What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking [Hardcover]

Jack Cashill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2007

There's an unspoken fault line in California. No, not the San Andreas Fault nor any of the geologic ones we all know about. This fault line is cultural -- formed by the waves of ethnic and social groups that have rammed willy-nilly into California and now refuse to get along. Californians today worry about "The Big One," but it's a cultural cataclysm they -- and the rest of us -- should fear.

When writer and columnist Jack Cashill was skewered along with Kansas (despite the fact that he lives in Missouri) in Thomas Frank's New York Times bestseller What's the Matter with Kansas?, he decided to fight back with a riposte from the heart -- an honest, biting, and wickedly funny look at what's wrong with the purplest of blue states: almighty California itself.

The media moguls, multiculturalists, union bosses, and eco-warriors who run California have abandoned liberalism for total insanity. They have transformed the Golden State from America's future into America's Rome. Spectacularly sybaritic and self-indulgent, overtaxed and overregulated, California lives on past glories, and even Conan the Republican cannot muster the will to defend its borders. Now, finally, Jack Cashill is here to rally the right-thinking citizens of the state (and the nation) and rescue this gorgeous chunk of real estate from its increasingly shaky future.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cashill declares that California served as a beachhead in the humanistic war on faith, but his argument reads more like a series of familiar right-wing talking points slapped on California. Showing little interest in one of the country's most dynamic population centers, he launches bold attacks on notorious Californians like Charles Manson and Jim Jones. He sidesteps the global influence of Silicon Valley and in his discussion of Hollywood focuses mostly on a few movies he dislikes. That these influential industries might owe something to Californian rootlessness doesn't occur to Cashill. In many cases he bases his points on anecdotal evidence, such as that he did not see any U.S. flags in San Francisco's gay district. The book often rambles, diluting the crankiness that might otherwise distinguish Cashill. The intended audience of liberal bashers may miss Ann Coulter's wit. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Wonderful, a thorough, thoughtful, impressive effort.... [Cashill] exposes our blindness, and offers a diagnosis so dead-on, so compelling, that it ought to leave 36 million bewildered Californians scratching their heads, wondering, 'Why didn't I think of that?'"

-- Chris Weinkopf, Los Angeles Daily News

"Far from being a simplistic 'right vs. left' take on California and why the rest of the country should learn from its example, Cashill's book provides a rich tapestry of time and place.... What's the Matter with California? demonstrates what exactly ails the Golden State."

-- Cinnamon Stillwell, online columnist, SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Thoroughly brave, unsparingly clear-eyed, and absolutely entertaining. Like California, it's an exploration of the sublime and the ridiculous, a juxtaposition of the awful, the titillating, and the hopeful.... Cashill does America a true service by exposing the decay of the country's most dysfunctional state -- and providing real solutions."

-- Ben Shapiro, author of Porn Generation --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Threshold Editions; 1St Edition edition (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416531025
• ISBN-13: 978-1416531029
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,059,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Publishers Weekly? READ THE BOOK!!!, October 4, 2007

By 

Cheryl L. (Rutherford NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking (Hardcover)

The Publisher's Weekly reviewer gives so little indication of having read the book that he embarrasses the good name of Publisher's Weekly. As I count it, for instance, Cashill speaks of eight movies in some depth and only one does he attack, Pleasantville. Six of the eight-including Crash, Thirteen, and Boyz 'N The Hood- he praises. Did the reviewer not see Cashill's list of the best 20 movies about California??
Cashill talks about how he consciously counted flags during long walks through Berkeley and the Castro. This isn't "anecdotal." It is observational and important. As to Charles Manson, Cashill writes, "The concept of 'Susan Atkins' has considerably more explanatory potential than 'Charles Manson," which is an answer to no particularly useful question." And then he moves on to talk about Atkins and the other women because they are relevant.
As to James Jones, I never knew he was a communist, and that is Cashill's point: Jones' story has been purposefully mistold. If these are "familiar right-wing talking points," they come as news to this right winger. So much of this book is fresh and new and insightful I was constantly taken aback. Plus, Cashill's amiable style is so unlike Ann Coulter's that the comparison makes NO SENSE AT ALL! Read the book next time, Mac! Save your left-wing boilerplate for books that you did more than thumb through.

41 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cogent and specific critique of liberalism, October 2, 2007

By 

Bonecrkr - See all my reviews

This review is from: What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking (Hardcover)

Very good book describing the root cause of the tremendous social problems in california and why exactly people who don't live in california should be concerned to the extent this phenomenon spreads to the rest of the country. Every liberal should read this book so that they understand the real world consequences of their beliefs and behaviors. As a former liberal myself, I can attest firsthand about what Jack Cashill is getting at with his book. I can also tell you how effective books like this are at getting liberals to abandon liberalism. My one criticism is that Cashill does not make this point strongly enough. 90% of liberals are well meaning people who don't know the truth about liberalism. They've been manipulated by evil people into supporting a fascist (and I don't mean this as a euphemism....the manipulators are specifically national socialist in their bent and their association) agenda. Once a liberal realizes this, especially when exposed to the real world consequences, he immediately abandons the cause. This is starting to happen in california. Witness how one of the strongest anti-liberal presidential candidates, Duncan Hunter, is from california. How did he get that way? Specifically, by having to find solutions to the horrible problems foisted on the community by liberals. For example, the San Diego border fence. Huge problems with crime, drugs, and even paramilitary thugs because of the open borders lobby. Hunter sees what is going on, understands the issue thoroughly, because he has to deal INTIMATELY with the consequences. He successfully lobbys for a realistic solution and makes sure it is implemented. And it works. More, Hunter knows what Cashill knows....that california is measure of things to come for the rest of the country. But also, it is a measure of the SOLUTIONS that will work for the rest of the country (hence his platform of building the same fence over much of the US border).

This also is something Cashill doesn't make clear enough in his book. California is the vanguard of the problems facing the US in the near future. But, it is also the crucible in which the solutions to those problems will come to be.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Whats The Matter With California, March 12, 2009

By 

William M. Turner "Bill Turner" (Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking (Hardcover)

Jack hit this one squarely with one phrase... Fatherlessness. The Golden State has attracted millions for decades who visit or stay. Many abandon traditional views held in their former habitats, and embrace many diverse ideas or movements not found elsewhere.

Summertime energy twelve months of the year may seem like heaven to some, but reality soon jars one to a sense of polarized diversity similar to a tossed salad rather than a melting pot. Divorce, Drugs, Gangs, Infidelity, Alternative lifestyles, etc. may be found elsewhere, but nowhere is it more enhanced or accepted. The old 1970 mantra of "Mr Natural Sez" is alive and well and dragging the Golden to a tarnished Brass. Read this and open your eyes. Great Job Jack Cashill!!