A Companion To California History

This volume of original essays by leading scholars is an innovative, thorough introduction to the history and culture of California.
Includes 30 essays by leading scholars in the field
Essays range widely across perspectives, including political, social, economic, and environmental history
Essays with similar approaches are paired and grouped to work as individual pieces and as companions to each other throughout the text
Produced in association with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

William Deverell is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of numerous publications including A Companion to the American West (Blackwell, 2004), Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past (2004), and (edited with Greg Hise) Land of Sunshine: The Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (2005).
David Igler is Associate Professor of History at University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Industrial Cowboys: Miller & Lux and the Transformation of the Far West, 1850-1920 (2001) and co-editor (with Clark Davis) of The Human Tradition in California (2002). He has published articles in the numerous history journals, including the American Historical Review, the Pacific Historical Review, Environmental History, and the Journal of Urban History.

Introduction (William Deverell and David Igler).
Notes on Contributors.
Part I: Introductory Essays.
Chapter 1. Beyond Dreams and Disappointments: Defining California through Culture (James Quay, California Council for the Humanities).
Chapter 2. Rereading, Misreading, and Redeeming the Golden State: Defining California through History (D. J. Waldie, Independent historian).
Chapter 3. I Thought California Would Be Different: Defining California Through Visual Culture (Catherine Gudis, University of California, Riverside).
Chapter 4. At the Crossroads: Defining California Through the Global Economy (Richard A. Walker, University of California, Berkeley).
Part II: Early California.
Chapter 5. Junípero Serra Across the Generations (Steven W. Hackel, University of California, Riverside).
Chapter 6. Alta California, the Pacific, and International Commerce Before the Gold Rush (David Igler, University of California, Irvine).
Chapter 7. Licit and Illicit Unions: Engendering Mexican Society (Rosamaría Toruño Tanghetti, Independent historian).
Chapter 8. Race and Immigration in the Nineteenth Century (Omar Valerio-Jimenez, University of Iowa).
Part III: Conquest and Statehood.
Chapter 9. The 1850s (William Deverell).
Chapter 10. Nature & Conquest: After the Deluge of '49 (Douglas Cazaux Sackman, University of Puget Sound).
Chapter 11. Native Californians in the Nineteenth Century (William Bauer, Jr., University of Wyoming).
Chapter 12. Transformations in Late Nineteenth Century Rural California (David Vaught, Texas A & M University).
Chapter 13. Transnational Commercial Orbits (Robert Chao Romero, University of California, Los Angeles).
Chapter 14. Reconsidering Conservation (Benjamin Johnson, Southern Methodist University).
Chapter 15. Religion in the Early Twentieth-Century (Darren Dochuk, Purdue University).
Chapter 16. Immigration, Race, and the Progressives (Lon Kurashige, University of Southern California).
Chapter 17. New Deal, No Deal: The 1930s (Rick Wartzman, Claremont Graduate University).
Part IV: Modern California.
Chapter 18. The Second World War (Arthur Verge, El Camino College).
Chapter 19. Between Liberation & Oppression: Gay Politics and Identity (Daniel Hurewitz, Hunter College).
Chapter 20. Making Multiculturalism: Immigration, Race, and the Twentieth Century (Kevin Leonard, Western Washington University).
Chapter 21. The Long 1950s (Shana Bernstein, Southwestern University).
Chapter 22. Apportionment Politics, 1920-1970 (Douglas Smith, Occidental College).
Chapter 23. Under the Warm California Sun: Youth Culture in the Postwar Decades (Kirse Granat May, Clark College).
Chapter 24. At the Center of Indian Country (Nicolas G. Rosenthal, Loyola Marymount University).
Chapter 25. Sexual Revolutions and Sexual Politics (Josh Sides, California State University, Northridge).
Chapter 26. A Generation of Leaders, But Not in the Fields: The Legacy of Cesar Chavez (Miriam Pawel, Independent historian).
Chapter 27. Hollywood Changes Its Script (John Horn, Los Angeles Times).
Part V: California Prospects in the 21st Century.
Chapter 28. Immigration and Race in the 21st Century (Bill Ong Hing, University of California, Davis).
Chapter 29. Political Prospects in the 21st Century (Raphael J. Sonenshein, California State University, Fullerton).
Chapter 30. Environmental Prospects in the 21st Century (Jon Christensen, Independent scholar).