The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History / Edition 1

by Philip L. Fradkin

Overview

What explains California? To a large extent, as Philip Fradkin's rich, exuberant portrait makes clear, it's the multiple landscapes and the different states of mind that best define America's most populous, diverse, and fabled state. Fradkin divides California into seven distinct ecological and cultural provinces—from the hot deserts and high peaks to the rich agricultural Central Valley, the redwood forests of the north and sandy beaches of the south. Describing geographical regions based on their emblematic landscape features, Fradkin intertwines natural and social history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520209428
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	05/12/1997
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	474
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Philip Fradkin is the author of six highly acclaimed books on the American West, including the newly updated A River No More (California, 1996). A former environmental writer for the Los Angeles Times, he also served as Assistant Secretary of the California Resources Agency, as Western editor for Audubon magazine, and has taught nonfiction writing at Stanford and UC Berkeley. He shared in a Pulitzer prize awarded to the Los Angeles Times for coverage of the 1965 Watts racial conflict.

Table of Contents

Preface                      

The Approach                   
I: Deserts                     
II: The Sierra                 
III: Land of Fire            
IV: Land of Water            
V: The Great Valley          
VI: The Fractured Province   
VII: The Profligate Province 

Acknowledgments              
Source Notes                 
Index                        
 

Editorial Reviews

In this ambitious and highly readable attempt to explain California, Fradkin (An American Nuclear Tragedy) reveals how the state's landscape has helped shape its destiny. Hanging his narrative on geological features of seven regions of the state (e.g., a series of dry lakes, a mountain, a lava bed, an earthquake fault), he puts heavy emphasis on California's violent past and present: the destruction of the Modoc Indians, anti-Chinese pogroms, the incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII, the death of James Dean (``a California life, a California death, a California life after death''), a serial killer in Marin County, drive-by shootings so common they are no longer news. Into these and numerous other topics Fradkin weaves personal impressions of this richly textured land and its restless population acquired during his 35 years residing in the state. The vision throughout is distinctly negative. As to California's future, Fradkin sees it as ``a dark, chaotic time,'' a statement typical of this masterly but withering interpretation of the Golden State. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Fradkin, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, offers a portrait of America's most populous, diverse, and transcendent state. He describes seven distinct ecological and cultural provinces within the state as a background to a series of linked stories about natural and human history, touching on subjects including immigration, violence and conflict, environmental issues, and attempts to control natural resources and natural disasters. Contains b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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