Synopses & Reviews
The Elusive Eden charts the historical development of California, beginning with the evolution of the landscape and climate and the arrival of the first inhabitants, the Indians, through social, political, and environmental controversies of the present and the future. The book portrays a land of remarkable richness and complexity, settled by waves of people from diverse cultures. The text is organized chronologically into 10 parts, each developing a major theme or issue for a particular period in California's history. The first chapter of each part is a narrative that spotlights and dramatizes the personal responses of significant individuals at critical moments of historical change. The authors stress issues of current importance such as: ethnic groups, women, environmental history and social and cultural history.
About the Author
Richard B. Rice received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Staff Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Vice President of the University of California before going to California State University, Hayward, where he also served as a Department Chairman, Division Head, and Dean. He taught United States and California history at Hayward from 1960 to 1995, part of that time as an Emeritus Professor on a faculty early retirement program. He is also an associate of the Winthrop Associates, a cultural research firm, and operates a 300-acre farm in northeastern California.William A. Bullough is a Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Hayward. In 1970, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, after teaching in the states public schools for ten years. He is the author of Cities and Schools in the Gilded
Table of Contents
PART I: PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1: Californians and their History: Myths and Realities
CHAPTER 2: The Natural Setting
CHAPTER 3: The Native Peoples
PART II: EUROPEANS AND INDIANS: THE CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER 4: Estanislao's Rebellion
CHAPTER 5: Explorers and Indians
CHAPTER 6: Spanish California
PART III: THE PASTORAL ERA
CHAPTER 7: The Bear Flag Revolt
CHAPTER 8: Mexican California
CHAPTER 9: Foreign Penetration of California
PART IV: GOLD AND THE AMERICANIZATION OF CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER 10: Dame Shirley: A Yankee Lady in the California Mines
CHAPTER 11: The New El Dorad
CHAPTER 12: The Thirty-First State
PART V: THE RAILROAD ERA
CHAPTER 13: Confrontation at Mussel Slough
CHAPTER 14: The Coming of the Railroad
CHAPTER 15: California's Railway Era: Economic Development and Social Unrest
PART VI: CALIFORNIA AND THE NATION, 1880-1920
CHAPTER 16: San Francisco's Blind Boss
CHAPTER 17: Beginnings of Modern California
CHAPTER 18: Progressive California
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