This book is a must-read for political activists, academics, journalists and political junkies of all sorts. It shows where the Golden State has been in the past two generations, where it is now and where it is going. The book describes the Schwarzenegger Administration in the context of broad political, demographic, economic and historical forces going back to the 1911 structural political reforms of Hiram Johnson, and it illustrates how Democrats and Republicans have won past elections in California, the strategies they have used, and why. In addition, over 100 charts unwind a tangle of details and line them up by region, ethnicity, income, party affiliation, and voter turnout over time, including results on initiatives regarding everything from water rights to hand guns.
This enhanced edition of Total Recall holds 16 videos clips, including behind the scenes footage from Terminator 3, political speeches from the Governor years and clips from Pumping Iron. In this fully illustrated ebook, Arnold Schwarzenegger takes us through each of the 170+ photographs and narrates each image. In his signature larger-than-life style, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious, controversial and truly unique life. Born in a small Austrian town in 1947, a year of famine, he was the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star. By the age of 21, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr Universe. Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry. But that was only the beginning. The Terminator spawned numerous sequels and made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, as he had a series of hit films including Predator, Total Recall, True Lies and Twins. He married Maria Shriver, becoming part of the Kennedy clan, while going on to become the Republican governor of California, where he led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters and political turmoil. It is the greatest immigrant success story of our time. His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages. Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice. Here is Arnold, with total recall.
California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978. At the same time, a champion bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger was becoming a movie star. Over the past quarter century, the twin arts of direct democracy (through ballot initiatives designed to push the public to the polls on election day) and blockbuster moviemaking (through movies designed to push the public to the theaters on opening weekend) grew up together, at home in California. With the state's recall election in 2003, direct democracy and blockbuster movies officially merged. The result: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In The People's Machine, political reporter Joe Mathews, who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign for the Los Angeles Times and who has subsequently broken many front page stories about him, traces the roots of both movie and political populism, how Schwarzenegger used these twin forces to win election and, especially, how he has used them to govern. "Let the people decide," said Governor Schwarzenegger after his inauguration. The People's Machine, through remarkable access and whip-smart analysis -- there is news in this book -- reports on whether this system of governing proves blessing, curse, or mess, and on the remarkable Austrian bodybuilder, movie star, and political man with the nerve to carry it out.
On a late-night talk show in the fall of 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger announces his candidacy for Governor of California. Two months later, he wins, despite having no qualifications for the job beyond playing a hero on screen. With Arnold's rapid rise to power as a seductive backdrop, Golden State follows a disparate quartet of characters in the capital city of Sacramento as they feed off this anything-goes atmosphere and undertake a variety of misbegotten schemes of their own, all in pursuit of this same kind of validation and fulfillment. There is tightly wound realtor Missy Carver, determined to find Arnold his Sacramento dream estate and secure the partnership she's sure will make her feel complete; Spencer Brine, a depressed obituarist whose star-crossed love for a local stripper provides him the inspiration for an unlikely rise through the paper's ranks; widower Todd Tisdale, lost in former glories, who pins his hopes for saving his struggling tuxedo shop on befriending Arnold, no matter what it takes; and finally, Rowena Pickett, a directionless tanning salon employee who only wants to find love even if it's with a prison pen pal she can't touch. As these characters' lives intersect, often in unexpectedly fateful ways, David Prybil's darkly humorous work examines both the rough underbelly of dashed hopes and the enduring power of the American Dream.
In Volunteer Forty-Niners, Walter T. Durham provides the first comprehensive examination of the role Tennessee and Tennesseans played in creating a new state and a new society on the West Coast. Drawing from such archival sources as personal narratives in letters and diaries, public records, and newspaper reports, Durham has woven a wealth of information into his recounting of their adventures.
“Concise, clear and convincing. . . a vision for the country as a whole.” —James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review A leading sociologist's brilliant and revelatory argument that the future of politics, work, immigration, and more may be found in California Once upon a time, any mention of California triggered unpleasant reminders of Ronald Reagan and right-wing tax revolts, ballot propositions targeting undocumented immigrants, and racist policing that sparked two of the nation's most devastating riots. In fact, California confronted many of the challenges the rest of the country faces now—decades before the rest of us. Today, California is leading the way on addressing climate change, low-wage work, immigrant integration, overincarceration, and more. As white residents became a minority and job loss drove economic uncertainty, California had its own Trump moment twenty-five years ago, but has become increasingly blue over each of the last seven presidential elections. How did the Golden State manage to emerge from its unsavory past to become a bellwether for the rest of the country? Thirty years after Mike Davis's hellish depiction of California in City of Quartz, the award-winning sociologist Manuel Pastor guides us through a new and improved California, complete with lessons that the nation should heed. Inspiring and expertly researched, State of Resistance makes the case for honestly engaging racial anxiety in order to address our true economic and generational challenges, a renewed commitment to public investments, the cultivation of social movements and community organizing, and more.
An in-depth look at California's remarkable 21st century turnaround, focusing on the role played by the state government under Jerry Brown. In the most economically important state in the country—and the 7th largest economy in the world—a political revolution of historic importance has occurred which has not been sufficiently covered by the media. In the state where the Reagan Revolution was born, there has recently occurred a remarkable progressive revolution under the leadership of another governor, four-term Democrat Jerry Brown. Over the past several decades, as it has evolved from a red state to solid blue, California has boldly reinvigorated the notion that government is not a dirty word but rather an instrument for uniting people and improving their lives. From raising taxes on those with annual incomes over $250,000, to shifting money toward the schools in low-income communities, from seeking environmental alliances with other countries to limit climate change, to the rejection of militaristic solutions to illegal immigration, California has been a laboratory of innovation. Californians have rejected the "race to the bottom" right-wing philosophy that catapulted conservative politics in recent years. That model of endorsing privatization, deregulation, reductions in government spending, and a tax system that disproportionately favors the wealthy, is exemplified by conservative governors and rejected by the pragmatic liberal Jerry Brown. In California Comeback, award-winning journalist Narda Zacchino, who has covered California politics for over three decades, clearly lays out the history of California's initial experiments with progressivism under Brown, its swing to the right under Reagan, near financial collapse under Schwarzenegger, and recent return to stability—bulwarked but the progressive policies made possible by the second coming of Jerry Brown. This progressive mindset, forged in the crucible of the tumultuous last half century, is California's true contribution not only to the country, but to the world.
“A fascinating case for a more engaged government, transformed to meet the challenges and possibilities of the twenty-first century.” —President William J. Clinton A rallying cry for revolutionizing democracy in the digital age, Citizenville reveals how ordinary Americans can reshape their government for the better. Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, argues that today’s government is stuck in the last century while—in both the private sector and our personal lives—absolutely everything else has changed. Drawing on wide-ranging interviews with thinkers and politicians, Newsom shows how Americans can transform their government, taking matters into their own hands to dissolve political gridlock even as they produce tangible changes in the real world. Citizenville is a timely road map for restoring American prosperity and for reinventing citizenship in today’s networked age.
Fed up with business as usual, Californians recalled Governor Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with a celebrity who pledged to clean up government. The Recall's Broken Promise details how Arnold Schwarzenegger then shattered political fundraising records, attacked campaign finance laws, crossed ethical boundaries, and how politicians of both parties have killed needed reforms.
