California exposures : envisioning myth and history /

An enthralling guided tour of California's past, conjured with originality, insight and wit by a brilliant historian. Layers of the past swirl like ocean mist around the abandoned buildings of D Ranch at Point Reyes, the absence of trees in the starkly beautiful landscape speaks of early tenant...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: White, Richard, 1947- (Author)
Other Authors: White, Jesse Amble (Photographer), Steiner, Erik B. (Cartographer)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
Description
Summary:An enthralling guided tour of California's past, conjured with originality, insight and wit by a brilliant historian. Layers of the past swirl like ocean mist around the abandoned buildings of D Ranch at Point Reyes, the absence of trees in the starkly beautiful landscape speaks of early tenant workers who did not expect to stay long. A vista of Drake's Estero conjures the darkly amusing story of the Drake Navigator's Guild and its dubious effort to establish an Anglo-Saxon heritage for California. A placid riverside park in the fertile Tulare Lake Basin belies scenes of horror in the 1850s as settlers transformed an Indian homeland into American property. A Gilded Age story of real-estate boosterism and connivance is set amidst the industrial rubble of Corcoran. And the missions open sightlines into a still-vital Spanish, Mexican, and Californio past. Capturing the passage of time through a combination of photography and powerful companion narratives, this book presents California's history in resonant, astonishing detail.
Physical Description:326 pages : chiefly color illustrations, maps (some color) ; 26 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780393243062
0393243060