"Where did it come from--this nation-state, this world commonwealth, this California? How did an American state, one in fifty, rise to such global stature, with its $1.5 trillion economy making it, as of 2005, the fifth-ranked economy on the planet?" - Kevin Starr, University Professor and Professor of History,  University of Southern California, in "California: A History" (New York: Modern Library, 2005, p. ix (Preface).