Guidebook about the state: its history, natural setting, industries, press and radio, movies, education, arts, and architecture; detailed descriptions of the major cities; and a listing of many tours around California and parts of Nevada. With a chronology of events.

"California Crackup is brilliant. It cuts through the familiar tangle of diagnoses and quick-fix solutions to provide a comprehensive and persuasive analysis of California's dysfunctional governmental system. Paul and Mathews have coolly laid out a complicated story, made it readable, sometimes even comedic. It is the best discussion of the issue I've seen in over three decades."--Peter Schrag, author of California: America's High-Stakes Experiment "I know of no other work that combines so succinctly and enjoyably a historical summary of California's existing problems with such a sweeping and provocative program of reform."--Ethan Rarick, University of California, Berkeley "Mark Paul and Joe Mathews have produced an indispensable guide to California's crisis of governance--and they have done so with humor, scholarship, fairness and storytelling verve. Every Californian should read this book."--Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars "Mark Paul... has a talent for presenting California Big Think stuff in an easily accessible and always readable way...[offering] clear and creative insights on the subject of California's collapse."--CalBuzz "Joe Mathews has done an artful, fascinating, and convincing job of connecting the California of today's Schwarzenegger era to the long history that made his rise possible.--James Fallows,The Atlantic Monthly on Mathews' book, The People's Machine

Alive with the exuberance, contradictions, and variety of the Golden State, this Depression-era guide to California is more than 700 pages of information that is, as David Kipen writes in his spirited introduction, "anecdotal, opinionated, and altogether habit-forming." Describing the history, culture, and roadside attractions of the 1930s, the WPA Guide to California features some of the very best anonymous literature of its era, with writing by luminaries such as San Francisco poet Kenneth Rexroth, composer-writer- hobo Harry Partch, and authors Tillie Olsen and Kenneth Patchen.

Now in its fourth edition, Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography examines this unique state’s incredibly diverse landscapes, and how geography and geographic change influences everything from the state’s natural systems and cycles, to its agriculture and more advanced industries, to human migration, cultures, and urban planning. Exploring California through a geographic lens reveals how the field has evolved to cross traditional boundaries, connect local and global issues, and provide the insights that lead to practical solutions to problems new and old. Challenging the reader to look beyond stereotypes and assumptions, this book encourages active participation in planning the state’s dynamic future. And this project makes teaching and learning about the geography of California more convenient, exciting, and rewarding for instructors and students. Going beyond a scientific analysis of natural features and environmental processes, this book illustrates how social, political, and economic divides can be bridged through the study of geography and the connections it brings to light. From geology, weather and climate, biogeography, and hydrology, we cover the state’s physical geography. And from demography and migration, to cultures and economies, to rural and urban geography, we monitor the state’s human geography pulse and then make the vital connections. California continues to lead the nation in population, economics (5th largest in the world), agriculture, natural and cultural diversity, and a host of other categories. This powerful state has earned this powerful publication. This timely and versatile book will prove useful to Californians in business, education, government, and to concerned citizens and curious readers seeking to learn more about the Golden State.

Backpacking California is a collection of more than 70 of the most intriguing backpacking adventures in Wilderness Press's home territory of California. With contributions from more than a dozen Wilderness Press authors, the book describes routes ranging from one night to one week. Backpacking novices as well as "old hand" California hikers will find expert-crafted trips in the Coast Ranges, the Sierra, the Cascades, and the Warner Mountains. Expanded coverage includes trips in Big Sur, Anza-Borrego, Death Valley, and the White Mountains. Several trips have been described in print nowhere else. Each trip includes a trail map and essential logistical information for trip planning.

A fisherman on the Santa Monica Pier. The vineyards of Napa Valley. Surfers in Malibu. An Indian village in Yosemite and the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset. Artist Diana Gessler captures the color and character of our third largest and most populous state. In lively watercolors, sketches, and stories, Gessler shares her adventures on the road, driving from north to south--Sonoma to San Diego and beyond. She and her husband, Paul (designated driver and food lover), stop when curiosity or hunger seizes them. With pen and brush, Gessler works on the spot, bringing to life the cities, towns, and countrysides as well as the details that make them special. A great horned owl. A local farm stand. A woman making tortillas on a sidewalk cart. A bunkhouse in the redwoods. Crab traps along the bay. Her intimate journal is filled with colorful people, beaches, flowers, architecture, animals, trails, memorable meals, and movie stars (at least the gates in front of their houses). Very California is organized by region, and each chapter opens with a map and driving route of the area. Peppered throughout are amusing tidbits about all the things that make California so very California. Diana Gessler has created a memento for tourists and an enchanting book for those who appreciate the pleasures of the West Coast.

Californians live on the edge . . . of a tectonic plate, that is. In this geologically tenuous location, where a tsunami, earthquake, or volcanic eruption is just another hazard, the rocks and landforms are dynamic too. From erupting geysers and boiling mud pots to collapsing sea arches and crawling landslides, California is a land in motion. In fact, rocks on the west side of the San Andreas Fault have moved northward nearly 200 miles in the last 20 million years. With lively prose and beautiful photographs, California Rocks! explores sixty-five geologic sites at parks and other publicly accessible places. Learn why so many saber-toothed cats were preserved in La Brea Tar Pits, how hollow tubes formed in the flowing lava of Lava Beds National Monument, and what forms the big waves at Mavericks surf break.