The Human Tradition in California

by Clark Davis (Editor), David Igler (Editor)

Overview

With a land mass one and half times larger than the United Kingdom, a population of more than thirty million, and an economy that would rank sixth among world nations, the history of the state of California demands a closer look.

The Human Tradition in California captures the region's rich history and diversity, taking readers into the daily lives of ordinary Californians at key moments in time. These brief biographies show how individual people and communities have influenced the broad social, cultural, political and economic forces that have shaped California history from the pre-mission period through the late-twentieth century. In personalizing California's history, this engaging new book brings the Golden State to life.

About the Editors
Clark Davis has written extensively about California and its colorful history. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and Pacific Historical Review. He is a professor of history at California State University, Fullerton.

David Igler is a long-time historian of California history and culture. He has presented for the Western Historical Association, the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, and the California Studies Association. Dr. Igler is professor of history at the University of Utah.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461644316
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2002
Series:	The Human Tradition in America
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	253
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Clark Davis is associate professor of history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of Company Men: White-Collar Life and Corporate Cultures in Los Angeles, 1892-1941 (1999), and codirector of the Huntington Library Los Angeles History Research Seminar. David Igler is assistant professor of history at the University of Utah. He is the author of Industrial Cowboys: Miller&Lux and the Transformation of the Far West, 1850-1920 (2001) as well as numerous articles on California, western, and environmental history.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Pablo Tac: Peoples in Preconact California
Chapter 2 Father President marian Payeras: A View of the California Missions
Chapter 3 Guadalupe Trujillo: Race, Culture, and Justice in Mexican Los Angeles
Chapter 4 Alfred Doten: Diversity and the Anglo Forty-niner
Chapter 5 Wong Kim Ark: Chinese American Citizens and U.S. Exclusion Laws, 1882-1943
Chapter 6 William Hammond Hall: City Water and Progressive Era Reform in San Francisco
Chapter 7 Caroline Marie Seymour Severence: Activist, Organizer, and Reformer
Chapter 8 Transforming the "White" Frontier: Cecil B. DeMille and the Origins of the Hollywood Home
Chapter 9 John Steinbeck: On the Road to The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 10 Four Migrant Stories: African American Women in Wartime California
Chapter 11 Edison Uno: The Experience and Legacy of the Japanese American Internment
Chapter 12 Joy Neugebauer: Purchasing the California Dream in Postwar Suburbia
Chapter 13 S. I. Hayakawa: Asian American Radicalism and the Dilemma of American Liberalism
Chapter 14 Cesar Chavez: The Serpent and the Dove
Chapter 15 New Immigrants to Silicon Valley, 1970-2000
Chapter 16 Suggests for Further Reading and Research
Chapter 17 Index

What People are Saying About This

Philip J. Ethington

This compact volume of accessible and up-to-date narratives succeeds wonderfully in the very challenging task fo representing the vast diversity of California history. by takin ga biographicl approach, this skillfully edited compilation of pithy and lively essays manages to convey the big themes and collective patterns without sacrificing the unique experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, Anglos, Latinos, women, workers, and entrepreneurs. This is a first-rate survey of, and introduction to, California history.

Martin Ridge

Clark Davis and David Igler have assembled fifteen exceptionally fine brief essays that illustrate the successes and maladies of California life from the earliest days to the rise of Silicon Valley as a center of the nation's high-tech industries. The authors of the pieces, by focusing on the life stories of individuals, some well-known and others obscure, have not only given history a human face but also explained major and often controversial episodes in California's past. Many of the essays are revisionist in nature and hold surprises. The Human Tradition in California is not only a good read but would also be an excellent supplement to a standard text as well as a text for a short course in California history.

Stephen Aron

A wonderful collection of biographical essays. The majority of the chapters beutifully illuminate the lives of previously less well-known persons, while the others shed new light on familiar figures. Taken together, the essays capture the exceptional diversity of California's human tradition. This book should be welcomed by all students of California history and assigned in all courses on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

An engaging, thoughtful book. Students and interested readers alike will enjoy the range of stories and the up-to-date scholarship of this well done and compelling collection of essays.

Western Historical Quarterly

Clark Davis and David Igler have assembled fifteen exceptionally fine brief essays that illustrate the successes and maladies of California life from the earliest days to the rise of Silicon Valley as a center of the nation's high-tech industries. The authors of the pieces, by focusing on the life stories of individuals, some well-known and others obscure, have not only given history a human face but also explained major and often controversial episodes in California's past. Many of the essays are revisionist in nature and hold surprises. The Human Tradition in California is not only a good read but would also be an excellent supplement to a standard text as well as a text for a short course in California history.

Martin Ridge

This compact volume of accessible and up-to-date narratives succeeds wonderfully in the very challenging task fo representing the vast diversity of California history. by takin ga biographicl approach, this skillfully edited compilation of pithy and lively essays manages to convey the big themes and collective patterns without sacrificing the unique experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, Anglos, Latinos, women, workers, and entrepreneurs. This is a first-rate survey of, and introduction to, California history.

Philip J. Ethington

A wonderful collection of biographical essays. The majority of the chapters beutifully illuminate the lives of previously less well-known persons, while the others shed new light on familiar figures. Taken together, the essays capture the exceptional diversity of California's human tradition. This book should be welcomed by all students of California history and assigned in all courses on the subject.

Stephen Aron

The biographies in The Human Tradition in California portray a select group of Californians in the rich detail and complexity tha thuman lives warrant, and that is what makes good history.

Southern California Quarterly