The core book is Golden State: The Making of California by Los Angeles Times business writer, columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Hiltzik. Thanks to extensive research the book provides a definitive new history of California, brings a fresh critical eye, and uncovers an unvarnished truth. In it he details the discovery of California, the many stories of the indigenous population, the colonization by Spain, the development of the Missions, Mexican Independence, the Bear Flag Revolt, the discovery of gold, the struggle over slavery, joining the United States, the domination by rail roads, Chinese exclusion, the water wars, the San Francisco earthquake and fire, the Progressive Era, John Muir, conservation, fossil fuel extraction, the rise of Los Angeles, Japanese internment, WW II's impact, Richard Nixon, Disneyland, conservatism, Pat Brown, Ronald Regan, the 60s, the coming of La Raza, the Watts Rebellion, the rise of Big Tech, growth and the California Dream. We will also view several films relevant to the topic including The Grapes of Wrath, Chinatown, Milk, Fruitvale Station, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
1. Prologue: California, Land of Contradictions, Part I: The Quest for El Dorado. Chapter 1. A Terrestrial Paradise, Chapter 2. The Americans Arrive.
2. Chapter 3. The Bear Flag Revolt. Chapter 4 The Sordid Cry of Gold. Chapter 5. The Thirty-First Star.
3. Chapter 6. The Age of Genocide. Part II: The Railroad Era. Chapter 7. "The Chinese Must Go": San Francisco After the Gold Rush. Chapter 8. The Octopus. Chapter 9. The Shadow of Mussel Slough.
4. Chapter 10. The First Water War. Chapter 11. "City of the Damned." Chapter 12. The Progressive Revolution. Chapter 13. John Muir and the Battle for Conservation. The Grapes of Wrath, Director John Ford, Twentieth Century Fox, 1940.
5. Part III: California Ascendant. Chapter 14. Conjuring Los Angeles. Chapter 15. Ghosts of the Owens Valley. Chapter 16. The Utopians. Chapter 17. Executive Order 9066. Chinatown, Director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures, 1974.
6. Chapter 18. The Selling of Richard Nixon. Chapter 19. Tomorrowland. Part IV: The Era of Limits. Chapter 20 Ronald Reagan and the Legacy of Pat Brown. Chapter 21. La Causa. Milk, Director Gus Van Sant, Focus Features, 2008.
7. Chapter 22. Disaster at Platform A. Chapter 23. Six Days in Watts. Chapter 24. The Crisis of Growth. Epilogue: Keeping the California Dream Alive. Fruitvale Station, Director Ryan Coogler, OG Project, 2013 or The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Director Joe Talbot, A24, 2019.
Michael Hiltzik, Golden State: The Making of California, New York, Mariner Books, 2025.
The Grapes of Wrath, Director John Ford, Twentieth Century Fox, 1940.
Chinatown, Director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures, 1974.
Milk, Director Gus Van Sant, Focus Features, 2008.
Fruitvale Station, Director Ryan Coogler, OG Project, 2013.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Director Joe Talbot, A24, 2019.