From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, this is the story of a place at once quintessentially American and utterly unique. See more ideas about california history, books, history books. Following four different California “yuppies,” from Silicon Valley exec to rock musician, Vikram Seth’s poetic lines explore love, homosexuality, ambition, religion, and the chaotic energy of … Starr's volume functions more as a textbook than anything else — it tells you the facts but distances itself from controversy or offers much of a point of view. Vikram Seth’s beautifully lyrical tale captures the essence of California in the 1980s in this novel in verse. This is arguably a feature, not a bug, but it did not make for particularly memorable reading for this Californian. A reminder that while it is popular sport to romanticize the wild history of our beloved Golden State, we still have a great many ugly truth. The section on Disneyland as encapsulating the values of the time and suburban SoCal also blew my mind (I grew up in the OC). Sort of... Lots has to be skipped, lots of personal perspectives leaving out other, entirely valid, perspectives (OK, every history does that), lots of quick summarizing. Video. But at times this book was hard to get through. The Beach Boys are mentioned in passing as Brian Wilson's vehicle, and Frank Zappa is omitted. Read More Books in 2021 with the Goodreads Reading Challenge. A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA: The Spanish Period - FULL AudioBook | GreatestAudioBooks - A comprehensive and highly entertaining popular history of … The Permanente Pr… can wear on you, but for a general overview of the state's history up to Arnold's governorship, it's not bad. California: A History is one of those special nonfiction histories that reads like a novel. I am just that boring. the 20th century labor struggles and the battle for control prior to statehood. If you don’t know Kevin Starr, he is a historian who produced a seven-book chronological series about Americans and the C. This a book I’ve been meaning to read for some time but non-fiction is always a hard sell in terms of getting me to actually pick it up. I also didn't appreciate the very sympathetic tone Starr takes towards European conquerors and colonists from the Spanish mission system to Anglo-American gold miners. In an account of the state's architecture, he barely mentions the Wrights and neglects to mention John Lautner at all. The First Peoples of California The … It did not matter where I opened up the book, each chapter was really fascinating and pleasant to read. The rest of his magnum opus Americans and the California Dream series is also well worth the read. I also didn't appreciate the very sympathetic tone Starr takes towards European conquerors and colonists from the Spanish mission system to Anglo-American gold miners. Audio An illustration of a 3.5" floppy disk. A history of my beloved state in one volume, why not? California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land of countless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. There is enough myth around California's origin- the name came from a popular Spanish novel from the 1500s which referred to a mythical island west of Indies that was ruled by a Queen by the nam. You'll encounter a lot of characters we see in names of places every day: Sutter, Fremont, Powell, Vallejo to name a few. A concise, elegantly-written history of California by the state's most acclaimed historian, California: A History is reliably informative and readable. I really enjoyed this book but it left me wanting more. It was also inevitable that the resulting book would be little more than a collage of names and anecdotes with little structure, since squeezing together 200-plus years would leave little room for original insights. Finally I imperceptibly created in her an impatience to hear something serious from me on the subject, which caused me to ask for her hand, to which she consented. (And if... California has always been our Shangri-la–the promised land of countless pilgrims in search of the American Dream. I picked this up because, even as a native Californian and someone pretty well-traveled and studied within the state, I felt like I didn't understand key moments of CA history and had big holes during certain eras of CA history. A door with iron bars an inch square like the bars of window sashes, and it grated on its iron hinges as it opened to receive me. In the notes of this book, Kevin Starr comments on his initial hesitation about how successful a one-volume history of the state of California could be. 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