Overview
From the author-illustrator of The California Field Atlas, the story of California since the beginning of life on Earth.
The Origins of California is a biography of the Golden State—a story that spans billions of years, dramatic upheavals, and the strangest and most wondrous lifeforms imaginable. Dinosaurs and prehistoric birds wander through these pages, as do ancient trees and ferns, tectonic plates, and islands and lakes long since transformed.
Obi Kaufmann's sumptuous illustrations and evocative text offer an invitation to ages long past, a way to imagine and explore the astonishingly dynamic ecosystems that preceded modern life. As the book approaches the current day, Kaufmann considers the fundamental roles that Indigenous peoples have played in shaping California's ecology, and he looks unsparingly at the enormous costs of colonial and corporate extraction. This journey asks how the lessons of deep time might help us confront the ecological crises we face now.
Inaugurating a trilogy that will explore California's past, present, and possible futures, The Origins of California is a grand adventure through time, and a new way to fall in love with one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.
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