Assembling California

By: John McPhee

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults.

The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to listen to, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.

©1993 John McPhee (P)1993 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“A delicious field manual on the creation of the Golden State going back a few hundred million years.”—Peter Stack, The San Francisco Chronicle

McPhee and Runger

The missing piece of the Annals of the Former World series finally appears on Audible. I can???t recommend this series highly enough.

The book is genius…

But… The narrator, while clear, can’t seem to pronounce most of the Geologic time terms. Nor Ne Va Da. Not Ne Vaahhh Da. As a result it spreads ignorance. I recently saw the results in Outer Range. If you are a trained Geologist it is jarring.

California as a lens to the surface of Earth

McPhee's focus is the formation of California, but the scope of Assembling California is nothing less than the formation of all the continents, islands and oceans as understood by modern geology.

Just as quantum mechanics and relativity transformed Physics, just as the concept of brain plasticity transformed Neuroscience, just so the theory of plate tectonics transformed Geology. John McPhee explains the transformation of the science, and the transformation of the Earth's surface in fine prose. He quotes dialogs with geologists--mainly Eldridge Moores--gives analogies, and uses anecdotes drawn from personal experience to convey the concepts.

Assembling California works fine on the printed page, but has a few too many technical terms to work entirely well as an audio book.

Nevertheless, this is a well-written and well-read book that conveys the outline of modern tectonic geology to the layman.

Meandering Journey Through California Geology

The book is an entertaining, meandering travelogue through California geology and history. It helps to have basic knowledge of geology and of California geographic terrains. The author peppers the book with geology jokes (very nerdy indeed) and wanders off topic to describe history and mining aspects of the California gold rush and earthquake history. It is a good introduction and overview of California’s geologic history and the history of tectonics that may stimulate the reader to dive into more detailed and comprehensive texts.

geography jargon

Would you try another book from John McPhee and/or Nelson Runger?

yes

Would you recommend Assembling California to your friends? Why or why not?

not sure, there is a lot of geography terms used that I did not understand so I got bored. I have enjoyed other books by John McPhee more.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Nelson Runger?

sure

Enjoyed What I Was Able to Assemble

I was able to mentally assemble the related human stories, but his coverage of geological features did not have the reader's mental imagery in mind, and as a result, the reader will not be able to mentally visualize them - the geological terms will fly by unconstructed.

Excellent geology for the general public and geology undergrads

One of my favorites. You can appreciate this more with an intro geology background. That aside, it’s very accessible, engaging, and fun.

The complexity of California geology

A understandable explanation of the geology of California. The amazing ability of geologists to interpret the history of the earth from the rocks. Did it really happen that way? Who knows?

Subduction leads to orogeny zones in California

This year I've been reading the separate segments of McPhee's Pulitzer Prize winning 1998 opus Annals of the Former World, but skipped (for now) Rising from the Plains because I was going to be driving with my brother from San Francisco to Mesa, AZ. We were going to hang in Berkeley and hit Yosemite, Sequoia, etc., on our trip South and East and I figured it was a perfect time to read 'Assembling California'.

Like all McPhee writing, 'Assembling California 'is an amazing conglomeration of good writing, great characters, and interesting technical facts. However, unlike the earlier books in this series ( Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain) it just doesn't set up as nicely. I'm not sure if it had more to do with the messiness of California's geology, the limits of Eldridge Moores as an engaging character, or if McPhee had just grown a bit tired of his own Great I-80 Geology Project. He is engaging, but there just wasn't as much sparkle or heat as with earlier books with Karen Kleinspehn, Kenneth Deffeyes, or Anita Harris. A solid McPhee and a good addition to the series, just not the strongest piece. I hope that 'Rising from the Plains' works out a bit better.

Lush and informative.

McPhee's sensitive interweaving of science, nature, and humanity is as compelling here as it always is.