About the Author

Kevin Starr is California State Librarian and University Professor at the University of Southern California. He is the author of the acclaimed multi-volume series Americans and the California Dream (1973-1998). Richard J. Orsi is Professor of History at California State University, Hayward, and editor of California History. He is the coeditor of Contested Eden: California before the Gold Rush (California, 1998) and A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California (California, 1999).