CALIFORNIA

California so lends itself to Chamber of Commerce boostering that even professional historians are ap to succumb. Here two California-based professors provide a sunny but factual overview of state history to accompany what is essentially a picture book. Fehrenbacher, who has written scholarly books on Lincoln and Long John Wentworth and a paperback Basic History of California (1964), is Co professor of history at Stanford. Tutorow is an assistant professor at the University of Santa Clara. They describe the land of sun and money, Savio and Stanford, from its spanish beginnings to its Reagan-run present. To be fair, they do touch on smog, migrant labor, riot, the reason for hippies. They are best on the gold rush and the ""big four"" railroad barons, weakest when they tend to give California history the appearance of more continuity than it has. Not seen, but scheduled, are three hundred photographs, old handbills, contemporary cartoons, and advertisements. The text is readable and sensible for a demi-desk, semi-coffee table item.