"Like the best of California, the engaging essays collected in this compendium reveal - and revel in - a history of immense diversity and astonishing possibility. More than a "companion," these dazzling essays offer a friendly ‘field guide’ to California's past (and an excellent vantage point from which to contemplate its present and future)."
-Stephen Aron, UCLA and Autry Institute for the Study of the American West
". . . a useful book. For somebody whose training is in history . . ., there is enough substance in each chapter to make it worthwhile.... Like all Blackwell Companions, this volume is pleasant to use and handle." (Reference Reviews, 2009)
"A rich harvest of the New California History, grown to ripeness and diversity in the garden planted by Carey McWilliams and Kevin Starr."
-Mike Davis, University of California, Irvine
"In tandem with the emergence of California as a nation-state of global importance, the assessment of California - as place, people, society, culture, and history - has gone into Warp Speed. Nowhere is this more evident than in this brilliant and eminently useful Starship Enterprise of California studies by an elite crew of Next Generation experts."
-Kevin Starr, University of Southern California
This volume of original essays by leading scholars is an innovative, thorough introduction to the history and culture of California from its inception to the present day.
Written by both senior scholars and new voices in the field as well as non-academic subject specialists, the essays range widely across perspectives, including political, social, economic, and environmental history. The volume’s unique structure pairs and groups essays that are similar in approach and conception so they work both as individual pieces and also as companions to each other throughout the text.
Emerging out of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, a new research and teaching project associated with the Huntington Library and the University of Southern California, the Companion to California History is a valuable resource for students and researchers of the history of the Golden State.
