California : Land of New Beginnings.
- Lincoln : UNP - Nebraska Paperback, (c)2013.
- 1 online resource (765 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
Bison Books editions by David Lavender; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Maps; Prologue to Giganticism; California Landforms; PART I.A Touch of Madness; 1. For Greater Glory; 2. First Plantings; 3. Bricks Without Straw; Spanish-Mexican Missions, Presidios, and Pueblos; PART II. The Advent of the Americans; 4. Illegal Entry; 5. By Land as Well as by Sea; 6. What Do You Do with a Tame Indian?; 7. The Schemers; 8. Sculpturing a War; 9. The Impatient Conquerors; PART III. Lost in a Golden Wilderness; 10. "It Made My Heart Thump"; Sierra Gold Fields and the Comstock Area. 11. The Deluge12. "Wild, Free, Disorderly, and Grotesque"; 13. A Harness for the Tiger; 14. Organized Violence; 15. The Fevers of Prosperity; 16. Ride the Whirlwind; PART IV. More Stately Plunder; 17. Still Bigger Bonanzas; 18. The Transportation Trap; 19. Mastering the Land; 20. Boil and Bubble; PART V. The Big Shift; 21. The Sound of the Boom; 22. New Brooms; The Principal Railroads about 1900, with inset maps of San Francisco and Los Angeles; 23. Water's Dreadful Price; 24. The Creakings of the Gravy Train; PART VI. Into Now; 25. Double Helpings of the Same; Water Storage and Distribution. 26. The Juggernauts27. Protest!; Afterword; Bibliography.
From the earliest Spanish explorations in the late 1500s through the present, California's history and growth have been both tumultuous and phenomenal. All the historical facts are here: the missions and the Indians, the struggles between the Mexicans and the Americans, the fabulous gold rushes, statehood in 1850, railroad wars, furious labor upheavals, the disastrous scandals and bankruptcies of the 1920s, and the recent gigantic tamperings with nature. David Lavender tells, with unusual clarity and grace, the story of a beautiful state's rise to giganticism. In an afterword to this Biso.