If you look at California’s economy, you’d find it’s so massive that if the state were a standalone country, it would boast the world’s fifth-largest gross domestic product, trailing only the United States, China, Japan, and Germany. Its influence—spanning culture, politics, and the very essence of the American dream—is vast and unquantifiable. California represents a land of second chances and sunny optimism, yet it also stands as a reminder of nature’s wrath with its earthquakes and wildfires, seemingly demanding a hefty price for its beauty. In all respects, it’s a giant among states.
Capturing the essence of such a multifaceted region in a single book is no simple feat, yet Michael Hiltzik manages just that in his work, “Golden State: The Making of California.” Hiltzik, with his thorough approach and healthy skepticism, guides readers through California’s complex history. Known for his insightful takes in the Los Angeles Times as a business columnist, his previous works tackling subjects like the New Deal and the Hoover Dam, Hiltzik writes with neither blind admiration nor outright cynicism. Any genuine exploration of California’s past naturally uncovers layers of corruption and even darker chapters like genocide. Having moved from the East Coast to settle in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s after brief stints earlier, Hiltzik combines an outsider’s fresh view with a local’s nuanced understanding of the state.
His journalistic eye—always questioning, picking apart the conventional wisdom—is precisely what illuminates a key topic: water. This essential element shaped the Los Angeles we recognize today.
The infamous story of how Fred Eaton and William Mulholland redirected Owens Valley’s water to quench the thirst of Los Angeles in the early 1900s is legendary, even finding a place in pop culture through the neo-noir film “Chinatown.” This cinematic depiction, as Hiltzik notes, brings the tale into the 1930s with a dramatic flair that suggests every scandal and misdeed occurred against a dark tableau of crime and betrayal. However, Hiltzik focuses on grounding this narrative in nuance rather than hysteria when dissecting the Los Angeles Aqueduct project: yes, the project indeed benefitted wealthy Los Angeles magnates but wasn’t solely driven by their greed. Yet, this was little comfort to the furious Owens Valley inhabitants who resorted to dynamiting sections of the aqueduct in protest.
Beyond these water wars, California’s history has its share of grim events. The gruesome 1880 Humboldt Massacre, where white settlers mercilessly killed 285 Native Americans, including women and children, is one such dark chapter. Hiltzik details how such massacres and the forced prostitution and enslavement of thousands of Native women and children were rampant for over a decade. The state also witnessed the violent expulsion of Chinese immigrants from San Francisco when they posed economic competition to white residents, as well as the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Californians following Pearl Harbor due to Executive Order 9066.
The saga of the Central Pacific Railroad reflects one of the state’s most notorious examples of profiteering, with the “Big Four” railway magnates—Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker, and Huntington—amassing enormous wealth. California’s history can often be seen as a quest for fortune: extracting it from the land, luring outsiders to build it, and then centralizing it in the hands of a privileged few.
Each of these stories has been, and could continue to be, a focus of its own dedicated book. Hiltzik himself explored such themes in the 2020 title “Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America.” In “Golden State,” he adeptly distills the complex narrative into a digestible and compelling read of 448 pages. Certain events, like the Summer of Love, the grisly Manson murders, and the 1992 Rodney King riots, are touched upon with depth, particularly within a chapter well-researched on the 1965 Watts uprising.
What Hiltzik does with finesse is to weave an overarching narrative that traces the shift in California’s power center from San Francisco to Los Angeles over the last century. The book illustrates how San Francisco rapidly evolved from a modest settlement into a bustling metropolis, buoyed by the Gold Rush, which caused a population surge unmatched in American history. The city’s Wild West days, teeming with tales of vigilante justice, are among the book’s most vivid accounts.
However, it was the arrival of water that laid the groundwork for Los Angeles, coupled with its inviting landscape and favorable climate. Dreamers flocked to the city, spurred on by Hollywood’s allure, making it a beacon for those escaping colder climes in search of reinvention. From these beginnings arose a metropolis nearing four million inhabitants, a testament to its enduring allure. The city captures much of the book’s latter half for good reason—it represents a future that remains relevant and influential today.
Chris Vognar delivers this insightful review as a seasoned freelance culture writer.
