'California: America's High-Stakes Experiment'

"In the decades after World War II, observers described California's schools, parks, roads, irrigation systems, public works and social services as national models worthy of emulation.

Today, observers are more likely to report the state's crumbling infrastructure and dysfunctional government, ailing economy, enormous budget deficits and widening gap between rich and poor. So argues Peter Schrag, a contributing editor at the Sacramento Bee. His new book explores how California -- 'the nation's, and perhaps the world's, great political and social laboratory' -- has been transformed into a political, economic and demographic catastrophe. He also provocatively asks: Is it too late for California to save itself?"