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Culture Shock!
California
Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, the ever-popular "Culture Shock!" series belongs in your backpack or briefcase. Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. "Culture Shock!" country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. "Culture Shock!" practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler. "Culture Shock!" at your Door guides equip you for daily life in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. And "Culture Shock!" Success Secrets guides offer relevant, practical information with the real-life insights and cultural know-how that can make the difference between business success and failure. Each "Culture Shock!" title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each book is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home.
- GenresNonfiction
Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
13 people want to read
About the author
Mark Cramer
28 books3 followersThere is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 7, 2009
I'm a native Californian. I grew up in southern California, about 24 miles north of the border, went to college in Santa Barbara and now live in the Bay Area. So what am I doing reading Culture Shock! California by Mark Cramer, a travel book about my home state? Curiosity of course. It's good to take an outside point of view to get a new perspective on things.
Culture Shock! California was published in 1997 at the start of the real estate bubble that popped about two years ago. With the dot-com bubble growing too, incomes were rising as were property values. There was money to be made in building: malls, homes, and amusement parks. Southern California got hit more by the madness of new buildings and widening freeways. Stretches of the I5 around Disneyland are almost unrecognizable to me now.
Coming into the midst of this building frenzy, Mark Cramer's initial pessimism about the state makes sense. His thesis s that there is no "sense of place" in California because of the over abundance of strip malls and franchises. Driving along the major highways it's easy to get that impression but go a few miles off the main drag and the neighborhoods reveal their personalities. And as you go north from the border, the state takes on a different feel. Likewise, go east and it's different again.
The book has a chapter on the state's history, a look at immigration through the years, a look at a "typical Californian" (conclusion, there isn't one; we're a state of iconoclasts), some tips on etiquette for social and business situations and some tips on fitting in and surviving. At the back of the book is a quiz to see how well the reader is ready to travel to California. I took the quiz and passed with flying colors, so I guess I get to stay.
Although I had a few quibbles with Cramer's observations and wished he would have covered more of the rural pieces of the state, I enjoyed the book. I think he did an admirable job at capturing the California culture and the differences at least between northern and southern California. His comparisons of Los Angeles and San Francisco were fascinating. If I come across more books in the series (the first one being Culture Shock! Bolivia, I will read them).
Culture Shock! California was published in 1997 at the start of the real estate bubble that popped about two years ago. With the dot-com bubble growing too, incomes were rising as were property values. There was money to be made in building: malls, homes, and amusement parks. Southern California got hit more by the madness of new buildings and widening freeways. Stretches of the I5 around Disneyland are almost unrecognizable to me now.
Coming into the midst of this building frenzy, Mark Cramer's initial pessimism about the state makes sense. His thesis s that there is no "sense of place" in California because of the over abundance of strip malls and franchises. Driving along the major highways it's easy to get that impression but go a few miles off the main drag and the neighborhoods reveal their personalities. And as you go north from the border, the state takes on a different feel. Likewise, go east and it's different again.
The book has a chapter on the state's history, a look at immigration through the years, a look at a "typical Californian" (conclusion, there isn't one; we're a state of iconoclasts), some tips on etiquette for social and business situations and some tips on fitting in and surviving. At the back of the book is a quiz to see how well the reader is ready to travel to California. I took the quiz and passed with flying colors, so I guess I get to stay.
Although I had a few quibbles with Cramer's observations and wished he would have covered more of the rural pieces of the state, I enjoyed the book. I think he did an admirable job at capturing the California culture and the differences at least between northern and southern California. His comparisons of Los Angeles and San Francisco were fascinating. If I come across more books in the series (the first one being Culture Shock! Bolivia, I will read them).
Displaying 1 of 1 review