cover image CALIFORNIA RISING: The Life and Times of Pat Brown

CALIFORNIA RISING: The Life and Times of Pat Brown

Ethan Rarick, . . Univ. of California, $29.95 (501pp) ISBN 978-0-520-23627-1

Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown (1905– 1996) was surely one of the Golden State's greatest governors. Fortunately, in political journalist Rarick, he has found a sure-penned, balanced and astute biographer. Elected governor in 1958 and serving until defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1966, Brown accomplished what other governors had to envy and faced challenges they'd pray to avoid. It was Brown who reorganized the state's world-class university system for a new era; led to completion of the controversial Feather River Project, which brought more water to Southern California; and, perhaps most memorably, defeated Richard Nixon for governor in 1962. But the ghastly problems he faced were even greater than these promising opportunities. He was governor when student unrest overtook the Berkeley campus in 1964 and when Watts exploded in race rioting in 1965. A first-class disposition and sensitive political antennae got him through these and other difficulties, but also opened him to opposition by those, like Nixon and Reagan, who portrayed him inaccurately as soft and ineffective. In the end, as Rarick argues, sometimes in too great detail, Brown led his state through its boom times with vision and understanding. Rarick tells the tale with great skill in this lively, fast-paced, critical and fully informed work. 26 b&w photos. (Jan.)