University of California Press Blog » California & The West

In Memoriam: Robert C. Stebbins

ssilverman — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:27:42 +0000

UC Press is sad to note the passing of renowned herpetologist, Robert C. Stebbins, who died in his home on Monday at the age of 98. Stebbins was a Professor of Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, a curator of the University’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and the author of over a dozen books, including, [more...]

Boom Reboots

ssilverman — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 17:49:40 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

VETERAN JOURNALIST AND HISTORIAN JON CHRISTENSEN TAKES EDITORIAL HELM, REBOOTS BOOM: A JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA WITH LIVELY FALL ISSUE

BOOM’S INFORMAL MISSION OF HOSTING ONE OF “LIVELIEST DINNER CONVERSATIONS IN CALIFORNIA” TO BE MADE REAL AT DINNER PARTIES AROUND THE STATE

Berkeley, CA—Veteran journalist and UCLA historian Jon Christensen has taken over [more...]

Yucca Mountain in the Spotlight Again

ssilverman — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 21:50:58 +0000

A Federal Appeals Court ruled earlier this month that President Obama must make a decision about whether to use Yucca Mountain to dump nuclear waste. The Nevada site was designated by the George W. Bush administration as the nation’s only dumping ground for radioactive waste. The project has been halted since 2010, but the recent [more...]

Jon Christensen on Elon Musk’s Flight of Fancy

ssilverman — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 01:59:27 +0000

Illustration by Elon Musk/Tesla Motors.

Is Elon Musk’s Hyperloop like a 21st century version of the transcontinental railroad? Jon Christensen, the Editor of Boom: A Journal of California, draws some interesting parallels between the two in the New Yorker’s Elements blog. Both seemed impossibly fast for their day and age, and both have the power [more...]

Taking the Long View: How Paleoclimatologist Lynn Ingram Sees the Future of California’s Water

ssilverman — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 18:52:57 +0000

The summer issue of California Magazine features an interview with UC Berkeley professor Lynn Ingram, co-author of The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. The new book, which Ingram wrote with colleague Frances Malamud-Roam, documents the tumultuous climate of the American West over twenty millennia, with [more...]

LARB’s Guide to A People’s Guide to Los Angeles

ssilverman — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:34:36 +0000

Mondays in August, the Los Angeles Review of Books is running a series of excerpts and photos from A People’s Guide to Los Angeles—a look at eye-opening alternatives to L.A.’s usual tourist destinations by Laura Pulido, Laura Barraclough, and Wendy Cheng.

The book documents 115 little-known sites in the City of Angels where struggles related to race, class, gender, [more...]

From Ghost World to Your World: Boom interviews graphic novelist Daniel Clowes

ssilverman — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:06:04 +0000

The latest issue of our journal Boom: A Journal of California (visit Boom’s web site), published this week, features an exclusive interview with Oakland artist and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes.

Clowes launched his career with the comic series Lloyd Llewellyn, about the adventures of a private detective, then went on to create the comic series Eightball, [more...]

UC Press Author Discovers Oldest Known Woody Guthrie Recordings

ssilverman — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:40:33 +0000

Guest Post by Peter La Chapelle

Woody Guthrie would have been 100 years old this month and there have been a number of academic conferences and celebrations across the country.

There has also been a parade of press coverage about the hard travelling Woody, a singer-songwriter, an activist, and author of such prototypically American songs as “This [more...]

In Memoriam: Philip Fradkin

ssilverman — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:38:17 +0000

It is with great sadness that we announce that longtime UC Press author Philip Fradkin passed away last weekend. Fradkin published eight books with UC Press through the years, including A River No More, The Seven States of California, The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906, the paperback of his biography of Wallace Stegner, and [more...]

UC Press Podcast: The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge

ssilverman — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:36:45 +0000

A note from the person who maintains this blog: Almost exactly a year ago, a dear of friend of mine walked out on to the Golden Gate Bridge, sent a text asking that her dog be cared for and jumped. If the publication of The Final Leap deters a single troubled person from making the [more...]