Contested Eden

by Gutierrez, Ramon A.

• ISBN13: 9780520212749
• ISBN10: 0520212746
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Celebrating the 150th birthday of the state of California offers the opportunity to reexamine the founding of modern California, from the earliest days through the Gold Rush and up to 1870. In this four-volume series, published in association with the California Historical Society, leading scholars offer a contemporary perspective on such issues as the evolution of a distinctive California culture, the interaction between people and the natural environment, the ways in which California's development affected the United States and the world, and the legacy of cultural and ethnic diversity in the state. California before the Gold Rush, the first California Sesquicentennial volume, combines topics of interest to scholars and general readers alike. The essays investigate traditional historical subjects and also explore such areas as environmental science, women's history, and Indian history. Authored by distinguished scholars in their respective fields, each essay contains excellent summary bibliographies of leading works on pertinent topics. This volume also features an extraordinary full-color photographic essay on the artistic record of the conquest of California by Europeans, as well as over seventy black-and-white photographs, some never before published.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
Preface
Contested Eden: An Introduction	p. 1
A World of Balance and Plenty: Land, Plants, Animals, and Humans in a Pre-European California	p. 12
Indian Peoples of California	p. 48
Seekers of the "Northern Mystery": European Exploration of California and the Pacific	p. 78
Land, Labor, and Production: The Colonial Economy of Spanish and Mexican California	p. 111
"The Child of the Wilderness Weeps for the Father of Our Country": The Indian and the Politics of Church and State in Provincial California	p. 147
The Creation and Re-creation of California Society	p. 173
Between Crucifix and Lance: Indian-White Relations in California, 1769-1848	p. 196
Engendering the History of Alta California, 1769-1848: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family	p. 230
Serpent in the Garden: Environmental Change in Colonial California	p. 260
Alta California's Trojan Horse: Foreign Immigration	p. 299
War in California, 1846-1848	p. 331
Picturing California	p. 357
List of Contributors	p. 375
Index	p. 379
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