Download or read book Pioneers of California written by Donovan Lewis and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book California Desperadoes written by William B. Secrest and published by Quill Driver Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early outlaws tell their own raw tales of holdups, shootouts, and desperate flights from the law. Witness the cruel confessions of California bandits during the opening days of the Gold Rush, stage robbers, and California highwaymen. These tales of harrowing and sometimes hilarious antics are accompanied by many rare photographs.
Download or read book Hellacious California written by Gary Noy and published by Heyday Books. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1855 an ex-miner lamented that nineteenth-century California "can and does furnish the best bad things," including "purer liquors...finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtezans [sic]" than anywhere else in America. Lured by boons of gold and other exploitable resources, California's settler population mushroomed under Mexican and early American control, and this period of rapid transformation gave rise to a freewheeling culture best epitomized by its entertainments. Hellacious California tours the rambunctious and occasionally appalling amusements of the Golden State: gambling, gun duels, knife fights, gracious dining and gluttony, prostitution, fandangos, cigars, con artistry, and the demon drink. Historian Gary Noy unearths myriad primary sources, many of which have never before been published, to spin his true tall tales that are by turns humorous and horrifying. Whether detailing the exploits of an inebriated stallion, gambling parlors as a reinforcement and subversion of racial norms, armed skirmishes over eggs, or the ins and outs of the "Spirit Lover" scam, Noy expertly situates these stories in the context of a live-for-the-moment society characterized by audacity, bigotry, and risk. Published in collaboration with Sierra College Press.
Download or read book Vignettes of Taiwan written by Joshua Samuel Brown and published by ThingsAsian Press. This book was released on 2006-04 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Joshua Samuel Brown first stepped out of the passenger terminal at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, he was a stranger in a humid land with insufficient funds, zero job prospects and an over-packed suitcase. Like much else in his life up to that point, his decision to move to Taiwan was based largely on random occurrence and cosmic coincidence. He was twenty-four years old, thousands of miles away from home, and at that moment the happiest man alive. This anthology of short stories, travel essays, photographs, random meditations, and political meanderings grew out of his years on the island formerly known as Formosa.
Download or read book Testimonios written by and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-08-10 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When in the early 1870s historian Hubert Howe Bancroft sent interviewers out to gather oral histories from the pre-statehood gentry of California, he didn’t count on one thing: the women. When the men weren’t available, the interviewers collected the stories of the women of the household—sometimes almost as an afterthought. These interviews were eventually archived at the University of California, though many were all but forgotten. Testimonios presents thirteen women’s firsthand accounts from the days when California was part of Spain and Mexico. Having lived through the gold rush and seen their country change so drastically, these women understood the need to tell the full story of the people and the places that were their California.
Download or read book Juana Briones of Nineteenth century California written by Jeanne Farr McDonnell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Juana Briones de Miranda lived an unusual life, which is wonderfully recounted in this highly accessible biography. She was one of the first residents of what is now San Francisco, then named Yerba Buena (Good Herb), reportedly after a medicinal tea she concocted. She was among the few women in California of her time to own property in her own name, and she proved to be a skilled farmer, rancher, and businesswoman. In retelling her life story, Jeanne Farr McDonnell also retells the history of nineteenth-century California from the unique perspective of this surprising woman. Juana Briones was born in 1802 and spent her early youth in Santa Cruz, a community of retired soldiers who had helped found Spanish California, Native Americans, and settlers from Mexico. In 1820, she married a cavalryman at the San Francisco Presidio, Apolinario Miranda. She raised her seven surviving sons and daughters and adopted an orphaned Native American girl. Drawing on knowledge she gained about herbal medicine and other cures from her family and Native Americans, she became a highly respected curandera, or healer. Juana set up a second home and dairy at the base of then Loma Alta, now Telegraph Hill, the first house in that area. After gaining a church-sanctioned separation from her abusive husband, she expanded her farming and cattle business in 1844 by purchasing a 4,400-acre ranch, where she built her house, located in the present city of Palo Alto. She successfully managed her extensive business interests until her death in 1889. Juana Briones witnessed extraordinary changes during her lifetime. In this fascinating book, readers will see California’s history in a new and revelatory light.
