California: The Great Exception

by Carey McWilliams, Lewis H. Lapham

In 1949, lawyer, historian, and journalist Carey McWilliams stepped back to assess the state of California at the end of its first one hundred years―its history, population, politics, agriculture, and social concerns. As he examined the reasons for the prodigious growth and productivity that have characterized California since the Gold Rush, he praised the vitality of the new citizens who had come from all over the world to populate the state in a very short time. But he also made clear how brutally the new Californians dealt with "the Indian problem," the water problem, and the need for migrant labor to facilitate California's massive and highly profitable agricultural industry. As we look back now on 150 years of statehood, it is particularly useful to place the events of the past fifty years in the context of McWilliams's assessment in California: The Great Exception . Lewis Lapham has written a new foreword for this edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Geography, American History

394 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Father of Wilson Carey McWilliams/Carey McWilliams Jr.

Reviews

[David Wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for understanding the western half of our country. Read the first 5 Chapters, the last section, and skim the rest. From the last section:

California is "a large province on the west coast, ..., possessed of a most exceptional environment ..., with a most unique historical background, gets a head start of two decades over the other western states in its development ... and develops at an entirely different tempo from its sister states of the West. .. Selective forces at work in the process of migration bring to the state a population which is ... a highly selected sample of the population of the world. The diversity of the state's resources is matched the by constant diversity of its population. ... isolated from the rest of the nation during two crucial decades in its early history, California develops a remarkable energy and resourcefulness in the solution of its problems without consultation or assistance from the other western states or the federal government."

[Carl Palm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book some 45 years ago, when it was already 30 years old. It is now 75, and now, having read through it again, I can’t but feel that’s it’s just about as fresh today as it was when I first read it. The statistics that pepper the book are now all out of date, of course (I’m sure McWilliams would be amazed at how much reality has outstripped even his boldest projections), but the book’s core insights about California have held up well. Time and again, he hits the nail squarely on the head, laying out the themes that remain the state’s themes to this day.

This book is truly one of the jewels of California history. It was one of the first, if not the first, book about the state to focus almost exclusively on the things that make it so different from everywhere else, a theme that writers about the state, including me, have continued to make note of, even if only as part of narratives focused largely on other things. It was one of the inspirations for my own first book about the state, and even though I personally chose to go off in a very different direction, I wouldn’t even have thought of doing what I did were it not for this book (and his wonderful Southern California: An Island on the Land) leading the way.

[James Bechtel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

[joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really not sure what year I read this but I found the newsman's ideas about California and its many ways of being exceptional was easy to read and thought provoking. The main idea I took away was the peculiar way that gold mining in the first years took no vast capital expenditure so many independent placers, the forty-niners, were an important part of early US owned California history. I've recently be amazed to learn the history about no slavery in CA back then. Slave owners dreamed of bringing their slaves to CA to mine gold!

The fact that it was a vast gold strike also allowed CA to develop independently of the Eastern established banks. And the weather.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential for understanding California's strange evolution as a state — in particular, its water laws (and by extension those of the west), it's industrial agriculture, its plutocratic politics, its feuding cities and its labor squabbles. McWilliams love for the state, and his fascination with its history and its people shines through on every page. Even when he's knee deep poring through import/export data that's long since ceased to be relevant, you don't dare skip a chapter. Required reading for Californiaphiles and phobes.

[Jennifer]

Oddly prescient view of California's relationship with the West, the United States and the world and the troubles it would face in the second half of the twentieth century. An engaging glimpse into those aspects of its history, development and "climate" that make it exceptional and, yet, oddly representative of this young nation as a whole.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reveals the true history of California, stripped of all the glamor and glitz