The Rough Guide to California 7 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

INTRODUCTION

California is America squared. It’s the place you go to find more America than you ever thought possible.

What’s Wrong with America by Scott Bradfield

Perhaps no region of the world has been as idealized as California, and few, if any, actually manage to live up to the hype to the same degree. Justly celebrated for its sun, sand, surf, and sea, it has a whole lot more besides, such as high mountain ranges, Gold Rush ghost towns, glitzy cities, deep primeval forests, and hot, dry deserts.

California doesn’t dwell too much on the past, and, in some ways, represents the ultimate "now" society, with all that entails. Urban life is very much lived in the fast lane, and conspicuous consumption is often emphasized to the exclusion of almost everything else. But this is only one side of the coin, and the deeper sense of age here often gets skimmed over. Once you get out of the cities, however, it is readily apparent in the landscape: dense groves of ancient trees, primitive rock carvings left by the aboriginal Native American culture, and the eerie ghost towns of the Gold Rush pioneers. A land of superlatives, California really is full of the oldest, the tallest, the largest, the most spectacular – all of which go far beyond local bravura.

It’s important to bear in mind, too, that the supposed "superficiality" of California and Californians is largely a myth, one grounded in LA’s position as entertainment, theme park, and beach culture capital of America, as well as the perception that San Francisco – or, just as much, nearby cities like Berkeley and Santa Cruz – serves as some sort of bastion of the lunatic fringe. But this is an image promoted as much by Americans on the East Coast as visitors to the state, even if the area’s endeavors to gain cultural credibility can sometimes seem brash.

Politically, California’s probably the USA’s most schizophrenic state, home to some of its most reactionary figures – Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon to name but two – yet also the source of some of the country’s most progressive political movements. Some of the fiercest protests of the Sixties emanated from here, and in many ways this is still the heart of liberal America. Consider the level of environmental awareness, which puts the smoky East to shame, and the fact that California has helped set the standard for the rest of the US (if not the world) regarding gay pride and social permissiveness. The region is economically crucial as well, with the cash-flush entertainment field dominated by California’s film industry and ascendant music business; even in the increasingly important financial markets, Los Angeles has become a major player.