfires of October & November 2007 - which brought - excuse me, wrought - misery to the citizens that fled to ocean shores for safety - also managed to burn down the warehouse where all of the unsold copies of California, A History have been boxed up, presumably in silent embarrassment.

OK for a fast and dirty history of the Golden State
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book.It covers many, many topics related to the history of California.As such, do not expect the author to delve too much on every single topic.I did find that some were more interesting than others and merited further treatment, instead of the paragraph or two dedicated to them.

One thing that I will say (and that prompted me to write this review) is that, when I read this book, I had several moments when I would cringe.Sometimes I would have to re-read the passage (and cringe again) to make sure that is what the author wrote.Why did I cringe?Although the author tries to keep it middle-of-the-road, his prejudices do come out in certain pages (he tilts a little to the right and has an interesting view of race and race relations).

Before you vote that my review was not helpful, I will tell you that that I am a minority and I tend to tilt to the left.While this may be the reason why some of his passages made me cringe, I would have given an author that tilts to the left the same rating.When you purchase a book with a title such as "California: A History," you expect an impartial account of history.If I purchased a book entitled "A people's history of..." then I would know what I was getting into.

Like I said in the beginning, overall I enjoyed reading the book.His list of sources is excellent.I'm thankful to the author that he pointed me towards a couple of more books.

Good book
This was a good and interesting book. I had to get it for a history class and I will say I quite liked it. Easy to read and understand.

worth reading, but inadequate in parts
I am a native Californian, live in Silicon Valley, and love the Golden State. I have seen the storied parts of Europe - Provence, Tuscany, Sicily - and yes, Venice,, Rome and Paris.I also know the U.S. quite well - there is no comparison, the San Francisco Bay Area, Yosemite, La Jolla, Big Sur, Mt. Shasta, Monterey, Napa Wine country, East Oakland and East Los Angeles - this is the best, most innovative, most diverse, most fantastic place on Earth.
I respect the book Mr. Starr has written, but it doesnt fully capture what makes California such a unique place.let me illustrate by one example.In the 1990s and even now, California's Silicon Valley transformed the entire planet like no other time in human history - through the Internet and world wide Web.Yahoo, Google, Cisco, eBay, Apple, Facebook on top of the 'old' economy companies like Intel, Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Genentech etc etc. did more than any place or peopleever to make the world flat (to quote Tom Friedman of the NYT). This is a place where the most innovative, driven people of Asia, America and Europe meet and work together to forge (mostly) a better world - it is the Constantinople, the Venice or the Renaissance Florence of the modern times.
Similarily, Hollywood in S. California (which began with Charlie Chaplin in the Niles Canyon area near S.Francisco) provided the most widespread means that humanity has to look at itself in the mirror, and yet Kevin Starr does notgive it the deserved importance
He devotes less to thesethan he spends on railroad robber barons and other minute happenings of the 19th century - admittedly important, but did they change the entire world, in such a short time!?
... Read more

Product Description
In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir made himself America's most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness, a master of natural description who evoked and celebrated with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of Alaska and the American West. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Better than anticipated
I hesitated buying this complete works book by Muir as I wondered if it would be more than I wanted. Did I really care about his youth or was I just looking for some of his more famous writings? To my delight, I have enjoyed this book from the start. I found his essays about his childhood in Scotland and about his family's move to America to be a nice foundation for understanding how he became the man he was and the impact he had on nature writing and on conservation. I came to live in the Maine woods not because of the job opportunities (ha) or for the Starbucks on the corner (not) but to be in a quiet place surrounded by streams, woods, mountains, lakes and all of the recreational and contemplative opportunities these afford us. I am no stranger to nature writing, but honestly, I came to John Muir a bit late. In a way, I am glad as I think his words have spoken to me now in a way that I can really appreciate. I recommend this body of essays to anyone who lives in nature or doesn't but wish they did. His writing provides a nice escape.

Poetry in Discovery
With the recent focus on our national parks, it seemed valuable to revisit Muir's own writings. His enthusiasm for even the smallest encounters with the natural world remind us that we need not explore to conquer or as an "extreme sport", but are better served to allow the experiences to unfold.
His is a keen, yet quiet, approach to true adventure in living in our world and on our planet.
No need to feel obligated to read his writings as one might a novel.It is equally satisfying to take sips and enjoy the moments.

Share with a friend
I bought a couple of these books to share with friends I backpack in the Sierras with.This is an excellent collection of the writings of John Muir.If you price the individual pieces, you will see the value of this one volume.If you are a hiker or a naturalist of any degree, you will have an appreciation for the experience of John Muir in his wanderings through unspoiled territory.This book does not come in a dust jacket as one of the images shows, but it does come with a sturdy binding that could stand up to a day in the hills or at the shore spent in thoughtful reading.

