History & Biography
After the Tax Revolt: California’s Proposition 13 Turns Thirty
Jack Citrin and Isaac William Martin, editors | $24.95
California's Proposition 13 changed the political landscape in 1978, when it was approved by the state's voters. A strict limit on property taxes, Prop. 13 ushered in a national era of tax revolt. But 30 years after its passage, how has Prop. 13 changed California? What has been the effect on public services? On taxpayers? On local and state government? This collection of essays attempts to assess one of California's political milestones three decades after its adoption.
California Votes: The 2006 Governor's Race
Ethan Rarick, editor | $24.95
In November of 2005, California voters were ready to terminate Arnold Schwarzenegger as a politician. The state was headed in the wrong direction, Californians told pollsters, and they didn't want to reelect their Hollywood governor. The two most likely Democratic challengers held leads over Schwarzenegger, who had just endured a terrible thrashing in a special election he had called. After less than two years in office, it seemed the political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger was an experiment gone wrong.
Yet just a year later, Schwarzenegger swept to victory, carrying 52 of the state's 58 counties and winning reelection by more than a million-and-a-half votes. Here is the story of that dramatic turnaround, told mostly in the words of California's top political insiders. We learn about the strategies and the ideas behind Schwarzenegger's rejuvenation, but also about the two Democrats who sought to take his job: Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly. In separate chapters, some of California's leading political scholars dissect the underlying political structure of the state, while top pollsters describe the mood of the voters before, during, and after the campaign.
California is home to one out of every eight Americans, and California gubernatorial campaigns are the nation's second most important and dynamic political races, behind only those for the presidency. Add to that the global celebrity of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it has become essential that anyone who wants to understand American politics must understand California politics. Here is an insider's peek into that world, direct from the men and women who made the decisions that affected the outcome of one of the most-watched American political campaigns in years.
California Votes: The 2002 Governor's Race & The Recall That Made History
Gerald C. Lubenow, editor | $24.95
As the effort to recall Governor Gray Davis swirled toward the polls in the spring of 2003, the IGS publications staff was just putting the finishing touches on the definitive account of his election in the autumn of 2002. Every four years since 1990, the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has assembled the key players in the governor's race-campaign managers and consultants, pollsters and political operatives, money people and the media- to assess what really happened.
But, as our editing progressed, so did the recall effort. And about the time we were ready to send the book to press, it became clear that the recall would reach the ballot and, quite possibly, undo the results of the election. We decided to hold up publication and include the recall as the final chapters in the book. The result is a publication as unique as the recall itself: a book that combines an in-depth look at the 2002 election that put Gray Davis in the governorship with a behind-the-scenes analysis of the recall election that plucked him from office less than a year later.
This volume, the latest on the quadrennial gatherings that draw what one reporter called "the innermost of California's political insiders," details the planning behind Davis's preemptive strike that took Richard Riordan out in the Republican primary, and the dynamics of his hairsbreadth victory over Bill Simon in the general election. And here, too, is a compelling first-person narrative of the angry groundswell that drove him from office. Reading the two in juxtaposition, one is struck by a sense that the recall's success and Davis's failure were almost an inevitable climax to the election of 2002.
As IGS Director Bruce Cain observed, "We've discovered that with the passage of time people tend to be more willing to speak frankly about the reasons why they did what they did in the heat of the battle, and we have learned a lot of extraordinary things about how decisions are made." The verbatim transcripts and expert commentary published here will serve as a text for students of politics, a must read for political junkies, and a handbook for the next election.
California Votes--The 1998 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, editor | $21.95
This series--with companion volumes on the 1990 and 1994 races--is the insiders’ guide to California politics. Following each of the past three California governor's races, the key players came to Berkeley to review and critique the strategy and tactics of the race. In two days of brutally candid discussion, they examine every aspect of the race. An edited transcript of these discussions, with commentary and analysis by the leading political journalists, scholars, and party operatives, provides an extraordinary look behind the scenes of a major campaign.
"California Votes is a tribute to democracy."--Pete Wilson, Former Governor of California
"New insight into the reasoning behind strategic decisions from the winners and losers."-- The Political Hotline
"A unique and path-breaking account of the politics of California, with lessons of importance for this state and other large states and, indeed, for national campaigns."--Eugene C. Lee, Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley; Director of IGS, 1968-88
"Politics as seen by the innermost of California's political insiders."--Bill Stall, Los Angeles Times
California Votes--The 1994 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, ed., 296pp, $19.95 *OUT OF PRINT
California Votes--The 1990 Governor's Race: An Inside Look at the Candidates and Their Campaigns
Gerald C. Lubenow, ed., 240pp, $15.95 *OUT OF PRINT
Speaking Freely: A Scholar's Memoir of Experience in the University of California
Angus E. Taylor | $21.95
Over a long and distinguished career at the University of California, Angus Ellis Taylor taught mathematics at UCLA, was vice president for academic affairs under three presidents, and served as chancellor of the university's Santa Cruz campus. A brilliant scholar and teacher, Taylor was also a gifted administrator. His story, told warmly and well here, involves some of the most difficult and tumultuous years in the life of a great university.
Golden Gate Metropolis: Perspectives on Bay Area History
Charles Wollenberg | $16.95
"Here at last in a single volume is the interwoven story of the San Francisco Bay region . . . authoritative, readable, compact, the first wide-angle portrait of a vast and vigorous urban substate."
--Richard Reinhardt, The California Historical Society
