Defined as much by its mythology as by its geography, California is a place of rich human variety, spectacular natural beauty, historical extremes, and complex political contradictions. Learn more about your home state, its history, and the difficult issues it faces today with the books in this subject guide, which represent just a few of the ones about California available in the library's collection. Visit the catalog at library.thoreau.org to find more, and remember that we will having a discussion in the library about one of the books on this list - Rand Richard's Mud, Blood, and Gold - next Wednesday, July 22, from 12:30pm to 1:30pm.
Kevin Starr. California: A History. (2005)
Author of the sweeping eight volume historical study, California and the American Dream, and former state librarian, Kevin Starr in thirteen chapters chronicles California's history from the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century to 2005. Surveying the full sweep of geological, economic, political, cultural, and technological forces that have shaped the state, he emphasizes key themes of diversity, mythmaking, and innovation. It is also an examination of the paradoxical relationship between the state's veneration of nature and its rapacious consumption of it, how California became such a representative American place, and the question "Is California governable?"
John McPhee. Assembling California. (1993)
Rivaling the diversity of its population, the geology of California is a uniquely complex story of shifting geometries in continual motion. Part science, part biography, part travel narrative, McPhee explores the state with geologist Eldridge Moors while explaining the geological dynamics that have pieced together the state and shaped its familiar features for hundreds of millions of years. Illustrating how these forces have directly affected human development, he also discusses the gold rush, vinicultural diversity, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Brian Fagan. Before California: An Archeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants. (2003).
Long before there was a state called California, the land it occupies was home to a diverse array of societies and cultures, including some of the highest linguistic diversity every recorded on the planet. Written for a general audience, this book is a survey of the lives of these native peoples from the earliest human settlement over 13,000 years ago to the arrival of Europeans, as based on interpretations of the archaeological record. Acknowledging that many questions remain to be answered, Fagan addresses a wide range of topics, including human travel and migration patterns, the changing availability of different food resources, the effects of alterations in the ecology of the coast and inland regions, and detailed explorations of specific geographic regions.
Peter Asmus. Introduction to Energy in California. (2009)
From the University of California Press' California Natural History Guides series, this book is a comprehensive and accessible reference guide to all aspects of energy in the state, with over a hundred photographs, illustrations, and maps. Beginning with an historical overview of energy development in California, it also examines the pros and cons of all existing energy sources, including alternative and renewable ones, and describes the numerous challenges facing the state today in this sector along with some potential solutions for a more sustainable future. With an afterword by Arthur O' Donnell, executive director of the Center for Resource Solutions.
Linda & Wayne Bonnett. Taber: A Photographic Legacy, 1870-1900. (2004)
This survey features over 200 photographs of California and San Francisco taken by Isaiah West Taber (1830-1912), one of the most famous, talented, and prolific photographers of the state in his day, with a genius for self-promotion needed to thrive in the competitive world of nineteenth century portraiture. Documenting views of a world now lost, it includes images of Chinatown, the mansions of Nob Hill, Sutro Heights, the 1894 Midwinter Fair, Yosemite Valley, and individual portraits of famous Californians. It also presents the story of West himself, from his arrival during the gold rush to the 1906 earthquake when all of his glass negatives were lost.
Rand Richards. Mud, Blood, and Gold: San Francisco in 1849. (2009)
By the author of Historic San Francisco (also in the library collection), this work presents a detailed account of San Francisco in the year when its population exploded as tens of thousands of people from around the world poured through on their way to get rich in the newly discovered gold fields of California. From eyewitness accounts of that tumultuous year, Richards creates a vivid picture of daily life filled with drinking, gambling, prostitution, violence, real estate speculation, government corruption, and boundless ambition. Strained to the breaking point, the town was transformed into a city in ways that echo to today.
Brown Bag: Clean Energy Advancement + Global Warming ReversalPresenter: Center for Resource Solutions Policy Director Chris BuschThursday, July 16, 12:30PM to 1:30PMAtlantic Room at TidesThis presentation will provide insights into the current climate and energy policy landscape. We will look in some detail at the American Climate and Energy Security Act, which has been advancing in the House of Representatives. The bill, crafted by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman and his Environmental Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey, includes an array of policy initiatives. Chris will touch on some of the specifics to the energy-sector and will seek to demystify the multi-sector cap-and-trade program that is intended to ensure declining greenhouse gas emissions for the economy as a whole. The presentation will also touch on other recent federal policy developments, as well as regional and state action.
