California

An American History

By: John Mack Faragher

Narrated by: John Chancer

A concise and lively history of California, the most multicultural state in the nation

“Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California’s multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles.”—Carlos E. Cortés, University of California, Riverside

California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. California's natural variety has always supported diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern states, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

Beautifully crafted and elegantly written, Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, others mostly unknown, including African American Archy Lee, who sued for his freedom; Sinkyone Indian woman Sally Bell, who survived genocide; and Jewish schoolgirl Marilyn Greene, who spoke up for her Japanese friends after Pearl Harbor. California's multicultural diversity often led to conflict, turmoil, and violence, but also to invention, improvisation, and a struggle for multicultural democracy.

©2022 John Mack Faragher (P)2022 Yale Press Audio

Outstanding

This is history done right, it’s a strong narrative supported by facts and with a compelling through-line that keeps you glued to book like how a well done piece of fiction captures your imagination.

Compelling history of an amazing place

John Mack Faragher is the unusual scholar who writes in accessible and lively prose while conveying his impeccably researched story of California’s indigenous people and the evolving sets of other diverse populations who have come to California over the centuries. He tells fascinating facts, colorful characters, struggles over power and places, and the bounty of the natural resources in the state. I loved this book.

Linear and straightforward

It’s good. If you want a straightforward overall history of the greatest state in the union, perhaps the world, maybe even the greatest in the universe. This will give it to you.

Reads like a novel

Thoroughly enjoyed this history. It did not gloss over the mistreatment of minorities. It was fun hearing the history of the men for whom streets were named and their politics. That it reads like a novel is appropriate for our colorful, diverse state.

Best California History Yet

I'll always be grateful to Kevin Starr for his works in California History. For me, Mack Faragher's California is the finest and frankest historical account of California I have ever read. "John Muir was a racist." Muir's racist account of Yosemite natives is no secret, but has anyone dared to declare Muir's obvious racism so simply? I have never seen it. Faragher deals with Muir fairly acknowledging his importance and achievements. But, Faragher also completes the complex picture of Muir and California throughout this important book. This is a history for grown-ups not a book of Golden State fairy tales. Faragher does not skip on the extraordinary historical wonders of California, but he tells the whole story. And, California is still here. Californians still have just as many reasons to love our state and the places in colossal California that we know as our homes. With Faragher's California we can shed childish ignorance about the legacies of criminality, racism, and violence for which we must seek to make amends and to end forever. Now we know. No excuse for inaction remains.