Somehow California is always at the cutting edge, be it in the flower-power days of the 1960s or the dotcom boom of the 1990s. As Kevin Starr points out in his History of the State, California has long been 'one of the prisms through which the American people, for better and for worse, could glimpse their future'. Mr. Starr is too good a historian to offer any pat explanation instead, he concentrates on the extraordinary array of people and events that have led from the mythical land of Queen Calafia, through the rule of Spain and Mexico, and on to the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, an iron-pumping film star with an Austrian accent. Moreover, he does so with such elegance and humor that his book is a joy to read. What emerges is not all Californian sunshine and light. Think back to the savage violence that accompanied the 1849 Gold Rush or to the exclusion orders against the Chinese or to the riots that regularly marked industrial and social relations in San Francisco. California was very much the Wild West, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way to statehood. So what tamed it? Mr. Starr's answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects. He emphasizes the development of California's infrastructure, the development of agriculture the spread of the railroads and freeways and, perhaps the most important factor for today's hi-tech California, the creation of a superb set of public universities. All this, he writes, 'began with water, the sine qua non of any civilization.' He goes on cheerfully to note the 'monumental damage to the environment' caused by irrigation projects that were 'plagued by claims of deception, double-dealing and conflict of interest'. One virtue of this book is its structure. Mr. Start is never trapped by his chronological framework. In-stead, when the subject demands it, he manages deftly to flit back and forth among the decades. Less satisfying is his account of California's cultural progress in the 19th and 20th centuries: does he really need to invoke so many long-forgotten writers to accompany such names as Jack London, Frank Norris, Mark Twain or Raymond Chandler? But that is a minor criticism for a book that will become a California classic. The regret is that Mr. Starr, doubtless pressed for space, leaves so little room--just a brief final chapter--for the implications of the past for California's future. He poses the question that most Americans prefer to gloss over: is California governable? 'For all its impressive growth, there remains a volatility in the politics and governance of California, which became perfectly clear to the rest of the nation in the fall of 2003 when the voters of California recalled one governor and elected another.' Indeed so, and Mr. Start wisely avoids making any premature judgment on their choice. Ills such as soaring house prices, grid locked freeways and 'embattled' public schools, combined with the budgetary problems that stem from the tax revolt of 1978 would test to the limit any governor, even the Terminator. As Mr. Starr notes, no one should cite California as an unambiguous triumph: 'There has al-ways been something slightly bipolar about California. It was either utopia or dystopia, a dream or a night-mare, a hope or a broken promise--and too infrequently anything in between.' The phrase 'sine qua non' in Line 1, Para. 5 possibly means ______ .