California

Interesting read, until it's not

I picked this book up to get a better idea of the history, people and places of importance to California's history. And while the author does a credible job of keeping a straight timeline from past to present, I would have wished he had gone into more detail about the people and personalities who helped shape those events. Moreover, it would have been nice for the author to break from the timeline every now and then to show how those people and events helped shape later day California. Overall, it isn't a bad use of time to listen to this book. And Jonathan Davis is a great narrator who does a better than average job with material that's a bit "meh" in places.

7 people found this helpful

I'm finally fixing my patchy CA history

This is an amazing walk through time and space. California seemed to loll on the edge of nowhere culturally (at least by European perceptions, so this excludes a large body of native peoples with very rich lives, alongside its impossibly beautiful natural resources), and then it exploded through a series of convulsive changes into the modern world. There are probably as many views of this as viewers. My own bit of California has been a bit of all this: gorgeous and heartbreaking. This esteemed expert historian has mastered a huge mass of swirling details, and brought them into a coherent story here. This brings my California experience to a whole new level.

7 people found this helpful

Review

Excellent book for fan of history or simply for one trying to understand how modern California became so fascinating, complex and the current struggles all the more fascinating. An excellent audio book for anyone doing a 2 day drive along the length of CA or with a 5 hour flight to CA.

7 people found this helpful

Informative and Fun

I live in California and wanted to learn more after a recent trip through the State. I was never good with history and was uncertain if I would like this. I enjoyed the story and the narration! A good job and a fun story. I was astounded at learning how California developed its character and was happy I had chose this author. If you are interested in the subject then this is a good one.

2 people found this helpful

Reader Comments

This book is highly recommend to all the people of California. It is an amazing book that expertly tells the history of the amazing State of California. This book is highly recommend to adults and teachers that teach the history of California. The history of California in this book is interesting and a good source of learning material.

1 person found this helpful

Only Good up to 1900

It started off really good but half way through he stopped his comprehensive history of the state and meandered through details that were almost exclusively about LA and San Francisco thereby neglecting everything else. For example he spends almost five minutes going on about jazz musicians in San Francisco but gives the creation of water districts and irrigation like a paragraph at most.

1 person found this helpful

More Facts than Story

I am happy to have finished this book. On one hand because it was not a riveting narrative and the sentence by sentence of facts and notable Californians was a little numbing. But also because I thorougly enjoyed this history and those not so riveting facts will stay with me forever.

1 person found this helpful

6th generation Californian approved and recommende

I enjoyed it. The book is a quick and interesting summary of the history of California . It helps you come to understand why we are the way we and just how fast time moves and things change.

Narrator was not bad but he did not talk like a native and butchered names of places, over emphasized ethnic pronunciations that no native would use.

Our families came here very early in the gold rush and I like to say we stayed for the weather.

Great Narration and Survey of California

The only complaint I have about the book is there are some significant discrepancies in numbers and dates between the book and the audiobook. I don't know if that's from the narration or the production. Otherwise this book is a great introduction to major aspects of California history.

Eye opening, fairly written.

I have lived in California all my life. This book has opened my eyes and increased my understanding immensely. It has also made me even more proud to be a Californian, despite or maybe because of the less than perfect but nevertheless outstanding state.