Gaining perspective today by reading about yesterday.

Pat Brown campaigning in 1966
Pat Brown campaigning in 1966

I’m finishing up Pat Brown‘s 1970 book Reagan and Reality and I’m already raring to tear into his follow up Reagan: The Political Chameleon. It’s been edifying reading Brown’s take on California politics and Reagan leading into the 1970 election for a number of reasons. I mean, I learned about the mini-memo! On many levels I agree with Brown’s philosophies, though not entirely, and his care in understanding systemic problems and the need to address change holistically is refreshing. A lot of his arguments about anti-intellectualism in politics and the public are a little too spot on now, but that just shows how far we haven’t really gone. I also think Brown would have been really good at snarking on Twitter, though it would probably be beneath him.

The main thing though is that I’ve learned a lot about incidents in California during the late 60s. Like the time Sate Senator Nicholas C. Petris (who represented my district!) introduced SB1291 – a bill to ban the vehicles with internal combustion engines in 1967. This didn’t make it out of the assembly (and Reagan for sure would have vetoed it), but it signaled a start of California taking air quality from transportation seriously. Something the state (and MPOW) is still fighting. And this obscure, failed piece of legislation only came to my attention because I’m reading a slightly obscure book that failed to convince the California people not to vote for Reagan in 1970. I guess this weird curiosity has made me a slightly better librarian.

Now I need to read up on steam cars.


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