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Article: From West to East: California and the making of the American Mind.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- April 20, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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From West to East: California and the Making of the American Mind, by Stephen Schwartz (Free Press, 542 pp., $30)
Mr. Johnson is an editorial writer for the Orange County Register.
PLATO'S Republic opens with Socrates going "down to the Piraeus," the seaport of Athens, where commerce dilutes parochialism and allows expansive speculation -- a place especially conducive to the dreaming and dissecting of utopias.
California -- or the "California Republic," as its bear flag proclaims it -- likewise sits at ocean's edge, and has imbibed through the centuries cosmopolitan influences that help make it a place apart, an island, as more than one writer has ...