Download or read book Inside the California Food Revolution written by Joyce Goldstein and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-09-06 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this authoritative and immensely readable insider’s account, celebrated cookbook author and former chef Joyce Goldstein traces the development of California cuisine from its formative years in the 1970s to 2000, when farm-to-table, foraging, and fusion cooking had become part of the national vocabulary. Interviews with almost two hundred chefs, purveyors, artisans, winemakers, and food writers bring to life an approach to cooking grounded in passion, bold innovation, and a dedication to "flavor first." Goldstein explains how the counterculture movement in the West gave rise to a restaurant culture characterized by open kitchens, women in leadership positions, and a surprising number of chefs and artisanal food producers who lacked formal training. The new cuisine challenged the conventional kitchen hierarchy and French dominance in fine dining, leading to a more egalitarian and informal food scene. In weaving Goldstein’s views on California food culture with profiles of those who played a part in its development—from Alice Waters to Bill Niman to Wolfgang Puck—Inside the California Food Revolution demonstrates that, while fresh produce and locally sourced ingredients are iconic in California, what transforms these elements into a unique cuisine is a distinctly Western culture of openness, creativity, and collaboration. Engagingly written and full of captivating anecdotes, this book shows how the inspirations that emerged in California went on to transform the experience of eating throughout the United States and the world.
Download or read book The World Rushed In written by J. S. Holliday and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When The World Rushed In was first published in 1981, the Washington Post predicted, “It seems unlikely that anyone will write a more comprehensive book about the Gold Rush.” Twenty years later, no one has emerged to contradict that judgment, and the book has gained recognition as a classic. As the San Francisco Examiner noted, “It is not often that a work of history can be said to supplant every book on the same subject that has gone before it.” Through the diary and letters of William Swain--augmented by interpolations from more than five hundred other gold seekers and by letters sent to Swain from his wife and brother back home--the complete cycle of the gold rush is recreated: the overland migration of over thirty thousand men, the struggle to “strike it rich” in the mining camps of the Sierra Nevadas, and the return home through the jungles of the Isthmus of Panama. In a new preface, the author reappraises our continuing fascination with the “gold rush experience” as a defining epoch in western--indeed, American--history.
Download or read book We Are the Land written by Damon B. Akins and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A Native American rejoinder to Richard White and Jesse Amble White’s California Exposures.”—Kirkus Reviews Rewriting the history of California as Indigenous. Before there was such a thing as “California,” there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of California. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, We Are the Land recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood—paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book deftly contextualizes the first encounters with Europeans, Spanish missions, Mexican secularization, the devastation of the Gold Rush and statehood, genocide, efforts to reclaim land, and the organization and activism for sovereignty that built today’s casino economy. A text designed to fill the glaring need for an accessible overview of California Indian history, We Are the Land will be a core resource in a variety of classroom settings, as well as for casual readers and policymakers interested in a history that centers the native experience.
Download or read book The Elusive Eden written by Richard B. Rice and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2019-09-13 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California is a region of rich geographic and human diversity. The Elusive Eden charts the historical development of California, beginning with landscape and climate and the development of Native cultures, and continues through the election of Governor Gavin Newsom. It portrays a land of remarkable richness and complexity, settled by waves of people with diverse cultures from around the world. Now in its fifth edition, this up-to-date text provides an authoritative, original, and balanced survey of California history incorporating the latest scholarship. Coverage includes new material on political upheavals, the global banking crisis, changes in education and the economy, and California's shifting demographic profile. This edition of The Elusive Eden features expanded coverage of gender, class, race, and ethnicity, giving voice to the diverse individuals and groups who have shaped California. With its continued emphasis on geography and environment, the text also gives attention to regional issues, moving from the metropolitan areas to the state's rural and desert areas. Lively and readable, The Elusive Eden is organized in ten parts. Each chronological section begins with an in-depth narrative chapter that spotlights an individual or group at a critical moment of historical change, bringing California history to life.
Download or read book A History of California Literature written by Blake Allmendinger and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This History explores the historical periods, literary genres, and cultural movements of California.
