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The Californian Century
The Californian Century
Oct 6, 2024 2:34 AM

Author:Laurence Grissell,Stanley Tucci

The Californian Century

From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, California wants to dazzle you with its sunshine and its vision of the future - but that's just a mirage. I know the whole, sordid truth.

Hello. I'm Stanley Tucci. I'll be playing a hard-boiled screenwriter - you know the type: he's met 'em all, he's gotten drunk with 'em all. My screenplays will tell the stories of ten men and women who built modern California, warts and all. I'll show you where all the bodies are buried.

I'll tell the story of the very first movie-maker, shot dead on his studio lot; and the men who lied and lied and lied again to bring water to L.A. Without the water, there would be no L.A. We'll also hear the story of the revivalist preacher who was as big as Chaplin before she disappeared without a trace; and the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley, right before he became a white supremacist. That's the Valley's dirty little secret. We'll tell the story of the original gangster rapper Ice-T, the man behind 'Cop Killer'; and we'll finish off with California's longest-serving governor, Jerry Brown - the man they called 'Governor Moonbeam'.

The Californian Century is the dramatic story of the west coast: if you make it here, you're on top of the world. If you don't, there's a long, long way to fall. And you never know when your luck's about to run out.

It's a story littered with dead bodies, disaster and duplicity. It'll be one hell of a ride.

Come with me, and bring your shades.

Written and produced by Laurence Grissell

Reviews

An impressive and illuminating collection that rejects Blackness in America as a singular experience and instead illustrates the range of Black experiences and voices

—— Time, 21 Most Anticipated Books of 2021

A polyphonic work that unites writers, historians, lawyers, poets and activists ... From Morgan Parker's poem Before Revolution to writer Bernice L McFadden's soaring exploration of Zora Neale Hurston's genre-defining writing, it's something quite incredible

—— Stylist

Highly readable and far more compelling than a mere historical digest would have been ... This collection teaches us that nothing about the latest crisis is new ... a vital addition to that curriculum on race in America and should serve as a gateway to the solo works of all the voices in Kendi and Blain's impressive choir

—— Washington Post

A provocative, stirring anthology . . . Four Hundred Souls weaves a tapestry of unspeakable suffering and unexpected transcendence

—— O: The Oprah Magazine, 20 of the Best Books of February 2021 to Fall in Love With

A magnificent, hugely important book, breathtaking in its scope and vision … a masterpiece … an epic journey across the nation and into its beating heart …essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Colombia

—— Anna Lewington

[Magdalena] is a rallying cry to save the Magdalena from the destructive effects of industrialisation, but it also aims to reset our impressions of the country as a whole... [Davis's] passion for Colombia is better expressed in the depth of information he delivers - and the poetic way in which he captures its extraordinary landscape. Those pondering a trip will be inspired to veer off the tourist path

—— Jenny Coad , The Times

Davis is a powerful, penetrating and immensely knowledgeable writer

—— Charles Nicholl , Guardian, *Book of the Week*

Davis suffuses his reportage with a visionary tinge. But his subject more than warrants it

—— Boyd Tonkin , Financial Times

Magdalena is a revelatory and often enchanting book

—— Economist

This book is the culmination of a lifetime's work in the country and is suffused with a love and knowledge that only such long acquaintance can bring

—— Hugh Thomson , Spectator

Passionate and profoundly engaged... [Davis'] presentation of the great river as Colombia's Mississippi, its fountain of music, the source of its many contradictions...generates an impact that few travel books can muster.

—— Brian Morton , Tablet

Music and myth, commerce and colonialism, indigeneity and identity: Magdalena is as impressively exploratory in approach as it is encyclopaedic in scope

—— Oliver Balch , Times Literary Supplement

Meticulously researched, vivid in its scene-setting, fine-toothed in its sociopolitical analysis . . . Coffeeland lays bare the history and reality behind that cup of joe you're drinking.

—— Michael Upchurch , Boston Globe

How did a cup of coffee become the everyday addiction of millions? In this impressively wide-ranging, personality-filled history, Augustine Sedgewick untangles the routes that carried coffee from the slopes of El Salvador's volcanoes ... To enter Coffeeland is to visit a realm of ruthless entrepreneurs, hard-working laborers, laboratory chemists, and guerrilla fighters.

—— Maya Jasanoff, author of THE DAWN WATCH

Capitalism has remade the global countryside in radical ways. Coffeeland brilliantly chronicles this most consequential revolution by telling the global history of one family. After reading Augustine Sedgewick's fast-paced book you will never be able to think about your morning coffee in quite the same way.

—— Sven Beckert, author of EMPIRE OF COTTON

Coffeeland will set a new standard ... an innovative study of work, of the work involved to produce a drink needed by workers to keep working. Sedgewick treats coffee not so much as a material commodity but rather more like intangible energy ... provocative and convincing.

—— Greg Grandin, author of THE END OF THE MYTH
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