California
An American History
Published on 14. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
480 pages
978-0-300-27423-3 (ISBN)
Description
A concise and lively history of California, the most multicultural state in the nation
"A masterful history."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California's multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles."-Carlos E. Cortes, University of California, Riverside
California is the most multicultural state in America. As John Mack Faragher explains in this new history, California's natural variety has always supported such diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern United States and from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters-some famous, others mostly unknown-including African American Archy Lee, who sued for his freedom; Sinkyone Indian woman Sally Bell, who survived genocide; and Jewish schoolgirl Marilyn Greene, who spoke up for her Japanese friends after the attack on Pearl Harbor. California's diversity has often led to conflict, turmoil, and violence but also to invention, improvisation, and a struggle to achieve multicultural democracy.
"A masterful history."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California's multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles."-Carlos E. Cortes, University of California, Riverside
California is the most multicultural state in America. As John Mack Faragher explains in this new history, California's natural variety has always supported such diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern United States and from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters-some famous, others mostly unknown-including African American Archy Lee, who sued for his freedom; Sinkyone Indian woman Sally Bell, who survived genocide; and Jewish schoolgirl Marilyn Greene, who spoke up for her Japanese friends after the attack on Pearl Harbor. California's diversity has often led to conflict, turmoil, and violence but also to invention, improvisation, and a struggle to achieve multicultural democracy.
Reviews / Votes
"Faragher takes the reader on a captivating journey through myriad twists and turns of California's multicultural history, enlivened by stories of people who rarely penetrate our traditional state chronicles."-Carlos E. Cortes, University of California, Riverside"It is often said that California has little history. But there's nothing little about this beautifully illustrated and written book, which brilliantly distills the depth and diversity of California's past."-Stephen Aron, Autry Museum of the American West
"With verve, clarity, and erudition, John Mack Faragher has wrestled California's monumental, tragic, triumphant, immense history into a single volume. This is a superb book by one of our most insightful scholars of the far West. A signal achievement."-William Deverell, Institute on California and the West
"John Mack Faragher understands the promise, and the heartbreak, of California. This is a wonderfully concentrated but comprehensive and evocative history of the most American of states."-James Fallows, coauthor of Our Towns
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
44 b-w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-27423-3 (9780300274233)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John Mack Faragher is the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, where he also serves as director of the Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders. His many books include Women and Men on the Overland Trail, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie, and The American West: A New Interpretive History.