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.
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A superb, warts-and-all introduction to the nation's most populous, polyglot and physically varied state -- 'a land and people,' says Fradkin, 'that are still in constant motion.'" (Frederic Golden, San Francisco Chronicle Review
"Contains a delightful array of anecdotes, mini-biographies and local histories . . . [and] makes great reading. . . . While many of us bumble along in the bubbles of our local espresso cart and occasional car stereo theft, Fradkin experiences our worst public events as the very stuff of life. This lends his writing a stirring urgency." -- Dan Duane, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"For three years, journalist Fradkin drove 200,000 miles in an old Volkswagen camper and swam, skied, sailed, hiked, biked, and climbed through the California landscape. The result is a tough, heartfelt book that succeeds both as history and as a personal odyssey." -- James Hamilton, Westways
"Contains a delightful array of anecdotes, mini-biographies and local histories . . . [and] makes great reading. . . . While many of us bumble along in the bubbles of our local espresso cart and occasional car stereo theft, Fradkin experiences our worst public events as the very stuff of life. This lends his writing a stirring urgency." -- Dan Duane, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"For three years, journalist Fradkin drove 200,000 miles in an old Volkswagen camper and swam, skied, sailed, hiked, biked, and climbed through the California landscape. The result is a tough, heartfelt book that succeeds both as history and as a personal odyssey." -- James Hamilton, Westways
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A People's History of California....,
By Rockthrowingbuddhist (Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History (Paperback)
A great book and a good read: Patrica Nelson Limerick's The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West meets John McPhee's Assembling California. Part human geography, part revisionist history, part travel narrative, Fradkin looks at events big and small from a perspective other than the railroad, mining, and timber barons, and the civic boosters of the Golden State. One focus is on the untold stories of the Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Irish and the others marginalized in previous histories. Another focus is the realm of the natural world (Grizzly bear, salmon, the Cascade volcanos e.g.)and how it influenced the past and how it is reflected into the present, sometimes ironically. Fredkin weaves these together with his personal experience and research and produces a very readable, entertaining and often disconcerting whole. I have spent much time in the past reseaching California's history for professional and academic purposes and this book taught me much. Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great social/environmental history,
By jerseymca "jerseymca" (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History (Paperback)
Although the books is billed as presenting an ecological history of California, it appears that this is mainly to help sell it. Where Fradkin excels is in uncovering little-known social history, particularly around racial strife. There's a lot of us-vs-them in this state's history that's rarely talked about. The great thing is, the author presents a coherent, readable history, rather than a tiresome sermon from a soapbox. Worth a read.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why the Golden State is golden, despite its flaws,
By S. J. Snyder "De gustibus non disputandum" (Various, United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Seven States of California: A Natural and Human History (Hardcover)
I picked this book up as natural history, and have indeed learned much about it, getting beyond a simple coast/valley/mountains/desert mindset into the different mountain regions, their formation and more.Of course, it's arguable that the way Fradkin breaks up the coast ranges into separate sections is more social history than natural history. But that's fine. Speaking of that, his phrase names for each section also reflect social history as much as natural history. And are insightful in both ways. Fradkin paints a good social history, not just of California as a whole but each of its regions individually, such as loggers in the northern coast, corporate farmers in the Central Valley, the paradoxes of Los Angeles, and so forth. I would recommend this book to native or semi-native Californios as a fresh look at their state, as well as to outsiders.
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