Books with author Ethan Rarick

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth. Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity." A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

Who are the people of California, and what do they believe politically? How do Californians choose their leaders, and how do those leaders govern once they are in power? How has California confronted some of its greatest public policy challenges?These are the questions that underlie this in-depth and careful examination of America's mega-state. This book uses the latest research and scholarship to explore California's civil society -- how an extraordinarily complex state of 37 million people governs itself through politics and policy.The results paint a complex picture, one not nearly so simple as the handy California stereotypes. Are Californians really worse off than they used to be? Are they all Hollywood liberals far to the left ideologically? Are the recent reforms in their political systems making much of a difference? Who really governs the state -- its world-famous governors or its highly professional legislature? How can a state often derided as a hopeless failure be leading the way on one of the most important public policy issues of our time? All these questions are examined in this new edition of Governing California, updated to reflect the results and changes of the 2012 election.Table of Contents:Part ICalifornia and Californians1. Well-being in the Golden State: The Five Californias of the Human Development IndexSarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis, Social Science Research Council2. State of Change: Immigration Politics and the New Demography of CaliforniaJack Citrin, University of California, Berkeley; Morris Levy, University of California, Berkeley; and Andrea Campbell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3. California s Political Geography: Coast vs. Inland and Increasingly BlueFrederick Douzet, French Institute of Geopolitics of Paris, and Kenneth P. Miller, Claremont McKenna College4. Medium Blue: Partisan Politics and Ideological Polarization in CaliforniaCorey Cook and David Latterman, University of San FranciscoPart IIPolitics in the Golden State5. Direct Democracy: The Initiative, Referendum, and RecallKenneth P. Miller, Claremont McKenna College 6. Redistricting: Did Radical Reform Produce Different Results?Vladimir Kogan, Ohio State University, and Eric McGhee, Public Policy Institute of California 7. Polarization Interrupted? California s Experiment with the Top-Two PrimarySeth Masket, University of DenverPart IIIGoverning the Golden State8. Goodbye to All That: Mending California's BudgetJohn Decker, University of California, Berkeley9. Governors and the Executive BranchEthan Rarick, University of California, Berkeley10. The Legislature: Life under Term LimitsBruce Cain, Stanford University; Thad Kousser, University of California, San Diego; and Karl Kurtz, National Council of State Legislatures11. Partisan Polarization and Policy Gridlock: Does One Lead to the Other?Thad Kousser, University of California, San Diego12. The California JudiciaryDavid A. Carrillo, University of California, Berkeley13. Local Government: Designing and Financing the Cities and Counties of CaliforniaMax Neiman, University of California, BerkeleyPart IVPolicy Challenges14. Education: Back from the BrinkDavid N. Plank and Susanna Loeb, Stanford University15. Water: A Case Study in FederalismMegan Mullin, Temple University16. Climate Change Policy: A Race to the TopDaniel A. Mazmanian, University of Southern California; Hal Nelson, Claremont Graduate University; and John Jurewitz, Pomona College

After a 25 year old man in Manhattan losses his job, he cashes in his 401k and buys a one way plane ticket to Europe. He leaves behind his apt and girlfriend and wanders in a disillusioned self-destructive daze. This novel is 80,000 words or so.Ethan is at the end of his rope at a dead end job in Manhattan, and life with his roommates and girlfriend. He recalls his last few years at his first real job after college; the sex and the superficial games and leaves it all behind buying a one way ticket to Vienna.Along the way he wanders from city to city & hostels, meets some friends, girls, and a new travel companion Mathias: and falls in love with a girl, and is confronted by his girlfriend in Prague. He tries to piece together meaning, numb wanting to feel, Attempting to reconcile what he was taught to what he sees; searching for what’s real in the post modern world.The voice of the millennial generation; a modern Don Draper with malt liquor, a Bukowski-esque experience.

After a 25 year old man in Manhattan losses his job, he cashes in his 401k and buys a one way plane ticket to Europe. He leaves behind his apt and girlfriend and wanders in a disillusioned self-destructive daze. Ethan is at the end of his rope at a dead end job in Manhattan, and life with his roommates and girlfriend. He recalls his last few years at his first real job after college; the sex and the superficial games and leaves it all behind buying a one way ticket to Vienna. Along the way he wanders from city to city & hostels, meets some friends, girls, and a new travel companion Mathias: and falls in love with a girl, and is confronted by his girlfriend in Prague. He tries to piece together meaning, numb wanting to feel, Attempting to reconcile what he was taught to what he sees; searching for what’s real in the post modern world. The voice of the millennial generation; a modern Don Draper with malt liquor, a Bukowski-esque experience.