California Politics

In The Browns of California, journalist and scholar Miriam Pawel weaves a narrative history that spans four generations, from August Schuckman, the Prussian immigrant who crossed the Plains in 1852 and settled on a northern California ranch, to his great-grandson Jerry Brown, who reclaimed the family homestead 140 years later. Through the prism of their lives, we gain an essential understanding of California and an appreciation of its importance.

Norco '80 tells the story of how five heavily armed young men - led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian - attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in US history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco '80 transports the listener back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all.

Originally meant to be brief and exceptional, solitary confinement in US prisons has become long-term and common. Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in featureless cells, with no visitors or human contact for years on end, and they are held entirely at administrators' discretion. Keramet Reiter tells the history of one "supermax", California's Pelican Bay State Prison, whose extreme conditions recently sparked a statewide hunger strike by 30,000 prisoners.

From David Serpa, a United States Marine Corps combat veteran, a Californian desperate to save his home state, comes a compelling look at today’s dangerous post-COVID political climate and how the people can unite to save our failing democracy. Americans are on the brink of another Civil War, another Great Depression, and World War III, not to mention the never-ending, mind-numbing culture war, which prevents us from effectively moving forward as a country.

Americans are on the brink of another Civil War, another Great Depression, and World War III - not to mention the never-ending, mind-numbing culture war, which prevents us from effectively moving forward as a country. What is the answer? Packed with revolutionary ideas, actionable steps, and important history lessons from around the world, Common Sense for California is the people’s guide to clean water, energy, education, justice reform, job creation, ending the wars, instituting The Golden State Dividend, and so much more!

Power Shift charts the rise of Latino political power and its impact, from the breakthrough election of the first Mexican American to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949 to today’s leadership of California and its heavyweight role in polarized America. This inspiring story recounts the origins and development of 10 LA-based Latina and Latino leaders who transformed politics and government, forging a progressive political tradition in the process.

Christian Davis, a former big-firm lawyer turned social justice warrior, has just been assigned the case of his life by the State of California. Jamel Jackson, a sixteen-year-old black boy, has just been convicted for the brutal rape of a prominent movie star. Christian digs into the case with gusto, as he examines the trial court transcript for any hint that the trial court might have erred in Jamel's case. As he gets into the investigation of the case, he's shocked at what he has found. Corruption at the highest level is staring him in the face.

Long before Superman or Batman made their first appearances, there was Zorro. Born on the pages of the pulps in 1919, Zorro fenced his way through the American popular imagination, carving his signature letter Z into the flesh of evildoers in Old Spanish California. Zorro is the original caped crusader, the first hero to have a band called the Avengers, and the character who laid the blueprint for the modern American superhero. In Zorro's Shadow, historian and Latin American studies expert Stephen J. C. Andes investigates the legends behind the mask of Zorro.

Consumer Law and Protection in America is the essential plain-language guide to the rules, rights, and remedies that protect buyers in today’s complex marketplace. From deceptive advertising to unfair credit practices, this audiobook explains the real power of consumer law in every state and at the federal level.

In The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac, Clayton Howard chronicles the rise of sexual privacy as a fulcrum of American cultural politics. Beginning in the 1940s, public officials pursued an agenda that both promoted heterosexuality and made sexual privacy one of the state's key promises to its citizens.

How do inmates speak behind bars in California? Prison slang can vary between different facilities. However, if you are someone particularly interested in California prisons, whether you're someone in law enforcement or a criminal justice student, the California Prison Slang Dictionary is for you. This definitive prison book features over 3,000 meticulously curated entries — a comprehensive and up-to-date collection that gives you a glimpse of the cryptic conversations of California inmates who navigate the harsh realities of prison life.

A gripping story of political idealism, disillusionment, and new hope, Nothing Left exposes how the Democratic Party was hijacked by out-of-touch activists, coastal elitists, and powerful special interests. Packed with insider revelations and razor-sharp commentary, Evan Barker takes readers...

The long pilgrimage of LeRoy Chatfield weaves its way through multiple collective projects designed to better the condition of the marginalized and forgotten. From the cloisters of the Christian Brothers and the halls of secondary education to the fields of Central California and the streets of Sacramento, Chatfield's story reveals a fierce commitment to those who were denied the promises of the American dream. Chatfield recounts his childhood, explains the social issues that have played a significant role in his life and work, and uncovers the lack of justice he saw too frequently.

Most California histories begin with the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century and conveniently skip to the Gold Rush of 1849. Noticeably absent from these stories are the perspectives and experiences of the people who lived on the land long before European settlers arrived. Historian William Bauer seeks to correct that oversight through an innovative approach that tells California history strictly through Native perspectives.

A family drama with a speculative twist about three siblings and one beastly surprise, from the New York Times bestselling author “Weird, witty, and totally delightful, with echoes of Schitt’s Creek but with more teeth! I loved it.” —Annie Hartnett, author of Unlikely Animals and The...

In Kris Calvin’s debut mystery, One Murder More, a beautiful legislative aide is found stabbed to death in California’s Capitol building. Maren Kane, a lobbyist for a fledgling Sacramento-based toy company, is in the midst of a legislative fight that could make or break her career. She doesn’t have time for a coffee break let alone involvement in a murder investigation.

From one of the most courageous and visionary leaders of our time comes Troubling the Water, an immersive book about the violence and injustice that threaten to drown us all. Ben McBride recounts how he first waded into the water: from the Kill Zone in Oakland, where he moved with his young family, to the uprising in Ferguson, to the moral impoverishment of the white evangelical church. In the truth-telling tradition of Bryan Stevenson and Bishop William Barber, McBride leads us right into the fury and fragmentation of our moment, and then steadies us once we're there.

From the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C. Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account of the “Resettlement”: the relatively unexamined period when ordinary people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during World War II, were finally released from custody. Given $25 and a one-way bus ticket to make a new life, some ventured east to Denver and Chicago to start over, while others returned to Southern California only to face discrimination and an alarming scarcity of housing and jobs.

America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America's western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny - this is the city-state of Los Angeles.

A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year ""Gripping and beautiful. With the artistry of a poet and the intensity of a revolutionary, Lovato untangles the tightly knit skein of love and terror that connects El Salvador and the United States."" —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Natural...