Beautiful book.
I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my sister. The book is beautiful. I am going to order a second one for myself.

Muir should be required reading, period.
I've only read "My First Summer in the Sierra," and attest to Muir's enchanting style and lucidity. He writes as an enthusiast, but gives his stories a plain-spoken clarity that can be enjoyed by all.

Muir must have been quite an individual - after working as a shepherd for a few months, he talks of getting time off from his employer, "tying some bread to his belt, and walking to Mammoth" from the Merced area of the western foothills of the Sierras. Yep, a nice casual stroll. Or climbing and looking down into the ice cone on Yosemite Falls. Why not? It's there every winter...

I hope Library of America will put out another volume so they can make "The Yosemite" available to all. In it, Muir describes the three native Californian "Yosemite" (Tuolumne, Sequoia, and Kings) almost as a tour guide. This book is a glaring omission from the LoA volume, and gives great insight into the mind of the premier conservationist of the early 1900s.

As always, LoA delivers a quality volume at a good price. ... Read more

Product Description
This groundbreaking book presents a global perspective on the history of forced migration over three centuries and illuminates the centrality of these vast movements of people in the making of the modern world. Highly original essays from renowned international scholars trace the history of slaves, indentured servants, transported convicts, bonded soldiers, trafficked women, and coolie and Kanaka labor across the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. They depict the cruelty of the captivity, torture, terror, and death involved in the shipping of human cargo over the waterways of the world, which continues unabated to this day. At the same time, these essays highlight the forms of resistance and cultural creativity that have emerged from this violent history. Together, the essays accomplish what no single author could provide: a truly global context for understanding the experience of men, women, and children forced into the violent and alienating experience of bonded labor in a strange new world. This pioneering volume also begins to chart a new role of the sea as a key site where history is made. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Slavery then and now
This excellent collection of essays more than lives up to its "Product Description." Its scope goes beyond the 3 centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: it includes essays on slave trade in the South Pacific; forced labor and migration of Chinese, Indian and Irish people, as well as prisoners and sailors; slavery today; and links these histories of forced labor to the unfolding "needs" of global capitalism and the world that has emerged.

Many Middle Passages
Hello
When I am reading "Moby Dick" by H.Merville and "The Capital" by K.Marx,I encounter this book and rejoice. Between these two big books in 19th cencury,it seems to me,this book appears very naturally alongside the course of world history. I am a Japanese translator. And When I encountered American word "abolutionist" a few decades ago, I began to read a American history by David Brion Davis, and learned about American Slavery. I rejoice partly because I find the general name of Japanese over-sea sex-slave of 19th or 20th cencuries,karayuki-san in this book.
Flankly speaking I want to read a English book about yellow peril. If it appeared, I want to translate it into Japanese. ... Read more

Product Description
Brilliantly mixing geology, folklore, music, cultural commentary, and history, Gary Y. Okihiro overturns the customary narrative in which the United States acts upon and dominates Hawai'i. Instead, Island World depicts the islands' press against the continent, endowing America's story with fresh meaning. Okihiro's reconsidered history reveals Hawaiians fighting in the Civil War, sailing on nineteenth-century New England ships, and living in pre-gold rush California. He points to Hawai'i's lingering effect on twentieth-century American culture--from surfboards, hula, sports, and films, to art, imagination, and racial perspectives--even as the islands themselves succumb slowly to the continental United States. In placing Hawai'i at the center of the national story, Island World rejects the premise that continents comprise "natural" states while islands are "tiny spaces," without significance, to be acted upon by continents. An astonishingly compact tour de force, this book not only revises the way we think about islands, oceans, and continents, it also recasts the way we write about space and time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sorry, can't recommend.
Sorry, I can't recommend this book.There are simply too many errors for it to be considered useful.

I realize it is written for a young audience, but that is no reason to condone numerous mistakes of fact, omission and interpretation.

The Esselen are a fascinating, and unfortunately little known group in central California. I have been studying this group for over 30 years, and had hoped for better; I am very disappointed in the way this book turned out. ... Read more

Product Description
The nineteenth-century notion that Southern California's sunny climate could cure tuberculosis, asthma, rheumatism, and a host of other diseases triggered a rush of health seekers to the region. By the end of the century, these settlers from the East had inflated land values, caused building booms, inaugurated new types of businesses, and founded such towns as Pasadena, Riverside, and Palm Springs.
Baur investigates this migration's effect on the settlement and development of Southern California, focusing on boosterism, resort advertising, medicine and pseudomedicine, and sanitariums. When his study of the region's health-resort industry was originally published in 1959, he was hailed as the Herodotus of the health movement of Southern California. ... Read more

