Major Problems in California History

Note: Each chapter concludes with Further Readings. 1. The Significance of California History ESSAYS James D. Houston, The Place Called California Carey McWilliams, California as "The Great Exception" James N. Gregory, The Shaping of California History 2. The First Californians DOCUMENTS Map of Tribal Territories Indian Material Culture The Three Worlds of the Chumash Pablo Tac Approves of His Tribe's Conversion, 1835 Father Geronimo Boscana Describes the San Juan Capistrano Indians, 1832 A Sacramento Union Editorial Ponders the Indians' Fate, 1855 ESSAYS Arthur F. McEvoy, California Indians as Capable Resource Managers Albert L. Hurtado, Indian and Hispanic Family Patterns Compared 3. The Spanish Impact on the Indians, 1769-1821 DOCUMENTS Father Luis Jayme Criticizes the Behavior of Spanish Soldiers, 1772 Father Junipero Serra Reports the Destruction of the San Diego Mission, 1775 Captain Alejandro Malaspina Praises the Beneficial Impact of Spanish Missions, 1792 Lorenzo Asisara Narrates the Assassination of a Priest by Santa Cruz Indians, 1812 ESSAYS Francis F. Guest, O.F.M., Cultural Perspectives on Death and Whipping in the Missions Antonia I. Castaeda, Spanish Violence Against Amerindian Women 4. Mexican California: A Study in Contrasts DOCUMENTS A Mexican Commission Urges the Secularization of the California Missions, 1833 Angustias de la Guerra Ord Defends the Virtue of Mission Priests, 1878 Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Criticizes the Mexicans in California, 1834 Guadalupe Vallejo Reminisces About the Ranchero Period William Robert Garner Promotes the American Annexation of California, 1847 Selected Articles from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848 ESSAYS Hubert Howe Bancroft, Mexican California as "Lotus-Land" Douglas Monroy, The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California 5. Conflicts over Land in a New State, 1850s-1870s DOCUMENTS E. Gould Buffum Exults in Gold's Discovery, 1850 Louisa Clapp Pokes Fun at Her Experience as a Gold "Mineress," 1851 J. D. Borthwick Observes Chinese Gold Miners, 1851 John F. Morse Supports Traditional Agrarian Values, 1865 Henry George Censures Land Monopoly, 1871 ESSAYS JoAnn Levy, Women in the Gold Rush Paul Wallace Gates, Early California Land Policy Defended Douglas Monroy, Land and the Conflict of Legal Cultures 6. Disputes over Water, 1880s-1910s DOCUMENTS Lux v. Haggin Establishes the "California Doctrine," 1886 The Wright Act Asserts Community Water Rights, 1887, 1889 Congress Acts: Selections from the Reclamation Act of 1902 John Muir Admires the Hetch Hetchy Valley, 1908 Robert Underwood Johnson Decries Paying Too High a Price for Water, 1909 ESSAYS Donald Worster, The Capitalist Control of Water Use Norris Hundley, Jr., American Political Culture and Water Use 7. Big Business and Urban Labor, 1860s to 1930s DOCUMENTS Henry George Expresses Skepticism about Railroads, 1868 Leland Stanford Extols the Public Benefits of Railroad Construction, 1887 Collis P. Huntington Shows Contempt for Congress, 1887 Frank Norris Excoriates the Railroad as the "Octopus," 1901 Denis Kearney Organizes the Workingmen's Party of California, 1877 Henryk Sienkiewicz Appraises Chinese Labor in California, 1880 The American Federation of Labor Opposes Chinese Immigration, 1902 ESSAYS Michael Kazin, The Rise of the Labor Movement in California William Deverell, The Southern Pacific Railroad Survives the Pullman Strike of 1894 8. California Progressives: The Ambiguities of Political and Moral Reform DOCUMENTS Franklin Hichborn Praises Reform Governor Hiram W. Johnson, 1911 John Randolph Haynes Advocates Direct Legislation, 1911 Chester H. Rowell Analyzes the Problem of Japanese Immigration, 1914 Carrie Chapman Catt Argues That Home and Government Are Related, 1907 Katherine Phillips Edson Boasts of Women's Influence on State Legislation, 1913 Mary S. Gibson Explains Why Progressive Women Should Uplift Immigrant Women, 1914 ESSAYS Gerald Woods, Progressive Efforts to Banish Vice Gayle Gullett, Women Progressives and Immigrant Women 9. Hollywood and the California Dream, 1910s-1930s DOCUMENTS Cecil B. DeMille Reveals How He Creates Special Effects, 1927 A. H. Giannini Explains Why He Decided to Finance the Film Industry, 1926 Harmon B. Stephens Exposes How Films Lower Moral Standards, 1926 Ruth Suckow Analyzes the Appeal of Hollywood Movie Sets, 