“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“It is often said that California has little history. But there’s nothing little about this beautifully illustrated and written book, which brilliantly distills the depth and diversity of California’s past.”—Stephen Aron, Autry Museum of the American West“With verve, clarity, and erudition, John Mack Faragher has wrestled California’s monumental, tragic, triumphant, immense history into a single volume. This is a superb book by one of our most insightful scholars of the far West. A signal achievement.”—William Deverell, Institute on California and the West“John Mack Faragher understands the promise, and the heartbreak, of California. This is a wonderfully concentrated but comprehensive and evocative history of the most American of states.”—James Fallows, coauthor of Our Towns