Name: Hollywood Tiki
Brand: Jason Henderson
SKU: 9781467149907
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Jason Henderson

Hollywood Tiki

9781467149907

$23.99

Island Escapes, South Seas Adventures, and Musical Surf Parties of Midcentury Cinema

Tiki Culture arose as the defining expression of American pop culture during World War II and its influence continued through the 1960s. The essence of Tiki featured heavily in films of the era, depicting palm-tree and cocktail-laden escapes that captivated audiences nationwide. Films like South Pacific and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit were a hodgepodge of jungle imagery and World War II Pacific theater memories. A fascination with the new State of Hawaii was reflected in Elvis’s Blue Hawaii, while balmy youth flicks like Beach Blanket Bingo and Gidget showcased surf, sun and fun.

Join authors Jason Henderson and Adam Foshko as they explore films about the experiences of war filtered through the tropical splendor that defined an era.

Cover image for Hollywood Tiki, isbn: 9781467149907

Glen Duncan

Route 66 in California

9780738530376

$23.99

The Mother Road hauled it all, traversing the American West from Chicago to Santa Monica Beach, the last 350 miles through Southern California. For settlers, Depression-era Okies and Arkies, and post–World War II families bound for suburbia, Route 66 was a migration funnel for generations. Wending through the mountains and badlands of San Bernardino County into Los Angeles County, Route 66 became a state of mind and a catchphrase for travelers everywhere, especially after singer Bobby Troupe popularized the hit song (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 and actors Martin Milner and George Maharis hit the road with the ragtop down and the shades on in the namesake television series that seemed to go anywhere every week. The shield of the Route 66 sign has become iconography for the growth of Southern California's economy, population, popularity, and folklore.

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Gregory L. Wellman

Alcatraz Island

9780738525280

$7.99

As one of America's most notorious prisons, Alcatraz has been a significant part of California's history for over 155 years.

The small, lonely rock, known in sea charts by its Spanish name Isla de los Alcatraces, or Island of Pelicans, lay essentially dormant until the 1850s, when the military converted the island into a fortress to protect the booming San Francisco region. Alcatraz served as a pivotal military position until the early 20th century and in 1934 was converted into a federal penitentiary to house some of America's most incorrigible prisoners. The penitentiary closed in 1963, and Alcatraz joined the National Park Service system in 1972. Since then, it has remained a popular attraction as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Experience the complex and dark history of San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island in 15 historic black-and-white postcards.

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Jason Henderson

California Tiki

9781467138222

$23.99

The fascinating story behind California’s mid-twentieth century obsession with all things Polynesian and Hawaiian.

After World War II, suburbs proliferated around California cities as returning soldiers traded in their uniforms for business suits. After-hours leisure activities took on an island-themed sensuality that bloomed from a new fascination with Polynesia and Hawaii. Movies and television shows filmed in Malibu and Burbank urged viewers to escape everyday life with the likes of Elvis, Gidget, and Hawaiian Eye. Restaurants like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s sprang up to answer the demand for wild cocktails and even wilder décor.

A strange hodgepodge of idols, lush greenery and colorful drinks, Tiki beckoned men and women to lose themselves in exotic music and surf tunes. Authors Jason Henderson and Adam Foshko take a trip back in time to the scene of Polynesian pop and three decades of palm trees, Mai Tais, and torches with this informal guide to the rise, fall, and resurgence of Tiki culture.

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E.J. Stephens

Early Paramount Studios

9781467130103

$24.99

For over 100 years, Paramount Pictures has been captivating movie and television audiences worldwide with its alluring imagery and compelling stories. Arising from the collective genius of Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, and Cecil B. DeMille during the 1910s, Paramount Pictures is home to such enduring classics as Wings, Sunset Boulevard, The Ten Commandments, Love Story, The Godfather, the Indiana Jones series, Chinatown, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, and Star Trek. Early Paramount Studios chronicles Paramount's origins, culminating in the creation and expansion of the lot at 5555 Melrose Avenue, the last major motion picture studio still in Hollywood.

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Beth Winegarner

San Francisco's Forgotten Cemeteries

9781467154925

$24.99

Digging into a forgotten past – and the dead left behind.

San Francisco is famous for not having any cemeteries, but the claim isn’t exactly what it seems. In the early 20th Century, the city relocated more than 150,000 graves to the nearby town of Colma to make way for a rapidly growing population. But an estimated fifty to sixty thousand burials were quietly built over and forgotten, only to resurface every time a new building project began. The dead still lie beneath some of the city’s most cherished destinations, including the Legion of Honor, United Nations Plaza, the Asian Art Museum and the University of San Francisco.

Join author Beth Winegarner as she maps the city's early burial grounds and brings back to life the dead who've been erased.

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Judy Yung

San Francisco's Chinatown

9781467116824

$24.99

San Francisco's Chinatown—the oldest, largest, and most famous Chinese enclave outside of Asia—is more than a tourist attraction. Since its birth in the 1850s, Chinatown has also been a residential neighborhood, business community, and cultural center for generations of Chinese Americans. This collection of vintage photographs, taken from public archives and private collections, looks beyond the facade of Chinatown to show the realities of daily life, including a community's struggle for survival against racial hostility, exclusion laws, two major earthquakes, and urban renewal. The images of ordinary people working, shopping, and socializing in Chinatown, combined with the changing streetscape, historic landmarks, and significant cultural and political events, are organized into three historical periods, providing a panoramic view of community transformation from the gold rush to the present day.

