Dreams and delusions.(Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003)(Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913)(The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California)(The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire)(Photographing Farmworkers in California)(Book Review)

California inspires clan to think big, and to write big volumes Take, for example, Kevin Starr. As a graduate scholar at Harvard in the 1960 Starr decided to write a history of California, his domicile state, organized around an idea: the dream of a advantageous life for ordinary people. Now, thirty-five years later, he is publishing the seventh turn in this series. in what manner many historians have conceived of--much les written--a seven-volume history of anything? Gibbon did the decline of Rome in six. Schlesinger did the Age of Roosevelt in three

Unabashedly cheerful and radiant Starr's ...