California

Journalist/historian Carey McWilliams (1905-1980) surveyed the state of the state in 1949, looking back on one hundred years of California's history to consider the reasons for the growth and productivity and assess social conditions in the most populous and the most socially and geographically diverse state in the U.S.

FOREWORD

ix

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

CHAPTER I. ON UNDERSTANDING CALIFORNIA

3

(5)

CHAPTER II. CALIFORNIA--THERE SHE GOES!

8

(17)

1. Tipping the Scales

2. Change Is Cumulative

3. Westchester, the Water Baby

4. California's Growing Pains

5. Planning by Indirection

CHAPTER III. THE MAGIC EQUATION

25

(14)

1. Poor Man's Gold Rush

2. California: The Mining Entrepreneur

3. The Something for Nothing Business

4. The Lightning's Bolt

CHAPTER IV. THE MUSTANG COLT

39

(24)

1. California: The Outsider

2. The Thirty-first Star

3. The Dignity of Labor

4. The Blanket without the Indian

5. The Flag of the Bear

6. The Precocious Frontier

7. Union--With a Difference

CHAPTER V. MIXED MULTITUDES

63

(26)

1. Gold Sets the Pattern

2. Like a Gourd in the Night

3. What Was Your Name in the States?

4. A Quilt of Many Colors

5. Old and Young in California

6. The Origin of Gallantry

7. A State of Cities

8. Population Whirligig

CHAPTER VI. CALIFORNIA LATIFUNDIA

89

(14)

1. Frontier without Homesteads

2. The Rape of the Public Domain

3. The Meaning of Land Monopoly

CHAPTER VII. THE MOSAIC OF CALIFORNIA'S AGRICULTURE

103

(24)

1. Her Infinite Variety

2. America's Natural Hothouse

3. The Meaning of Specialization

4. The World in Miniature

5. Challenge and Response

6. The Advantages of Organization

CHAPTER VIII. CALIFORNIA LABOR: TOTAL ENGAGEMENT

127

(23)

1. No Affinity with Bondage

2. "The Magic Scepter"

3. The Economics of Extremism

4. Labor's Curious Ducklings

5. The Pattern of Violence

CHAPTER IX. CALIFORNIA'S PECULIAR INSTITUTION

150

(21)

1. The Grapes of Wrath Are Stored

2. The Labor Pool

3. The System of Control

4. The Plot Never Changes

5. Of the Valleys

CHAPTER X. PERILOUS REMEDIES FOR PRESENT EVILS

171

(21)

1. Kearneyism in California

2. The Union Labor Party

3. Kearneyism Re-enacted

4. The Revolt of the Thirties

5. California's Bloody Shirt

6. Homebred Knight-Errant

7. The Hidden Spring

CHAPTER XI. THE STATE THAT SWINGS AND SWAYS

192

(22)

1. The Bulge in the Middle

2. The Guy Who Gets Things Done

3. Campaigns, Inc.

4. Sacramento: Commodity Market

CHAPTER XII. INDUSTRY: THE CULTURAL APPROACH

214

(19)

1. The Momentum of an Early Start

2. The Edge of Novelty

3. Local Needs and New Markets

4. Bull of the West

CHAPTER XIII. THE FABULOUS BOOM

233

(16)

1. The Long-Term Trend

2. The Emergence of Western Steel

3. The Question of Power

4. The Price of Expansion

5. Technology and the West

CHAPTER XIV. LADDER TO THE STARS

249

(20)

1. Certain California Eccentrics

2. The Development of Mt. Wilson

3. Not the Moon

4. Science in an Orange Grove

5. Antennas on a Mountain Top

6. The Right Side of the Mountains

CHAPTER XV. THE ONE-LEGGED GIANT

269

(24)

1. Climate without Weather

2. The Drouth of 1948

3. Geological Waters

4. The Intrusion of Salt

5. How Not to Conserve Water

6. The Outlying Coastal Districts

7. The Flood Paradoxical

8. Brush Fires and Burns

CHAPTER XVI. THE POLITICS OF THE COLORADO

293

(24)

1. Menance or Resource?

2. Water Imperialism

3. Nature's Freak: The Imperial Valley

4. The Over-Division of Water

CHAPTER XVII. THE CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT

317

(24)

1. California--Upside Down

2. Genesis of the Project

3. The Intrepid Colonel

4. Giant of Giants

5. The Irrelevant Cow Company

6. The Power Question

7. State vs. Federal Control

CHAPTER XVIII. O PANTHER OF THE SPLENDID HIDE!

341

1. The Problem of California

2. The End of Exceptionalism

3. Jack and Jill

4. California the Tiger

5. On Western Unity

6. The Future Is West

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