California has rich and diverse history, politics, and landscapes. Below is a list a recommended readings that capture a little bit of everything. Enjoy and if you think we’re missing anything, email us at info@calwild.org.
- A Rage for Justice: The Passion and Politics of Phillip Burton, by John Jacobs, University of California Press 1995.
- A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
- An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe 1846-1873, by Benjamin Madley
- An Island Called California: An Ecological Introduction to its Natural Communities, by Elna Bakker, University of California Press 1972.
- Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California, by Harold David Brackman and Steven Erie
- Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner
- California Condors in the Pacific Northwest, by Jesse De’Elia and Susan M. Haig
- California Desert Miracle: The Fight for Desert Parks and Wilderness, by Frank Wheat, Sunbelt Publishing 1999.
- California Field Atlas, by Obi Kaufman
- California Greenin’: How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader, by David Vogel
- California Place Names: The Origin of Current Geographical Names, by Erwin G. Gudde & William Bright, University of California Press 1998 (paperback)
- California Rivers and Streams: The Conflict Between Fluvial Process and Land Use, by Jeffrey F. Mount, University of California Press 1995 (paperback)
- California: A History, by Kevin Starr, Modern Library 2010
- Condor: To the Brink and Back, by John Nielsen
- Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement, by Susan Zakin, Penguin Group 1993 (hardback)
- Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir’s Best Writings, Heyday Books
- Field Guide to California Rivers, by Tim Palmer, University of California Press 2012 (hardback)
- History of the Sierra Nevada, by Francis P. Farquhar, University of California Press 1965 (paperback)
- Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, by Gray Brechin, University of California Press 1999 (paperback)
- Ishi In Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America, by Theodora Kroeber, University of California Press 2004 (paperback)
- Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, by Stephen E. Ambrose, Simon & Schuster 2000 (hardback)
- Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party, by George R. Stewart, Houghton Mifflin 1988 (paperback)
Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire, by Tom Chaffin, University of Oklahoma Press 2002 (paperback) - Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles, by Margaret Leslie Davis, Olmstead Press 2001 (paperback)
- Rivers of California: Nature’s Lifelines in the Golden State, by Tim Palmer, Heyday Books 2010 (hardback)
- Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California
- Salmon and Steelhead: The Struggle to Restore an Imperiled Resource, edited by Alan Lufkin, University of California Press 1991 (hardback)
- Saving Nature’s Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity, by Reed F. Noss and Allen Y. Cooperrider, Island Press 1994.
- Stanislaus: The Struggle for a River, by Tim Palmer, University of California Press 1982 (hardback)
- Storm Over Mono: The Mono Lake Battle and the California Water Future, by John Hart, University of California Press 1997 (paperback)
- Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources, by Kat Anderson
- The American: River of El Dorado, by Margaret Sanborn, Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1974 (hardback)
- The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, by Mark Arax
- The Future of Life, by Edward O. Wilson
- The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution, by David Rains Wallace, Yolla Bolly Press 1984 (paperback)
- The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada
- The River Stops Here: Saving Round Valley, A Pivotal Chapter in California’s Water Wars, by Ted Simon, University of California Press 2001 (paperback)
- The Sacramento: A Transcendent River, by Bob Madgic, River Bend Books 2013 (paperback)
- The San Gabriels: The Mountain Country from Soledad Canyon to Lytle Creek, by John W. Robinson. Big Santa Anita Historical Society 2001 (hardback)
- The Sespe Wild: Southern California’s Last Free River, by Bradley John Monsma, University of Nevada Press 2004 (paperback)
- The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi, First Vintage Books 2015 (paperback)
- The West without Water, by B. Lynn Ingram
- The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, by Douglas Brinkley, Harper 2009 (hardback)
- The Wolverine Way, by Douglas H. Chadwick, Patagonia Books 2010 (paperback)
- Trouble in the Forest: California’s Redwood Timber Wars, by Richard Widick
- Water and the California Dream: Choices for the New Millennium, by David Carle, Sierra Club Books 2000 (paperback)
- Wild and Scenic Rivers: An American Legacy, by Tim Palmer, Oregon State University Press 2017 (hardback)
- Wild Men: Ishi and Kroeber in the Wilderness of Modern America, by Douglas Cazaux Sackman, Oxford University Press 2011 (paperback)
