California Politics
(see also Los Angeles, California Ballot Initiatives, California Prisons, San Francisco, Water Politics, Mike Davis, Joan Didion & Carey McWilliams)
Basics
On the Web: Articles
The Frame Around Arnold. George Lakoff, AlterNet (10/13/03). How conservatives use framing to win elections.
The Day of the Locust. Mike Davis, Mother Jones (10/13/03). Analyzes Schwartzenegger victory.
On the Web: Specialized Sites
CA Assembly Asian Pacific Islander Caucus.
CA Assembly Democratic Caucus.
CA Assembly Republican Caucus.
California Clean Money Campaign.
In the Library: Articles
Brudnoy, David. "Race & the San Francisco School Board incident: contemporary evaluations," in R. Olmsted & C. Wollenberg (eds.) Neither Separate nor Equal (Sacramento, 1971), pp. 75-92.
Butts, Mickey. "CA dreaming," In These Times (10/31/94):18-20. Ballot initiative campaign for single-payer health insurance in 1994.
De Groot, Gerard J. "Ronald Reagan & student unrest in CA," Pacific Historical Review 65 (1996):107-29.
Deverell, William. "Privileging the Mission over the Mexican: the rise of regional identity in Southern CA," in Wrobel & Steiner (eds.) Many Wests: Place, Culture, & Regional Identity (Lawrence: U. of Kansas, 1997).
Fisher, James A. "The political development of the Black community in CA, 1850-1950," in R. Olmsted & C. Wollenberg (eds.) Neither Separate nor Equal (Sacramento, 1971), pp. 36-46.
Hertzberg, Hendrik. "Strongman: Arnold Schwartznegger & CA's recall race," New Yorker (9/29/03):42-49.
Kauer, Ralph. "The Workingmen's Party in CA," Pacific Historical Review 13 (1944):278-91.
Kazin, Michael. "The Great Exception revisited: organized labor & politics in San Francisco & Los Angeles, 1870-1940," Pacific Historical Review 55 (1986):371-402.
Larsen, Charles E. "The EPIC campaign of 1934," Pacific Historical Review 27 (5/58):127-48.
Leader, Leonard. "Upton Sinclair's EPIC switch: a dilemma for American Socialists," Southern CA Quarterly 62 (win 80):361-85.
Magliari, Michael. "What happened to the Populist vote? A CA case study," Pacific Historical Review 64 (1995):389-412.
Malone, Michael S. "The mission bell's toll," Forbes ASAP (11/30/98):28-34. Chilling big-historical view into the future, from contemplation of history of Santa Clara valley since 18th c.
Mathews, Glenna. "Forging a cosmopolitan civic culture: the regional identity of San Francisco & Northern California," in Wrobel & Steiner (eds.) Many Wests: Place, Culture & Regional Identity (Lawrence: U. of Kansas, 1997).
McPherson, Bruce. "Sacramento's troubles daunting," Santa Cruz Sentinel (9/28/03):F-2.
McWilliams, Carey. "Look what's happened to CA," Harper's (10/49):21-29.
__________. "Population & politics," Nation (7/8/50):35-37.
Mitchell, Greg. “The have-nots: Upton Sinclair’s EPIC campaign,” Nation (8/4-1/84):75-76. Sinclair forms End Poverty League & runs for Governor in 1934.
Nichols, John. "CA dreamin': 3rd party activists get going in the Golden State," Progressive (3/96). Nader campaign.
North, Diana M.T. "Civil liberties & the law: CA during the First World War," in L.A. Knafla & S.W.S. Binnie (eds.) Law, Society & the State: Essays in Modern Legal History (Toronto: U. of Toronto, 1995).
Putnam, Jackson K. "A half-century of conflict: the rise & fall of Liberalism in CA politics, 1943-1993," in R. Lowitt (ed.) Politics in the Postwar American West (Norman: U. of Oklahoma, 1995), pp. 42-63. Required reading for all participants in contentious partisan politics of today.
Roemer, John. "The virtual campaign," In These Times (10/31/94):22.
Schrag, Peter. "Baking off Bakke: the new assault on affirmative action," Nation (4/22/94):11-24.
Self, Robert. "'To plan our Liberation': Black Power & the politics of place in Oakland, CA, 1965-1977," Journal of Urban History 26 (2000):759-92.
Selvin, David F. "An exercise in hysteria: San Francisco's Red raids of 1934," Pacific Historical Review 58 (8/89):361-74.
Shilts, Randy. "The mayor of Castro St.," in W.F. Grover & J.G. Peschek (eds.) Voices of Dissent: Critical Readings in American Politics (NY: Longman, 1999). On pioneer gay politician & martyr Harvey Milk.
Starr, Kevin. "A new foundation," San Jose Mercury News (8/10/03):D1,6. Need for major overhaul in state governance.
Stewart, Jill. "CA's comeback kid," New Yorker (7/27/03):13.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Almaguer, Tomás. Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in CA (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1994).
