| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Taming the Elephant: Politics, Government, and Law in Pioneer California. Ed. by John F. Burns and Richard J. Orsi. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xii, 288 pp. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 0-520-23411-1. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-520-23413-8.)

Few state governments had a more difficult founding than California's. Established in the midst of the gold rush, the national debate over slavery, and the collapse of the Whig party, California's political infrastructure seemed destined to be controversial in every detail. Nor were California residents likely to be helpful. Hispanic residents knew little of the political culture of the United States, gold rush sojourners were generally uninterested in lasting political development, and California's distance from other established states only heightened the sense of political and physical isolation. A study of political development under these circumstances should reward researchers with many insights into American politics and institutions, westward expansion, and ethnic relations. Yet studies of California's early governance are limited and incomplete.

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