LOS ANGELES — Sometimes it's not that easy living in Los Angeles. Despite splendid weather, sprawling beaches and gorgeous mountain ranges — not to mention the well-tanned Hollywood stars — you face the unrelenting, withering scorn of smug colleagues long established in New York and Washington.

East Coasters, you see, believe that anyone choosing to live here must be more or less brain-dead. They absolutely believe and know that their coast is far superior to any. Somehow we struggle along — while praying they never discover the truth.

This is why I hope they never hear about a pair of brilliant new books by colleagues of mine that illuminate the eminence of California, in particular, and penetrate so unerringly the historic inevitability of the West Coast's continued historical upsurge. There are more than enough people out here already.