Wednesday, July 22
12:30 to 1:30
In the library
Come join your friends and co-workers and share your thoughts about Mud, Blood, and Gold: San Francisco in 1849 by local historian Rand Richards. In 1849, the population of the small port town of San Francisco exploded as tens of thousands of people from around the world poured through it on their way to get rich in the recently discovered gold fields of California. Some succeeded, many failed. From eyewitness accounts of that tumultuous year, Richards creates a vivid picture of daily life filled with drinking, gambling, prostitution, violence, real estate speculation, and government corruption. Strained to the breaking point, the city was transformed in ways that echo to today.Please let us know at library@thoreau.org if you are interested in attending and/or if you need help finding a copy.(And yes, since we are doing this at lunch time, you will be allowed to eat in the library - just be careful around the couch)From the publisher:San Francisco in 1849 was a time and place like no other in American history. As word of the discovery of gold in California spread, people from all over the world descended on San Francisco--ground zero for the avalanche of humanity and goods pouring into the fabled El Dorado. There have been many books on the Gold Rush, but Mud, Blood, and Gold is the first to focus solely on San Francisco as it was at the peak of the gold frenzy. With a 'you are there' immediacy author Rand Richards vividly brings to life what San Francisco was like during the landmark year of 1849. Based on eyewitness accounts and previously overlooked official records, Richards chronicles the explosive growth of a wide-open town rife with violence, gambling, and prostitution, all of it fueled by unbridled greed.
Elemental
Emily Clawson, Jenny E. Balisle, and Mari Andrews
Opening Reception:
Thursday, June 18, 5:00PM to 7:00PM
Thoreau Gallery
Elemental, presenting artwork by Emily Clawson, Jenny E. Balisle, and Mari Andrews - three Bay Area artists whose work is inspired, in part, by simplicity and nature. With drawings, paintings and sculpture these artists have planned an exhibition hoping to engage your mind and tickle your fancy. It runs from June 18 to August 14.
Special musical performance by Erica Dreisbach of Social Venture Network. Hear Erica's music:
http://www.myspace.com/ericadreisbach
While the term sustainability has become popular, its precise definition remains subject to debate and it will carry different senses of meaning for different people in different contexts. Probably the most widely known definition is the one presented in Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Building on that basic idea, many have worked to elaborate its details and practical implications, in the process bringing together aspects of economics, ecology, public policy, sociology, resource management, and more. Faced with increasing evidence every day that humanity is on an unsustainable trajectory, the need to develop a fuller understanding of the intertwined social and ecological contexts of human activity takes on a new urgency. The books in this list are useful introductions to the discussion of sustainability and its complexities, and it includes broad surveys of major themes as well as seminal works on particular topics such as economics and design.
Andres R. Edwards. The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift. (2005)
Edwards presents a guide to what he terms the "Sustainability Movement" - a large and diverse collection of groups and individuals around the world addressing a wide variety of issues yet which share certain common values and objectives. His portrait summarizes the many dimensions of sustainability through its presentation of the guiding principles of a number of leading groups and efforts organized into five sectors: community, commerce, natural resources, ecological design, and the biosphere. A general introduction to the idea of sustainability, it also briefly traces the roots and history of the idea and includes a guide to other resources online and in print.
Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, & Dennis Meadows. Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. (2004)
This update revisits the work of the influential and bestselling 1972 book which warned of the consequences of the unrestrained pursuit of growth in a finite world and which triggered widespread debate over environmental and economic issues. Whereas in 1972 the authors found that humanity's population and economic activity were at such a level within the planet's carrying capacity that there was time to continue existing patterns of growth safely while considering long-term change, the evidence of the intervening three decades lead them to conclude that humanity has already overshot the limits of that capacity in a number of areas and has moved into unsustainable territory with increasingly limited options. Presenting a clear picture of the situation today, the authors propose tools to help global society move toward a more sustainable state, including technological innovation, personal change, and longer planning horizons, while presenting a sobering assessment of the political and societal challenges which need to be confronted in order to avoid the path toward catastrophe.
