Rees discusses his family background, education, World War II service, conversion from the Republican to Democratic parties in the early-1950s, agricultural implement business in Mexico, participation in national Democratic Party conventions from 1956 to 1968, activities as a member of the California State Assembly, California State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives, and comments on a wide range of individuals and issues involved in California and national politics from the 1950s to 1987.

"Jesse Unruh was a remarkable phenomenon in American politics, a figure of tremendous energy and intelligence, with flaws to match. Although he never held public office beyond his home state, his institutional creativity as Speaker of the California Assembly and as State Treasurer had nationwide impact. Bill Boyarsky followed Unruh's career from the early days, and has produced a careful, fair-minded, and appreciative portrait without neglecting skeletons in the closet, buried bodies, and other colorful details of California politics that only a long-term, well-informed observer could provide."—Nelson Polsby, University of California, Berkeley "Jesse Unruh was California's most flamboyant and influential legislator. He has a worthy biographer in Bill Boyarsky, one of the state's best-ever political reporters. Boyarsky has written a lively treasure of a book that is at once critical and sympathetic: he unflinchingly describes Unruh's larger-than-life flaws but gives him deserved credit as an effective populist who wrote civil rights and education laws that were well ahead of their time. Beyond biography, this fascinating book provides a revealing examination of a state capitol culture that has been swept aside by the modern era of term limits and lavish campaign spending. Boyarsky writes about a vanished time when people cared about politics, and politicians like Unruh also cared about the people."—Lou Cannon, author of Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power "Big Daddy is the gripping real-life story of Jesse M. Unruh and the development of California following WWII. Boyarsky reveals how Unruh's multi-faceted character shaped his significant contributions. He was an institution builder who created a professional legislature and a passionate centrist who promoted civil rights, shareholder rights, and a responsible system of educational financing and accountability. This page turner pulls no punches in describing the complexities of the man and his times and their relevance for today's divisive politics."—Ann N. Crigler, chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Southern California "If Bill Boyarsky had merely written about "Big Daddy" Unruh, one of the most powerful California politicians of the 20th Century, this would have been a valuable book. Jesse comes alive in all his bullying bulk and commitment to progressive public policy. But Boyarsky's work is much more than that. It is a close-up look at California's Capitol when it consistently worked, not always in a pretty way. Those politicians may have sinned, but they definitely succeeded in meeting the needs of a fast-growing state. This is an enjoyable read with many lessons."—George Skelton, L.A Times State Political Columnist "Only a seasoned reporter such as Bill Boyarsky would have the insight and skill to chronicle the life and times of this flamboyant but enigmatic politician, this gruff giant, this wizard of the legislative process, this ardent advocate and fierce opponent, the late great Jesse Unruh."—Kevin Starr, Professor of History, University of Southern California

The Black Panther Party has been at once the most maligned and most celebrated Black Power organization, and this study explores the party's origins in the tumultuous history of race relations in the San Francisco Bay Area after the Second World War. The massive influx of African American migrants into the Bay Area during the war years upset the racial status quo that the white majority and tiny black minority had carefully crafted and maintained for more than a century. This realignment of racial boundaries strained relations between whites and blacks, and the postwar crises of black unemployment, inadequate housing, segregated schools, and police brutality produced in the Bay Area a virtual race war that culminated in the black revolution of the 1960s. Despite the attempts of moderate African American leaders to push for civil rights and black equality in the 1950s and 1960s, a new generation of militants came to the fore in the 1960s. Emerging from the direct-action protests of the Congress of Racial Equality and the Community Action Programs of the War on Poverty, this new radical leadership agitated for black self-determination and trumpeted black pride and self-sufficiency. From this maelstrom sprang the Black Panther Party, led by two ghetto toughs whose families had fled Dixie for the promised land of California during the Second World War. These prophets of rage would transform the nature of African American protest, change the character of domestic policy, and redefine the meaning of blackness in America. Also inlcludes maps.

