The Shortest History of California: From Contested Frontier to Tech and Cultural Superpower - The Unsettled History of the Golden State

From native stewardship to Mexican province to Disneyland, discover the evolution and constant reinvention of the nation’s most populous state—and global superpower in its own right.

California, one of the biggest and most consequential states in the union, looms even larger in the imagination—for good reason.

California’s story is one of constant reinvention. It’s been shaped by each of the peoples who’ve called it home, from its first Indigenous inhabitants to Spanish empresarios to tech mo...