History of California: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Golden State, Starting from when Native Americans Dominated through European Exploration to the Present (U.S. States) Paperback – April 6, 2021

A casual, fast-paced overview of the Golden State's history, covering a wide array of factors from European discovery to the current state of affairs in 2021. Enjoyable to read and never boring. I appreciated the more well-rounded account of American history, not the usual one-sided view. One of many in the Captivating History series. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for historical information on California, but who doesn't want to do a lot of research. In this book, all the research is done for you and provides little-known historical facts you may be surprised to learn!

I loved California’s history and culture.The Gold Rush was famous and very interesting.Meanwhile i can know about the history about California’s independence from Mexico...This bok was great,recommend.

A great (pretty detailed) overview of California history. Interesting and simultaneously sad. A very good reminder. Well worth the read!

This book calls itself a “history of California” and though the Table of Contents would suggest coverage of the state’s history right through the first few decades of the 21st century, the 20th and early 21st centuries get only scant attention. Unfortunately, the narrative generally moves along in noticeably jerky jumps, and faulty grammar, considerable redundancy and the absence of many important aspects of California history make this book an unsatisfying experience too.This is no place to get your arms around California’s unquestionably colorful history and I would strongly encourage readers to look elsewhere for a truly nuanced account. Kevin Starr’s books would a great place to start (one, it must be noted, is cited), and those of Carey McWilliams and even my own, are places that truly add mountains of intriguing and indispensable detail to this story, detail that is nowhere to be found here.One final concern is the fact that this book was not the work of any single author (or even a named group of them), leaving the reader wondering just who actually had a hand in creating this narrative. There is a sizable bibliography at the end, but the names of the truly towering figures among California’s historians (Starr is the exception) are nowhere to be found. There is also no index, which makes tracking down references in the narrative an unnecessarily difficult task.You might choose to begin your look into California’s history in a book like this (though even saying that is quite a reach), but you will definitely have to look elsewhere if you want to get a truly rounded view of this state’s extraordinary past. Luckily, there are plenty of books around that can do that for you, not as short as this one, of course, but then again, this subject is way too big for a volume this thin anyway. “Captivating”? That's not quite the word that comes to mind.

California: A Captivating Guide to the History of California, is the least readable in the bundle. Having read and reviewed the other two book in this bundle, this California history is written with less care and context than the other two. Although there are a few illustrations in the first few chapters, the rest of the book is devoid of maps and graphics. By context, meaning how California compares in economy or population compared to other states or even internationally. Much space is devoted to the native Californians and their place in the history, and more than a few pages are spent explaining how left-leaning California is. This book missed the mark.

I didn't know much about California history, so I found this to be interesting. I always learn something new with these history of guides.

Matt Clayton delivers an engaging narrative that added extensively to my personal understanding of my state's history. His description of the effects events had on the various population, will be eye openers for some.

I should have been suspicious when the author unabashedly adds "A Captivating . . . " to the title. I wasn't captivated. What word processor would allow one to start dozens of sentences with "Seeing as . . ."? Not only is it annoyingly repetitive, but cause and effect statements should be used cautiously in historical accounts. The writing is sloppy, the casual statements are opinions, guesses, or biases, which clutter any pertinent facts.I see that this book is just one of several in a series. I'm not going to check but I fear the others are just as shoddily written and un-captivating.