Download or read book Grandpa Lee s Stories written by Helen Najera Reyes and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-16 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Reading Grandpa Lee's Stories: New Mexico to California is like listening to a child's account of their life in which they can only remember the best parts. What a JOY this was to read! Told through her own words and her mother's memory, Helen Najera Reyes is clearly a gifted storyteller in her own right who regales us with stories that not only capture her family's love for Grandpa Lee but also document histories of the Mexican American experience in both New Mexico and California. Accounts of housing discrimination and racial tensions are nested into the more prominent narratives of joy, generosity, and loving banter that make this book a memorable, soul-pleasing collection." - Larissa Mercado-Lopez Associate professor in the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, California State University, Fresno; editor of Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Chican@ Children's Literature; and Book Review Editor for Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social "Grandpa Lee's Stories: New Mexico to California by Helen Najera Reyes leaves one feeling good. She lovingly shares her family history via the life of her multitalented grandfather. This is also a bonding story. Najera Reyes became firmly bonded to her Grandpa Lee and he was firmly bonded to his family. This is a migration story, for Grandpa Lee takes his family from New Mexico to California and forms a life that allows Najera Reyes to relate the saga in a song she wrote and recorded. The lyrical nature in which she describes her grandmother is a tribute to the social flexibility required by women of husbands seeking a better life. Most telling is how some New Mexico traditions combined with those of California. Yes. This book leaves one feeling good." - Dr. Irene Blea Professor Emeritus California State University-Los Angeles, Chairperson of Chicano Studies; sociologist; and Chicana feminist author of many articles, textbooks, poetry and novels
Download or read book Vignettes from the Late Ming written by and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology presents seventy translated and annotated short essays, or hsiao-p’in, by fourteen well-known sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese writers. Hsiao-p’in, characterized by spontaneity and brevity, were a relatively informal variation on the established classical prose style in which all scholars were trained. Written primarily to amuse and entertain the reader, hsiao-p’in reflect the rise of individualism in the late Ming period and collectively provide a panorama of the colorful life of the age. Critics condemned the genre as escapist because of its focus on life’s sensual pleasures and triviality, and over the next two centuries many of these playful and often irreverent works were officially censored. Today, the essays provide valuable and rare accounts of the details over everyday life in Ming China as well as displays of wit and delightful turns of phrase.
Download or read book Converting California written by James A. Sandos and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a compelling and balanced history of the California missions and their impact on the Indians they tried to convert. Focusing primarily on the religious conflict between the two groups, it sheds new light on the tensions, accomplishments, and limitations of the California mission experience. James A. Sandos, an eminent authority on the American West, traces the history of the Franciscan missions from the creation of the first one in 1769 until they were turned over to the public in 1836. Addressing such topics as the singular theology of the missions, the role of music in bonding Indians to Franciscan enterprises, the diseases caused by contact with the missions, and the Indian resistance to missionary activity, Sandos not only describes what happened in the California missions but offers a persuasive explanation for why it happened.
Download or read book Vignettes Adventures written by Thomas G. Davis and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2024-05-22 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into a highly educated and esteemed household, Thomas G. Davis was destined to accomplish great things. His father, a PhD graduate from Columbia University, held a long career in politics and education, and his mother, a well-established and outstanding human-interest writer, instilled within Thomas the value of education and hard work. In his fascinating memoir, Thomas shares his life’s adventures from a schoolboy with a love of box turtles to undergraduate and postgraduate education, and all through his many travels worldwide. His career climbing through the ranks of Exxon led him and his wife to living on various corners of the globe and learning from all different cultures on the way. A life well lived, Thomas, while sharing humorous and thrilling anecdotes, also teaches the value of hard work and a keen mind. About the Author Thomas G. Davis was born in Montpelier, Vermont. He received his BBA in Business and History from the University of Michigan and MBA from Northwestern University, and furthered his postgraduate studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. His career began with twenty-four years at the Exxon Corporation, ending his time there as the Corporate Planning and Public Affairs Manager. Davis went on to become the director of a successful venture capital company and, later, the Executive Director of the New Bedford Industrial Foundation. In his spare time, Davis is a member of numerous organizations in New Bedford, seeking to always improve and innovate the educational and economic development systems for future generations. He is an avid world-travel along with his wife, Liddy. He and Liddy have two children, now adults, who have achieved successful career paths all on their own, Tom and Christie.
Download or read book Telling Identities written by Rosaura Sánchez and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sánchez offers the first historical and literary analysis of thirty 1870s testimonios from the original Spanish-speaking settlers of Alta California. Telling Identities scrutinizes the role of gender, class, race, language, and ethnicity in group identity formation as it looks into history to help articulate the cultural politics of contemporary Chicano and Latino culture in the United States.
Download or read book Los Angeles Stories written by Ry Cooder and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Available Now: World-famous musician Ry Cooder publishes his first collection of stories.
