The king of California : J.G. Boswell and the making of a secret American empire /
Upon first meeting Boswell, it was easy to think of him as just another farmer tooling around in his dusty pickup. But this was a titan who owned more agricultural acreage and controlled more river water than any other land baron in the West.
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
PublicAffairs,
[2003].
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Upon first meeting Boswell, it was easy to think of him as just another farmer tooling around in his dusty pickup. But this was a titan who owned more agricultural acreage and controlled more river water than any other land baron in the West. He grew more cotton than anyone on the planet, and he grew cities, too, including the first major retirement community in the country - Sun City, Arizona." "The King of California is a narrative that will carry readers from the Catholic fathers who built their missions up and down El Camino Real to the psychotic murderers incarcerated at the infamous Corcoran State Prison. Along the way, Arax and Wartzman tell the story of how the Boswells, a Georgia slave-owning family who migrated from California in the early 1920s, drained one of. America's biggest lakes and carved out the richest cotton kingdom in the world. It is the biography of a forbidding landscape tamed by the vision of one man. From the clay bottoms of old Tulare lake to the corridors of Washington, Jim Boswell had won just about every battle. And yet the question lingered: Was his farming miracle worth the heavy price that America had paid?"--Jacket. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Maps on endpapers. |
| Physical Description: | viii, 558 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-531) and index. |
| ISBN: | 1586480286 9781586480288 9781586482817 1586482815 |