California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown

"Edmund G. (Pat) Brown has long been considered one of the two or three most effective governors of California. Thanks to this exhaustively researched and vividly written study by Ethan Rarick, we can now grasp the true strength and charisma of this extraordinary governor and the highpoint of public value and performance he orchestrated in the creation of contemporary California. A seasoned reporter, Rarick left everything behind to research and write this book. He made the right decision."--Kevin Starr, University Professor of History, University of Southern California"This is an impressive and important work--exhaustively researched, elegantly written. It's not only the biography of the central figure in modern California history, Governor Pat Brown, but the story of a crucial era in California and its place in the nation's imagination. "California Rising is a major document in our understanding of the man and the place he helped make."--Peter Schrag, former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee and author of "Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future"Ethan Rarick has written a shrewd and lively account of the life of Pat Brown, California's most constructive governor in the last half-century. What a pleasant way to learn about the history of the golden state during the key period in which state government was confronted with the economic and social challenges of rapid modernization. A very impressive book."--Nelson W. Polsby, Heller Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley"An important and enjoyable book."--Bruce Cain, coeditor of "Voting at the Political Fault Line ""Ethan Rarick's narrative of the life of Pat Brown is afascinating look at the maturation of a political animal. We follow closely as Brown gladhands his way up California's political ladder and becomes his state's most progressive governor. Brown's battles with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan throughout the 1960's are fleshed out in this meticulous study. California Rising profits from Rarick's broad understanding of California and his constructive use of Brown's personal notes and correspondence. The result is not only a first-rate political biography but also a fine piece of regional history."--Douglas Brinkley