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Carl Palm

Goodreads Author

Born

in Anaheim, California, The United States

Genre

History

Influences

Curt Gentry, Carey McWilliams and Kevin Starr, but really too numerous ...more

Member Since

March 2019

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I am a fourth-generation Californian, born in Anaheim back when Truman was still president, and it was here that I received all of my early education, right through my first four years of college. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the early 1970s, I shot off to do graduate work at the University of Toronto. (Media guru Marshall McLuhan was teaching there at the time and his work had recently come to my then-enthusiastic attention.) The idea was to become a university English professor, but that ambition never quite worked out.

After a few false starts in the business world (well, that’s a very generous phrase to use for the kind of work I was doing), I felt the need for an educational redo that might prop I am a fourth-generation Californian, born in Anaheim back when Truman was still president, and it was here that I received all of my early education, right through my first four years of college. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the early 1970s, I shot off to do graduate work at the University of Toronto. (Media guru Marshall McLuhan was teaching there at the time and his work had recently come to my then-enthusiastic attention.) The idea was to become a university English professor, but that ambition never quite worked out.

After a few false starts in the business world (well, that’s a very generous phrase to use for the kind of work I was doing), I felt the need for an educational redo that might propel me into a somewhat loftier segment of the American economy. I was living in Houston, Texas, at the time, and with the goal of somehow bettering my lot in life, I enrolled in the law school at the University of Texas at Austin. I promptly discovered I had no desire to be a lawyer, however, so I transferred to the university’s business school. Finding it much more congenial than the law school, I finished an MBA there, and then decided to head off into the wide world of banking and insurance to see what I might find there. (Not much for anyone with an artistic soul, I assure you.)

I spent the next twenty years working in banking and insurance in Texas, and then retired, but soon after that, began a new career teaching English composition at Austin Community College. I have done that for the next fifteen years—just to keep in touch with what the kids are thinking and to size up the latest generation’s writing skills, which, for the most part, appear leave a great deal to be desired. In addition to all of this, I spent many of these years also working on my "California books," somewhat quirky ones, to be sure, but, or so my readers typically say, a lot of fun to read.

In any case, I have long found the subject of California endlessly fascinating and the goal of my books is to share that fascination with my readers. My first book, The Great California Story: Portrait of a Place That Is One of a Kind (rev. ed. 2022) is the "big picture" book of the two. My second one, This Day in California History (rev. ed. 2024), serves up dozens of additional details about the Golden State, but is an altogether more loosely-structured and freewheeling narrative. In the end, these books are probably best thought of as companion pieces, different takes on the same, great subject, two modest drops in that sea of books that have already been written about this most amazing of states.
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Carl Palm’s books

Average rating: 4.45 · 11 ratings · 3 reviews · 3 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Great California Story: Portrait of a Place That Is One of a Kind 4.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2003 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Day in California History it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Carl Palm made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Alternate Covers topic " My book has a revised cover (uploaded to Amazon 1/15/2025); the ISBN is unchanged. I've tried to find a button marked "Alternative Cover Editon" on th ...more "
Jan 28, 2025 06:07AM
Carl Palm rated a book it was amazing California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) by Kevin Starr	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Kevin Starr is my favorite California historian. I have read all the way through his eight-volume series, “Americans and the California Dream” (parts of which I continue to re-read on a fairly routine basis to this day) and his work was long an impor ...more
Nov 14, 2024 12:05PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of California by Kevin Starr. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — California by Kevin Starr <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Carl Palm rated a book it was amazing Trees in Paradise: A California History by Jared Farmer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
In this book Jared Farmer lets trees do the talking. What he gives us is a thoroughly engaging horticultural take on the history of California, and does this by focusing on the lives and histories of the state’s most iconic trees—the redwood, the euc ...more
Nov 14, 2024 11:57AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Trees in Paradise by Jared Farmer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Trees in Paradise by Jared Farmer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Carl Palm rated a book it was amazing The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California by Curt Gentry	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I love this book. In fact, it was the inspiration for my own first book about the state. Gentry’s jumping-off point is straightforward enough: the state of California has been destroyed by a giant earthquake and the task now is to size up just what i ...more
Nov 14, 2024 11:14AM · like · see review
Carl Palm rated a book it was amazing California: The Great Exception by Carey McWilliams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I first read this book some 45 years ago, when it was already 30 years old. It is now 75, and now, having read through it again, I can’t but feel that’s it’s just about as fresh today as it was when I first read it. The statistics that pepper the boo ...more
Sep 26, 2024 07:42PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of California by Carey McWilliams. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — California by Carey McWilliams <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Carl Palm finished reading California Gothic: The Dark Side of the Dream (Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature, 1) by Charles L. Crow	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 23, 2024 07:26PM · like
Carl Palm rated a book it was amazing Texas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America by Kenneth P. Miller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Texas and California offer two opposing possibilities for the political, economic and cultural life of the nation and Miller does an excellent job of laying out the details. As a native Californian, as well as a long-term resident of Texas, I can cer ...more
Sep 23, 2024 07:24PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Texas vs. California by Kenneth P. Miller. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Texas vs. California by Kenneth P. Miller <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Carl Palm rated a book really liked it California Gothic: The Dark Side of the Dream (Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature, 1) by Charles L. Crow	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is interesting, but it's not my kind of book. If California's "dark side," especially as rendered in the state's literary creations, is a subject that interests you, this might be a good book to have a look at. If not--and I'm clearly not-- ...more
Sep 20, 2024 02:20PM · like · see review
Carl Palm finished reading The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California by Curt Gentry	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 18, 2024 02:36PM · like
Carl Palm finished reading The Great Book of California: The Crazy History of California with Amazing Random Facts & Trivia (A Trivia Nerds Guide to the History of the United States) by Bill O'Neill	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 18, 2024 02:36PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Great Book of California by Bill O'Neill. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Great Book of California by Bill O'Neill <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">