Product Description
From the educational space of UC Berkeley to a one-room library in Silverado Canyon, this tour of thirty-two California libraries explores the sense of space and unique atmosphere a structure can provide. Dividing California into eight distinct regions including the northern California coast, the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles County, and San Diego county, the work looks at a sampling of libraries from each area, discussing the surroundings, facilities and physical presentation of each building. Chosen libraries reflect the communities they serve as well as their particular missions. Entries include contact information for the selected library, a website address, and information regarding its size, circulation and the extent of its collection. Photographs of the libraries are also included. ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When 17-year-old John Rodgers discovers a new subspecies of butterfly which may necessitate closing the mill where his dying father works, they find themselves on opposite sides of the environmental conflict. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Not interested!
This book was uninteresting and I would not recommend reading it.The story line did not draw me in.

Conservation Vs. Employment
While out running one day through the forest belonging to the local sawmill, John comes across a butterfly chrysalis like none he's ever seen.Being a good science student, he takes it home to let it hatch.When it does, a beautiful blue butterfly that doesn't match any category in his identification book emerges.It is possibly that there is an undiscovered species of butterfly living in this forest set to be destroyed by the loggers.

John shares the butterfly with his science teacher, who contacts an old college professor of hers who is an insect expert.When the man comes to town, suddenly things are stirred up.He wants to study the habitat of the butterfly and probably eventually declare it a protected species.Those who live in town, including John's father, make their living off of the sawmill.If they aren't allowed to cut down the trees where the butterfly was found, it is likely the mill will shut down and the entire town will die with it.

Death is weighing heavily on the minds of John and his family, anyway, as his aggressive and overbearing father has been diagnosed with leukemia.All of his life John has felt that he has never been able to do anything to make his father happy and proud, and he worries that his involvement in finding this butterfly will only make things worse in his family.Will he stand by his discovery, or will he side with those who think the sawmill ought to have the right to cut down all the trees they want?

I liked the complexity of the conflict in John's life, with his father being very sick and so tied to the mill while John felt pulled in the direction of science and wanting to help his butterfly.I also liked Dr. Eggleson's character--he seemed the perfect professor activist and I liked that he wasn't afraid of the people in John's town who were against him.

I thought that John having a crush on his teacher and her almost returning his feelings was a little creepy.It was sad to me that John never really made an effort to understand or really get to know his parents.At the end of the book he was just starting to figure out what made his father tick, and he was only barely thinking there must be something more to his mother than what was on the surface.

California Blue
In the book california blue the main character is john. He has two older brother that are extreemly good at foot ball and basket ball. he on the other hnd is not so good at sports. he run's track and only has 3rd and 4th place ribon's. His friends led him to smoke and drink. He disides to run away to his old teachers house and his mom has to draghim home.
This book is very deep. If you read this book you have to pay attention to the details in the story. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody undernine years of age. I think that kids under nine are to immature for this book because it involves drugs, alcohol, and sex therefor should not be read by children under nine years old.

Inspiring
This book inspired me to become a distance runner. There should be a warning sign on the front of this book that says, "Caution: This book could change your life."

I read the book at the end of eigth grade, and the imagery and freedom of distance running appealed to me.

This is my seventeenth season of distance running.

Read this book. It could change your life.

California Blue a winner
This is a traykewl book! The way the author shows the teenage feelings is very effective and the relationships between John and Miss Merill and John and his dad are very realistic! This book rings true to what is happening in society today and the war between loggers and enviromentalists. A GR8 read!! ... Read more

Product Description
The Huntington is one of America’s premier cultural, research, and educational centers, with holdings that are among the most treasured artifacts of Western civilization. Its most famous treasures include a lavishly decorated fifteenth-century manuscript of Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales," one of only eleven known vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible, Benjamin Franklin’s handwritten autobiography, a rare double-elephant folio of Audubon’s "Birds of America," and George Washington’s own survey of Mount Vernon. The collections comprise more than five million rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, prints, and ephemera, with extraordinary resources for the study of British and American history and literature, the history of science, and the history of printing. "The Huntington Library: Treasures from Ten Centuries" opens the doors of what is known as a scholar’s paradise, exploring the value of these holdings in history and for the present. Railroad and real estate developer Henry E. Huntington accumulated his world-class collections at a blistering pace early in the 20th century. In his introduction, Library Director David Zeidberg explains the unprecedented strategies Huntington used to acquire these extraordinary materials. In the following chapters, the curators present highlights from the collections of illuminated manuscripts, cartography, early printed books (those before 1500), paleography (the study of ancient handwriting), history of science, photography, American literature, and the California Gold Rush. This volume will appeal to those who want to know more about the Huntington Library as well as anyone interested in Anglo-American cultural history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

behind-the-scenes look at a scholars' paradise
The Huntington's most famous treasures include a lavishly decorated fifteenth-century manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, one of only eleven known vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible, Benjamin Franklin's handwritten autobiography, and a rare double-elephant folio of Audubon's Birds of America. The collections comprise more than five million rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, prints, and ephemera, with extraordinary resources for the study of British and American history and literature, the history of science, and the history of printing. The Huntington Library: Treasures from Ten Centuries opens the doors of a scholar's paradise, exploring the value of these holdings in history and for the present. ... Read more

