California (U.S. state)

California is a state of the United States. California is located on the west coast of the North American continent. The major metropolitan areas are Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. "Silicon Valley" is the informal name of the computer-producing region centered on San Jose, south of San Francisco. In 2007, 10% of the population of the United States lived in California.

History

See California, history The United States captured California in 1846 as part of the Mexican War; it paid compensation to Mexico through the the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848. California never was a territory; it went from military control by the U.S. Army to statehood in 1850.

Politics

The current governor of California is Arnold Schwarzenegger, a conservative member of the Republican Party. However, the state generally votes for Democratic candidates for president, has a liberal Democratic majority in the legislature and congressional delegation. San Francisco, is a major liberal bastion, while Los Angeles is a major factor in political fundraising for national politicians of all stripes.

Historic Points of Interest

Historic Theaters of California

Historic Homes of California

Bibliography

Surveys

• Bakken, Gordon Morris. California History: A Topical Approach (2003)
• Robert W. Cherny, Richard Griswold del Castillo, and Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo. Competing Visions: A History Of California (2005)
• Rawls, James J. ed. New Directions In California History: A Book of Readings (1988)
• Rawls, James and Walton Bean. California: An Interpretive History (8th ed 2003)
• Rice, Richard B., William A. Bullough, and Richard J. Orsi. Elusive Eden: A New History of California 3rd ed (2001)
• Rolle, Andrew F. California: A History 6th ed. (2003)
• Starr, Kevin and Richard J. Orsi eds. Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California (2001)
• Starr, Kevin. (Note that there are numerous editions of this monumental state history, with slight title changes)
  • Starr, Kevin California: A History (2005), synthesis in 370 pp.
  • Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915 (1973)
  • Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (1986)
  • Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s(1991)
  • Endangered Dreams : The Great Depression in California (1997)
  • The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (1997)
  • Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950 (2003)
  • Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003. Knopf, 2004. 784 pp.
• Sucheng, Chan , and Spencer C. Olin, eds. Major Problems in California History (1996)

Environment, agriculture, water

• Carle, David. Introduction to Water in California. U. of California Press, 2004. 261 pp.
• Godfrey, Anthony. The Ever-Changing View: A History of the National Forests in California. US Forest Service, 2005. 657 pp.
• Griggs, Gary; Patsch, Kiki; and Savoy, Lauret, eds. Living with the Changing California Coast. U. of California Press, 2005. 540 pp.
• Isenberg, Andrew C. Mining California: An Ecological History. Hill & Wang, 2005. 242 pp.
• Merchant, Carolyn ed. Green Versus Gold: Sources In California's Environmental History (1998) readings in primary and secondary sources
• Pincetl, Stephanie S. Transforming California: A Political History of Land Use and Development (2003)
• Righter, Robert W. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford U. Press, 2005. 303 pp.
• Sackman, Douglas Cazaux. Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden. U. of California Press, 2005. 386 pp.
• Street, Richard Steven. Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913. Stanford U. Press, 2004. 904 pp.

Ethnicity, gender

• Abelmann, Nancy, and John Lie. Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots (1995) online edition
• Camarillo, Albert. Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California, 1848-1930. (1979) 336 pp.
• Espiritu, Yen Le. Home Bound: Filipino American Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries. U. of California Press, 2003. 271 pp.
• Hayes-Bautista, David E. La Nueva California: Latinos in the Golden State. U. of California Press, 2004. 263 pp.
• Kahn, Ava F. and Dollinger, Marc, eds. California Jews. U. Press of New England, 2003. 196 pp.
• Matthews, Glenna. Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream: Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century. Stanford U. Press, 2003. 313 pp.
• Sides, Josh. L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present. U. of California Press, 2003. 288 pp.
• Swiontek, Danielle Jean. With Ballots and Pocketbooks: Women, Labor, and Reform in Progressive California (2006)

Politics and economics

• Erie, Steven P. Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development. Stanford U. Press, 2004. 310 pp.
• Lotchin, Roger W. Fortress California, 1910-1961 (2002)
• Miller, Sally M., and Daniel A. Cornford eds. American Labor in the Era of World War II (1995)] essays by scholars, mostly on California online edition
• Mowry, George E. The California Progressives (1963)
• Orsi, Richard J. Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930. U. of California Press, 2005. 615 pp.
• Putnam, Jackson K. Jess: The Political Career of Jesse Marvin Unruh. U. Press of America, 2005. 462 pp.
• Rarick, Ethan. California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown. U. of California Press, 2005. 501 pp.
• Sabin, Paul. Crude Politics: The California Oil Market, 1900-1940. U. of California Press, 2005. 307 pp.
• Schrag, Peter. Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future. 3d ed. (original publ. 1998). Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2004. 370 pp.
• Tutorow, Norman E. The Governor: The Life and Legacy of Leland Stanford, a California Colossus. Clark, 2004. 2 vol. 1146 pp.

Pre 1846

• Hurtado, Albert L. John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier. U. of Oklahoma Press, 2006. 412 pp.
• Jackson, Robert H. Missions and the Frontiers of Spanish America: A Comparative Study of the Impact of Environmental, Economic, Political, and Socio-Cultural Variations on the Missions in the Rio de la Plata Region and on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Pentacle, 2005. 592 pp.
• Lightfoot, Kent G. Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers. U. of California Press, 2005. 355 pp.

Localities

• Camarillo, Albert M., “Cities of Color: The New Racial Frontier in California’s Minority-Majority Cities,” Pacific Historical Review, 76 (Feb. 2007), 1–28.
• Deverell, William and Hise, Greg, eds. Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles. U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. 350 pp.
• Fogelson, Robert M. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930 (1993)
• Halle, David, ed. New York and Los Angeles: Politics, Society, and Culture. A Comparative View. U. of Chicago Press, 2003. 558 pp.
• Lécuyer, Christophe. Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970. M.I.T. Press, 2006. 393 pp.
• Scott, Allen J. On Hollywood: The Place, the Industry. Princeton U. Press, 2005. 200 pp.
• Sitton, Tom and William F, Deverell, eds. Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (2001)