"Highly readable...The book is full of surprises, it is constantly challenging...A fine performance."--Pacific Historical Review

"[Starr] is bringing much to Western social and literary history."--American Historical Review

"One devil of a fine book, a book only a native Californian could write...about the Inner Life of California, the psychic landscape that emerges from the works and ways of her writers, both native and self-adopted. The result is a mature, well-proportioned and marvelously diverse (and diverting) study."--The New York Times Book Review

"A very important book."--Joseph H. Krause, California State University, Long Beach

"Indispensable...Starr's book does for California what Henry Nash Smith's 'Virgin Land' did for the opening of the West: it demonstrates how idea, myth, misconception and hope shaped and often distorted a developing society."--Los Angeles Times

"A vivid portrayal of the rich and varied intellectual forces which helped shape one of our most distinctive regional cultures."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"An exceptional work, both in thought and magnitude...Both scholars and laymen will find this volume a worthwhile addition to their libraries."--History: Reviews of New Books

"A highly original inquiry into the interplay of vision and event.'"--Virginia Quarterly Review

"A captivating narrative that documents the importance of myth and imagination in attracting Americans to California before World War I."--R.H. Limbaugh, University of the Pacific