Product Description
The Gold Rush drew the Portuguese from the Azores, sweeping them across the Atlantic Ocean and around South America's Cape Horn to the California shore. When gold failed to pan out, many Portuguese moved to the hamlet of San Leandro on the San Francisco Bay where land was reasonable and the ground fertile. Gradually the post-Gold Rush settlers joined with former Portuguese shore whalers to farm the fields of San Leandro. San Leandro became a principal landing place for newly arrived Portuguese immigrants putting down roots on small farms. A steady stream of relatives from the Azores and Hawaii poured into San Leandro's fertile foothills, and by 1911 the Portuguese comprised over two-thirds of the city's population. The early days were rough. Portuguese immigrants banded together in fraternal societies to overcome a lack of resources and to help one another navigate a strange world whose language they did not speak. Today the Portuguese Immigrant monument in Root Park's plaza commemorates the journey of Portuguese settlers who left everything behind to start a new life in the new world. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is about history and the practical power of language to reveal historical change. Christopher Ehret offers a methodological guide to applying language evidence in historical studies. He demonstrates how these methods allow us not only to recover the histories of time periods and places poorly served by written documentation, but also to enrich our understanding of well-documented regions and eras. A leading historian as well as historical linguist of Africa, Ehret provides in-depth examples from the language phyla of Africa, arguing that his comprehensive treatment can be applied by linguistically trained historians and historical linguists working with any language and in any area of the world. ... Read more

Product Description
In this groundbreaking book, Ilham Khuri-Makdisi establishes the existence of a special radical trajectory spanning four continents and linking Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria between 1860 and 1914. She shows that socialist and anarchist ideas were regularly discussed, disseminated, and reworked among intellectuals, workers, dramatists, Egyptians, Ottoman Syrians, ethnic Italians, Greeks, and many others in these cities. In situating the Middle East within the context of world history, Khuri-Makdisi challenges nationalist and elite narratives of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern history as well as Eurocentric ideas about global radical movements. The book demonstrates that these radical trajectories played a fundamental role in shaping societies throughout the world and offers a powerful rethinking of Ottoman intellectual and social history. ... Read more

Product Description
Among the Gnostic treasures uncovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 is this extraordinary spiritual narrative. In it, a third-century narrator known as Allogenes—the Foreigner—recounts a series of visions and divine revelations. He describes his spiritual progress: how he overcomes fear and ignorance and ascends into the divine realm as he experiences the transcendent Unknowable God. Karen King, a contributor to The Nag Hammadi Library in English, provides a new English translation of this work, along with complete original-language Coptic text, introduction, and extensive notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Research
Karen King is literally "King" of early Christian research...the text is research oriented but absolutely required for any study of Gnostic or early Christian history.
King's book on the Gospel of Mary is an easier read and the most fascinating and best documented historical text on Mary Magdalene as the 1st Lady of Christianity,wife of Jesus, and designated primary Apostle meant to lead the teachings of the early church on His passing.

Revelation of the Unknowable God
There are two significant types of structural units in Allogenes: the direct address of Allogenes to Messos and the revelation discourses. The first contains the narrative account by Allogenes of his experiences and his reactions to the revelations he receives. The narrative direction of the text is found here as it depicts the steady progression of Allogenes toward salvation. As Allogenes moves from fear to joy, from ignorance and disturbance of the soul to knowledge, stability, praise and silence, the text provides the reader with a clear illustration of the purposeful, directed progression of the Gnostic toward salvation.

Allogenes
The edition of this beautiful text is given in coptic diplomatic form and with its english translation. It is definitely an exquisite book in its contents and presentation, full of very useful scholarly notes, which add a very rich value to the book. This is a book worth having for scholars and for any lover of christian, gnostic or religious studies. ... Read more

Product Description
This book reflects three aspects of John Muir's life first as one of the leading figures in the fight for land and forest conservation second as a practicing geologist who saw in prehistoric glaciation one of the vital forces in land formation and third as an eloquent essayist who celebrated the beauties of the mountains of california for millions of readers. He describes here the glacier meadows the incomparable sierra terrain the exhilaration of mountain climbing etc. ... Read more