Herman E. Daly. Steady-State Economics. (1991)
Originally published in 1977, this book is a pioneering work in the field of sustainable economics detailing many ideas now recognized as key to sustainable development. Daly maintains that the ecosystem with its finite limits must be understood to contain the economy, rather than the other way around as the abstract models of neoclassical economics would have it. A steady-state economy operates within these ecological boundaries, allowing for genuine qualitative human development as an alternative to the aggregate quantitative growth that is overburdening the environment. To maintain this desirable state, he proposes a collection of economic institutions and government action that combines strong regulation with free market devices. This revised edition includes related essays and book reviews on issues of growth and sustainability.
Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy. (2008)
Since 1984, the Worldwatch Institute has published the annual book series State of the World, which presents current developments in the research on global environmental challenges and solutions. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition focuses on the reforms needed to guide investment away from destructive activities and toward a new generation of environmentally sustainable industries. Surveying innovations across sectors and in such areas of activity as renewable energy, carbon markets, trade policy, finance, and economic indicators, the authors highlight the ways people are challenging existing economic assumptions and business practices.
Paul Hawken. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. (1993)
This fourth book by environmentalist, entrepreneur, and journalist Paul Hawken concentrates on how to change the existing relationship between business and the environment. He argues that any substantial progress in protecting the planet will have to come from a business leadership that has learned to reject short-sighted commercial gain in favor of the longer view. Using practical examples and guidelines, Hawken suggests how commerce can be transformed to an activity that restores ecosystems and protects the environment while still operating in a context of free enterprise. The Ecology of Commerce was voted in 1998 as the top college text on business and the environment by professors in 67 business schools.
Jonathan M. Harris, Timothy A. Wise, Kevin P. Gallagher, & Neva R. Goodwin, eds. A Survey of Sustainable Development: Social and Economic Dimensions. (2001)
A Survey of Sustainable Development is the sixth and final volume in the Frontier Issues of Economic Thought series produced by the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. The editors have assembled summaries of 66 articles reflecting diverse points of view and interdisciplinary approaches to the subject of sustainable human and economic development. Comprehensive review essays also synthesize major themes of the literature in such areas as renewable resources, corporate responsibility, democracy, population growth, biodiversity, and globalization.
Sim Van der Ryn & Stuart Cowan. Ecological Design: Tenth Anniversary Edition. (1996)
As a professor of architecture at the University of California Berkeley, California State Architect in the 1970s, and founder of the Ecological Design Institute in Marin, Sim Van der Ryn has been at the forefront of sustainable architecture for decades. Building on this experience, he has developed a philosophy based on the integration of physical and social ecology with design, emphasizing the need for ongoing collaboration of all parties involved as a crucial part of the process. This book details his principles and is a call to design in a way that honors the complexity of nature to all of those involved in the shaping of the physical details of daily existence - architects, landscape architects, city planners, farmers, chemical engineers, industrial designers, interior decorators, and others.
--John Bertland
Librarian
Legacy of Torture: The War Against the Black Liberation Movement"
Presenter: Filmmaker Claude Marks
Friday, June 12, 12:30pm to 1:30pm
Atlantic Room
“The same people who tried to kill me in 1973 are the same people who are here today, trying to destroy me. I mean it literally. I mean there were people from the forces of the San Francisco Police Department who participated in harassment, torture and my interrogation in 1973 ... none of these people have ever been brought to trial. None of these people have ever been charged with anything. None of these people have ever been questioned about that.” -- John Bowman, former Black PantherIn 2005 several former members of the Black Panther were held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify before a San Francisco Grand Jury investigating a police shooting that took place in 1971. The government alleged that Black radical groups were involved in the 34-year old case in which two men armed with shotguns attacked the Ingleside Police Station resulting in the death of a police sergeant and the injuring of a civilian clerk.In 1973, thirteen alleged "Black militants" were arrested in New Orleans, purportedly in connection with the San Francisco events. Some of them were tortured for several days by law enforcement authorities, in striking similarity to the horrors visited upon detainees in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.In 1975, a Federal Court in San Francisco threw out all of the evidence obtained in New Orleans. The two lead San Francisco Police Department investigators from over 30 years ago, along with FBI agents, have re-opened the case. Rather than submit to proceedings they felt were abusive of the law and the Constitution, five men chose to stand in contempt of court and were sent to jail. They were released when the Grand Jury term expired, but have been told by prosecutors that "it isn't over yet."