1939 ESSAYS Lary May, Hollywood and the California Dream Mike Davis, California's Dark Underside 10. Farmworker Struggles in the 1930s DOCUMENTS The California Department of Industrial Relations Evaluates Agricultural Labor Contracts, 1930 Carlos Bulosan Describes the Harsh Existence of Filipino Migrant Farmworkers John Steinbeck Portrays Social Pressures in Agricultural California, 1939 James Rorty Reports on Conditions in the Imperial Valley, 1935 Grower Frank Stokes Defends Mexican Farmworkers' Efforts to Organize, 1936 Ralph H. Taylor Rallies California's Growers to Protect Their Interests, 1938 ESSAYS Cletus E. Daniel, Communist Organizers in the Imperial Valley Labor Struggles Devra Anne Weber, Mexicano Farmworkers on Strike 11. The Impact of World War II on California's Economy DOCUMENTS The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Reports on California's Airframe Industry, 1945 Kaiser Shipyard Workers Fight on the Home Front, 1943 Marye Stumph Recalls Her Work Experiences in an Aircraft Factory Industrial Leaders Assess the West's Postwar Economic Prospects, 1946 ESSAYS Gerald D. Nash, World War II Transforms California's Economy Paul Rhode, An Economic Historian Challenges the Nash Thesis 12. The Changing Lives of Women and Minorities, 1940s-1950s DOCUMENTS Charles Kikuchi Observes Life in an American "Concentration Camp," 1942 Two Poems about the Camps, "Barracho Home" and "Mud" Fanny Christina Hill Fights Discrimination against Black Workers in the Aircraft Industry Willard Waller Announces the Postwar Battle of the Sexes, 1945 ESSAYS Sucheng Chan, The Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II Albert S. Broussard, Changes in the Status of African Americans in the 1940s and 1950s Joan M. Jensen and Gloria Ricci Lothrop, Women's Wartime and Postwar Experiences 13. Politics and Protest, 1960s-1970s DOCUMENTS Mario Savio Defends the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, 1965 Ronald Reagan Denounces "The Morality Gap at Berkeley," 1966 Bobby Seale Explains What the Black Panther Party Stands For, 1968 Manifesto of the Chicano Student Conference, 1969 Declaration of the Asian American Political Alliance, 1969 Indians of All Tribes Occupy Alcatraz Island, 1970 Why Secretaries in Academia Are Fed Up, 1971 ESSAYS W. J. Rorabaugh, Berkeley in the 1960s Lou Cannon, Ronald Reagan as Governor 14. The Rise of Information Capitalism DOCUMENTS California Computer Companies, 1989 Art Garcia Describes California's New Economic Frontier, 1984 Donald Woutat Comments on the Resignation of Steven Jobs from Apple Computer, 1985 Faith Alchorn Details the Use of Computers in Political Campaigns, 1988 Duane Spilsbury Reports on Telecommuting, 1989 ESSAYS AnnaLee Saxenian, The Origins and Business Culture of Silicon Valley Judith Stacey, Women, Families, and Work in the Information Industry Spencer C. Olin, Globalization and the Politics of Locality in Orange County 15. The Environment and the Quality of Life Since 1960 DOCUMENTS Samuel E. Wood and Alfred Heller Oppose Urban Sprawl, 1961 Frank M. Stead Assesses California Water Pollution, 1968 Richard Reinhardt Looks at Air Pollution Problems, 1982 A Government Commission Discusses the Dangers of Pesticides, 1988 Carl Anthony Outlines Why African Americans Should Be Environmentalists, 1990 Ronald Bailey Denounces the "Eco-Scam," 1993 ESSAYS Tim Palmer, California's Threatened Environment Dixy Lee Ray, Natural Ways to Reduce Urban Air Pollution Robert D. Bullard, Environmental Racism and Justice 16. Racial and Class Tensions, 1960s-1990s DOCUMENTS The McCone Commission Analyzes the Watts Riot, 1965 David Rieff Sees Los Angeles as the Capital of the Third World, 1991 Mwatabu S. Okantah Protests the Beating of Rodney King, 1993 Armando Navarro Provides a Latino Perspective on the 1992 Disorders, 1993 Eui-Young Yu Offers a Korean American Perspective on the Los Angeles Riots, 1992 Patrick J. Buchanan Condemns the "Barbarism" of the Rioters, 1992 John Bryant Encourages Corporate America to Invest in Minority Communities, 1995 Lynell George and David Ferrell Analyze the Staggering Racial Complexity of Los Angeles, 1995 George Regas Advocates a Shared Moral Vision, 1995 ESSAYS Melvin L. Oliver, James H. Johnson, Jr., and Walter C. Farrell, Jr., The Causes of the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Disorders Sumi K. Cho, Perceptions Across the Racial Divide Document Sources Essay Sources