by Janice L. Newman

What does the state of California mean to you? Does it conjure up images of sunny beaches and miles of orange trees? Does it make you think of the “fruits and nuts”: the non-conformists, the hippies, the cultists, and the weirdos? Does it bring to mind images of rebellious students, rioting cities, and police brutality?

For me, California means “home”. It’s all of those things and their opposites as well, large enough to hold Christian conservatives just one town over from the spaciest of space-age religions, the loggers destroying the redwoods and the conservationists desperately trying to save them, violent demonstrations and countless people living peaceful, everyday lives.

It’s hard to capture the true breadth of California. Most Californians can’t see it themselves; the life of a San Francisco bartender is wildly different from that of an itinerant farm worker. It’s even harder to make all of it interesting; to not fall into the trap of so many history classes and present dull lists of facts and figures and a cut and dried series of historical events, draining all life and color from the truth.

The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California not only succeeds in bringing California to life in all its contradictory glory, it makes it compelling and fascinating. As an encapsulation of California’s history it’s brilliant. As a study of how the rest of the United States of America follows in the wake of California’s influence, it’s provocative. As both a love letter to the state and a warning of what a large-scale disaster might mean for it and for the rest of the world, it’s very, very, clever.

Continue reading [July 26, 1969] California Dreams…and Nightmares ("The Late, Great State of California") →