“This is a fascinating book. It is one of the best studies of the ways that parties and politics get conducted in any American state. Masket shows that legislators can be perfectly content without parties that control agendas and does a terrific job of explaining the transition from free-wheeling legislators to rigidly partisan voting blocs.” —Sam Popkin, University of California at San Diego “No Middle Ground makes a significant contribution to the study of American parties and legislative politics.” —Matthew Green, Catholic University of America Despite concerns about the debilitating effects of partisanship on democratic government, in recent years political parties have gained strength in state governments as well as in Washington. In many cases these parties function as machines. Unlike machines of the past that manipulated votes, however, today’s machines determine which candidates can credibly compete in a primary. Focusing on the history and politics of California, Seth E. Masket reveals how these machines evolved and how they stay in power by directing money, endorsements, and expertise to favored candidates, who often tend toward the ideological extreme. In a provocative conclusion, Masket argues that politicians are not inherently partisan. Instead, partisanship is thrust upon them by actors outside the government with the power to manipulate primary elections.

Charles B. Garrigus II discusses his family background in Illinois, migration first to Oregon and later to California, campaigning for a state assembly seat, major education, water, agriculture, health, and civil rights issues and legislation, the legislative and executive leadership of Jesse M. Unruh and Edmund G. Brown, Sr., respectively, and comments on California politics in the 1950s and 1960s, the Brown-era "responsible liberalism," one man, one vote, and the relationship between poetry and politics.

When Fletcher Bowron (1887-1968) ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1938, his twelve years as a superior court judge with a reputation for honesty and fairness carried him to victory against a notoriously corrupt incumbent. During his nearly fifteen years as a neo-progressive mayor, Bowron presided over fundamental reforms in the police department, public utilities, and other agencies charged with basic services, rooting out bribery, kickbacks, and influence peddling. World War II brought economic and population booms, racial conflict, social dislocation, and environmental problems to Los Angeles and complicated Mayor Bowron's job. After the war Bowron initiated massive public housing and desegregation projects. These forward-looking programs alienated enough voters to cost him the 1953 election as his leftist supporters fell away under the influence of McCarthyism. This political history of the mid-twentieth century reform period in Los Angeles is also a case study of the ways outside events can affect municipal affairs. As Tom Sitton demonstrates, the choices made during Bowron's administration have had a direct bearing on how Los Angeles looks today and how its government operates.

Ronald Reagan's first great victory, in the 1966 California governor's race, seemed to come from nowhere and has long since confounded his critics. Just two years earlier, when Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by a landslide, the conservative movement was pronounced dead. In California, Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown was celebrated as the "Giant Killer" for his 1962 victory over Richard Nixon. From civil rights, to building the modern California system of higher education, to reinventing the state's infrastructure, to a vast expansion of the welfare state, Brown's liberal agenda reigned supreme. Yet he soon found himself struggling with forces no one fully grasped, and in 1966, political neophyte Reagan trounced Brown by almost a million votes. Reagan's stunning win over Brown is one of the pivotal stories of American political history. It marked not only the coming-of-age of the conservative movement, but also the first serious blow to modern liberalism. The campaign was run amidst the drama of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, terrible riots in Watts, and the first anti-Vietnam War protests by the New Left. It featured cameo appearances by Mario Savio, Ed Meese, California Speaker Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh, and tough-as-nails Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker. Beneath its tumultuous surface a grassroots conservative movement swelled powerfully. A group that had once been dismissed as little more than paranoid John Birchers suddenly attracted a wide following for a more mainstream version of its message, and Reagan deftly rode the wave, moving from harsh anticommunism to a more general critique of the breakdown of social order and the failure of the welfare state. Millions of ordinary Californians heeded his call. Drawing on scores of oral history interviews, thousands of archival documents, and many personal interviews with participants, Matthew Dallek charts the rise of one great politician, the demise of another, and the clash of two diametrically opposing worldviews. He offers a fascinating new portrait of the 1960s that is far more complicated than our collective memory of that decade. The New Left activists were offset by an equally impassioned group on the other side. For every SDS organizer there was a John Birch activist; for every civil rights marcher there was an anticommunist rally-goer; for every antiwar protester there were several more who sympathized with American aims in Southeast Asia. Dallek's compelling history offers an important reminder that the rise of Ronald Reagan and the conservatives may be the most lasting legacy of that discordant time.