The Passenger: California

The best new writing, photography, art, and reportage from and about California—in the “rich and engrossing” series for travelers and armchair travelers ( Times Literary Supplement ). From the Gold Rush to Hollywood’s golden age to the rise of Silicon Valley, California has long stood as the brightest symbol of the American dream. In recent years, however, the country’s mainstream media has been declaring with increasing frequency—and thinly veiled schadenfreude—the “end of California as we know