California: An American History

by John Mack Faragher Narrated by John Chancer

Overview

A concise and lively history of California, the most multicultural state in the nation

 

“Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California's multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles.”-Carlos E. Cortés, University of California, Riverside

 

California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. California's natural variety has always supported diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern states, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

 

Beautifully crafted and elegantly written, Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, others mostly unknown, including African American Archy Lee, who sued for his freedom; Sinkyone Indian woman Sally Bell, who survived genocide; and Jewish schoolgirl Marilyn Greene, who spoke up for her Japanese friends after Pearl Harbor. California's multicultural diversity often led to conflict, turmoil, and violence, but also to invention, improvisation, and a struggle for multicultural democracy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A masterful history of a place that is both reality and ideal, and central to the modern world.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“California history for grown-ups. . . . A brisk, accessible romp through nearly 500 years of social, political and economic upheaval in the Golden State.”—James Sullivan, San Francisco Chronicle

“A great new book.”—Del Quinton Wilber, Los Angeles Times

“Beautifully written, attentive to the local, regional, national, and international contexts of events, the book is a major achievement and will be an indispensable starting point for anyone interested in the history of California.”—William Issel, Pacific Historical Review

“A lively, accessible one-volume history. . . . [Faragher’s] engaging narrative of cooperation and conflict will introduce general readers to the many people who made the state what it is today, beset with major problems and offering the hope of something better.”—David Neumann, California History

“Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California’s multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles.”—Carlos E. Cortés, University of California, Riverside

“It is often said that California has little history. But there’s nothing little about this beautifully illustrated and written book, which brilliantly distills the depth and diversity of California’s past.”—Stephen Aron, Autry Museum of the American West

“With verve, clarity, and erudition, John Mack Faragher has wrestled California’s monumental, tragic, triumphant, immense history into a single volume. This is a superb book by one of our most insightful scholars of the far West. A signal achievement.”—William Deverell, Institute on California and the West

“John Mack Faragher understands the promise, and the heartbreak, of California. This is a wonderfully concentrated but comprehensive and evocative history of the most American of states.”—James Fallows, coauthor of Our Towns

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2022-01-25
A sweeping survey of the Golden State over the last 12,000 or so years.

It’s not easy to compress the history of Delaware, much less the vast realm of California, in under 500 pages. Yale professor Faragher, author of many books about American history, succeeds admirably. His underlying theme is diversity. California “includes more variation in climate than any other,” and it also encompasses 178 major habitat types, 109 federally recognized Native American tribes and bands, and people from all over the world (for which reason Los Angeles alone, it’s estimated, has more than 500 Salvadoran restaurants). Faragher is quick to add that diversity has not always been positive. Economic inequality is perhaps nowhere more pronounced, at least within the bounds of the U.S., and California has given birth to the most progressive and the most retrograde political traditions, which Faragher illustrates by contrasting Govs. Earl Warren and Ronald Reagan. The author tackles numerous controversial and unpleasant issues head-on, from the dispossession and murder of countless Indigenous people to the long tradition of police brutality symbolized by the vicious 1991 attack on Rodney King and the subsequent realization that “the LAPD was an authority unto itself.” One theme that might have used a few more pages is the profound division—political, economic, and cultural—between rural and urban California, which might as well be separate nations, marked by what the late Joan Didion described as “rancorous differences in attitude and culture.” Wobblies, Black Panthers, Forty-Niners, conquistadors, and Native peoples all appear in Faragher’s vigorous narrative, both a celebration of the state’s wealth and creativity and acknowledgment that so much of its history is marked by “conflict, turmoil, and violence.” Though this book may not supplant Kevin Starr’s multivolume history of California, it makes a valuable complement, highly readable and with a compelling governing argument.

A masterful history of a place that is both reality and ideal, and central to the modern world.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175393249
Publisher:	Yale Press Audio
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos