California Gothic explores the California dream and its dark inversion as a nightmare, as illustrated in fiction, poetry, and film. California began as a literary invention, a magic island, in a Spanish romance before conquistadors first visited the land. From early days to the present, the California dream of happiness in a land of new beginnings has been maintained by suppression of disturbing realities: above all, the destruction of native peoples; and by events and facts such as the tragedy of the Donner Party, the persistence of poverty and crime in the golden land, disturbing crimes such as the Black Dahlia; and pandemics and ecological disaster. This book explores a rich Gothic tradition that exposes the repressed past and imagines the fates awaiting a failed California.

Series statement from author's Material dreams. Bibliography: p. 460-479.

A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.

This edition is graced by a new foreword by Lewis Lapham.

In this absorbing new book, David Farber gives us the history of our collective and individual memories of the 1960s: the brilliant colors of revolt and rapture, of flames and raised fists, of napalm and tear gas, of people desperate to make history even as others fought fiercely to stop them. More than thirty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this book grounds our understanding of the terrible events of that era by linking them to our country's grand projects of previous decades: the forging of a national system of social provision in the New Deal; our new agenda as global superpower after World War II; the creation of the national security state; and the maturation of a national consumer-driven mass-mediated marketplace. Farber's account, based on years of research in archives and oral histories as well as in the historical literature, deals in full not only with nation building in Vietnam, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Watts riot, and the War on Poverty, but with the entertainment business, the drug culture, and much more.

CALIFORNIA: THE POLITICS OF DIVERSITY, 10th Edition, explores the uniqueness and excitement of California's political environment through two key themes: diversity and hyperpluralism. Experienced educators with backgrounds in state and local government, Lawrence and Cummins bring an informed, insightful perspective to the examination of the numerous pressures that make governing the state increasingly challenging. This edition offers new pedagogical features that drive home significant developments and events in California politics. The text is also written in an easily accessible way that provides examples particularly interesting to students. The new edition covers the final years in office of former Governor Jerry Brown and provides insight on newly-elected Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration. It also provides updated analysis of the state’s major policy areas, including water, housing, transportation, health care, K-12 education, higher education and climate change. No other textbook on California politics offers as much coverage and in-depth analysis of the state’s political development and institutions that have shaped the Golden State into what it is today.