Golden State: The Making of California

Written by Pultizer Prize-winning Californian Michael Hiltzik, this is the definitive, essential work on the Golden State’s history and legacy. ''Engrossing… [Hiltzik is] an able narrator, with an eye for telling detail.'' ''Michael Hiltzik’s Golden State is a monumental history of California brimming with fierce national implications for today. With astonishing detail and elegant prose, Hiltzik masterfully delineates Spain''s brutal conquest of Indigenous peoples in the early sixteenth century; the 1848 Gold Rush; the railroad revolution; the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and so much more. His accounts of Hollywood, Big Agriculture, and Silicon Valley innovation are superb. Hiltzik makes a compelling case that California is the heartbeat of our nation.'' ''No other state than California has a history so large, so colorful, so full of hope, misery, and the unexpected. It is almost America in microcosm, and Michael Hiltzik tells its tale beautifully.'' ''An accomplished journalist with a knack for storytelling, Mr Hiltzik delves into dense financial details to present an engaging read about the beginnings of America Inc.'' ''Hiltzik examines the rise and fall of the American railroad industry in this colorful, wide-ranging account… Hiltzik writes with verve, providing meaningful insights into the shocking inequalities of the Gilded Age. Business history buffs will be enthralled by this character-driven account.'' ''Michael Hiltzik''s Golden State: The Making of California turns the lens on the powerful global and national figures and personalities—familiar and hitherto unknown—that built the Golden State. Hiltzik moves crisply across borders, territories, and states to reveal California as a space where demanding visions were contested but often realized, through conflicting visions of power, water, land, people, and profit. Forceful personalities—from Junipero Serra to Walt Disney to Richard Nixon to Cesar Chavez—crossed cultural and political borders to build a state of their own, a place that sat upon a volcano of utopian social dreams and apocalyptic political tremors.'' ''What Hiltzik does so well here though is get behind the mystical allure of the “golden state”, its gold rushes and silicon valleys, and talk as much about geology, geography and politics.''

From Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Hiltzik, a definitive new history of California ‒ from the Spanish conquistadors to the state’s meteoric rise as a tech powerhouse and bulwark of progressivism ‒ and of its indelible mark on the world.

California has long reigned as the land of plenty, where the sun always shines and opportunity beckons. Even prior to its statehood in 1850, it captured the world’s imagination. We remember the Gold Rush era for bearded prospectors lured by riches; we think of its early embrace of immigrant labour during the railroad boom as prologue to its diverse social fabric today. But what lies beneath the myth is far more complicated.

Thanks to extensive research by Michael Hiltzik, one of the clearest voices on California, Golden State uncovers the unvarnished truth about the state that everyone thinks they know well. From Spanish incursions into what became known as Alta California to the rise of Big Tech, the history of California is one of stark contradictions. In rich detail, we see its earliest statesmen wreak havoc among native peoples while racing to draft their own constitution even ahead of statehood. We follow gold-hungry settlers who venture into the Sierra foothills and often leave with nothing, while a handful of their suppliers become millionaire railroad magnates. We witness water wars erupt as Los Angeles booms and see early efforts to tame the vast landscape create an arena for fossil fuel extraction and environmental conservation alike.

From its very beginnings, Hiltzik shows, the story of the United States was written in California.

• | Author: Michael Hiltzik
• | Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• | Publication Date: Feb 15, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781398109025
• | ISBN-10: 1398109029