Baldassare, Mark. CA in the New Millennium: The Changing Social & Political Landscape (Berkeley: U. CA, 2001).
__________. A CA State of Mind: The Conflicted Voter in a Changing World (Berkeley: U. CA, 2002).
Bardacke, Frank. Good Liberals & Great Blue Herons: Land, Labor, & Politics in the Pajaro Valley (Santa Cruz, 1994).
Bean, Walton. Boss Ruef's San Francisco: The Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business & the Graft Prosecution (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1952).
Beck, Warren A. & David A. Williams. CA: A History of the Golden State (NY, 1972).
__________ & Ynez D. Haase. Historical Atlas of California (Norman: U. of Oklahoma, 1974).
Brechin, Gray. Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1999).
Caughey, John W. CA: A Remarkable State's Life History (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970).
Chan, Sucheng & Spencer Olin (eds.) Major Problems in CA History: Documents & Essays (NY, 1997).
Clark, William A.V. The CA Cauldron: Immigration & the Fortunes of Local Communities (NY, 1998).
Cornford, Daniel (ed.) Working People of CA (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1995).
Deverell, William. Railroad Crossing: Californians & the Railroad, 1850-1910 (Berkeley: U. of California, 1994).
__________ & Tom Sitton (eds.) California Progressivism Revisited (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1994).
Friedman, Lawrence & Robert Percival. The Roots of Justice: Crime & Punishment in Alameda County CA, 1870-1910 (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina, 1981).
Haas, Lisbeth. Conquests & Historical Identities in California, 1769-1936 (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1995).
Hanson, Victor Davis. Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (San Francisco: Encounter, 2003).
Haslam, Gerald. The Other California: The Great Central Valley in Life & Letters (Reno: U. of Nevada, 1990).
Henderson, George L. California & the Fictions of Capital (NY: Oxford, 1999).
Hine, Robert V. California's Utopian Colonies (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1983).
Hyink, Bernard L.& David H. Provost. Politics & Government in California (14th ed.; NY, 1998).
Indiana, Gary. The Schwarzenegger Syndrome: Politics & Celebrity in the Age of Contempt (NY: New Press, 2005).
Johnson, Marilynn S. The Second Gold Rush: Oakland & the East Bay in World War II (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1996).
Lotchin, Roger W. (ed.) The Way We Really Were: The Golden State during the Second World War (Urbana: U. of Illinois, 1999).
Maasik, Sonia & Jack Solomon. CA Dreams & Realities: Readings for Critical Thinkers & Writers (Boston, 1995).
Maharidge, Dale. The Coming White Minority: California, Multiculturalism, & America's Future (NY, 1996).
McWilliams, Carey. California: The Great Exception [1949] (Santa Barbara, 1979).
Miles, Sara.How To Hack a Party Line: The Democrats & Silicon Valley (Berkeley: U. CA, 2002).
Mitchell, Greg. The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of CA & the Birth of Media Politics (NY: Random House, 1993).
Morgan, Neil. The CA Syndrome (NY: Ballantine, 1969).
Mowry, George E. The CA Progressives (Berkeley: U. of California, 1951).
Olmsted, Roger & Charles Wollenberg (eds.) Neither Separate nor Equal: Race & Racism in CA (Sacramento, 1971).
Pincetl, Stephanie S. Transforming CA: A Political History of Land Use & Development (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1999).
Pitt, Leonard. CA Controversies: Major Issues in the History of the State (Glenview IL:?, 1968).
Rawls, James & Walton Bean. CA: An Interpretive History [1968] (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003).
Rolle, Andrew. CA: A History [1963] (Wheeling IL: Harlan Davidson, 2003).
Royce, Josiah. CA from the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco: A Study in American Character [1886] (NY, 1948). Brilliant study of ideology & politics in first decade of state's history under American rule.
Schuparra, Kurt. Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the CA Conservative Movement, 1945-1966 (Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998).
Schwartz, Stephen. The Left Coast: CA & the Making of the American Mind (NY, 1998).
Scobie, Ingrid Winther. Center Stage: Helen Gahagan Douglas, A life (NY: Oxford, 1992).
Sinclair, Upton. I, Candidate for Governor & How I Got Licked [1935] (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1994).
Smith, Richard Candida. Utopia & Dissent: Art, Poetry & Politics in CA (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1995).
Starr, Kevin. Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003 (NY: Knopf, 2004).
Strong, Douglas H. Tahoe from Timber Barons to Ecologists (Lincoln: U. of Nebraska, 1999).
Tyrrell, Ian. True Gardens of the Gods: CA-Australian Environmental Reform, 1860-1930 (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1999).
Wellock, Thomas Raymond. Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in CA, 1958-1978 (Madison: U. of Wisconsin, 1998).
Wyatt, David. Five Fires: Race, Catastrophe & the Shaping of CA (NY, 1997).