Book Review

Canada and the United States

This extensively researched account of the politics and economics of California's changing landscape is intriguing, provocative, and, in the end, frustrating. The basic theme argued is the contrast between the idealistic aspirations for the state "based on science and romanticism, planning and coordination—and capitalist development" (p. 3). But at every turn, as the author convincingly makes clear, the dynamics of a relatively unbridled capitalist economy swept the field. Although their prerogatives were sometimes hotly contested, the entrepreneurs and developers prevailed in most instances. In that sense, California reflected the larger political economy of the nation-state, the exemplar of capitalism on the global stage.

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In six lengthy chapters and a brief concluding section, Stephanie S. Pincetl traces the evolution of California from the Gold Rush era to the present, focusing primarily on alterations to the natural environment. Her inquiry attempts to describe at once the state's always evolving politics and its relation to specific changes in land-use practices. This approach contributes to a somewhat truncated organizational strategy, with subsections within chapters shifting between forestry and fisheries management, urban growth, changing agricultural practices, and water development. An alternative scheme might have treated each of these categories in separate and discrete chapters.

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