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Karin L. Stanford PhD

African Americans in Los Angeles

9780738580944

$21.99

The notion of Los Angeles as a wonderful place of opportunity contributed to the western migration of thousands of Americans, including African Americans escaping racism and violence in the South. But Los Angeles blacks encountered a white backlash, and the doors of opportunity were closed in the form of housing covenants, job discrimination, and school segregation. African Americans fought for equality, building strength in community and collective identity that became their ongoing Los Angeles legacy. This story, encapsulated here in vintage photographs, encompasses the settlers of African descent, antislavery and antidiscrimination efforts, and their cultural contributions on Central Avenue and in Hollywood. Also shown are important flash points, including the 1965 Watts uprising and the O. J. Simpson murder trial. The story of African Americans in Los Angeles is one of promise, dreams, and opportunity realized through survival, willfulness, and foresight.

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John Nichols

St. Francis Dam Disaster

9780738520797

$24.99

Minutes before midnight on the evening of March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed. The dam's 200-foot concrete wall crumpled, sending billions of gallons of raging flood waters down San Francisquito Canyon, sweeping 54 miles down the Santa Clara River to the sea, and claiming over 450 lives in the disaster. Captured here in over 200 images is a photographic record of the devastation caused by the flood, and the heroic efforts of residents and rescue workers.

Built by the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Water Works and Supply, the failure of the St. Francis Dam on its first filling was the greatest American civil engineering failure of the 20th century. Beginning at dawn on the morning after the disaster, stunned local residents picked up their cameras to record the path of destruction, and professional photographers moved in to take images of the washed-out bridges, destroyed homes and buildings, Red Cross workers giving aid, and the massive clean-up that followed. The event was one of the worst disasters in California's history, second only to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

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Filipino American National Historical Society

Filipinos in San Francisco

9780738581316

$21.99

Tens of thousands of Filipinos who have lived, worked, and raised families for over five generations in this unique city stake their rightful claim to more than a century of shared history in San Francisco. The photographs herein attest to the early arrivals, who came as merchant mariners, businesspeople, scholars, and musicians, as well as agricultural and domestic workers. But their story has often been ignored, told incompletely by others, and edited too selectively by many. The Filipino American experience both epitomizes and defies the traditional immigrant storyline, and these pictures honestly and respectfully document the fruits of their labors, the products of their perseverance, and, at times, their resistance to social exclusion and economic suppression.

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Carina Monica Montoya Forsythe

Ventura County

9781467106955

$24.99

Ventura County has its roots in the founding of Mission San Buenaventura during the Spanish era (1769–1821). During the Mexican era (1822–1846), expansive mission lands were divided and granted out as ranchos for individual landownership to those with political influence and to former soldiers for loyal service during the war. When California became a state in 1850, settlers, prospectors, and developers began to purchase rancho lands. Ventura County became one of the most productive agricultural and oil-rich lands in the state and country. Farmland dominated much of the county’s landscape in the early years—oranges were its most popular fruit, and sugar beets were its prized commodity. Although the county still has an agricultural landscape in many of its cities and towns, the county is a patchwork of farms, islands, high-tech businesses, and military defense installations. It is as diverse as its people.

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Suzanne Tarbell Cooper

Theatres in Los Angeles

9780738555799

$24.99

Los Angeles and the movies grew up together, and a natural extension of the picture business was the premium presentation of the product—the biggest, best, and brightest theatres imaginable. The magnificent movie palaces along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles still represent the highest concentration of vintage theatres in the world. With Hollywood and the movies practically synonymous, the theatres in the studios' neighborhood were state-of-the-art for showbiz, whether they were designed for film, vaudeville, or stage productions. From the elegant Orpheum and the exotic Grauman's Chinese to the modest El Rey, this volume celebrates the architecture and social history of Los Angeles's unique collection of historic theatres past and present. The common threads that connect them all, from the grandest movie palace to the smallest neighborhood theatre, are stories and the ghosts of audiences past waiting in the dark for the show to begin.

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The Japantown Task Force (A)

San Francisco's Japantown

9780738530598

$24.99

Many people driving by elegant Japantown appreciate the graceful architecture of the pagodas and fountains but do not know much about the Japanese community that has long been a vibrant part of San Francisco. Japantown—one of only three left in this country—began as Nihonjinmachi, or Japanese People's Town, after the first Japanese arrived here in 1869. As their numbers increased, institutions arose to serve them, including churches, schools, and various civic and social organizations. The population drifted through various parts of the city and finally settled in the Western Addition after the 1906 earthquake.

Cover image for San Francisco's Japantown, isbn: 9780738530598

Jenny Cho

Chinatown in Los Angeles

9780738569567

$24.99

The history of Chinatown in Los Angeles is as vibrant as the city itself. In 1850, the U.S. Census recorded only two Chinese men in Los Angeles who worked as domestic servants. During the second half of the 19th century, a Chinese settlement developed around the present-day El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Chinese Americans persevered against violence, racism, housing discrimination, exclusion laws, unfair taxation, and physical displacement to create better lives for future generations. When Old Chinatown was demolished to make way for Union Station, community leader Peter SooHoo Sr. and other Chinese Americans spearheaded the effort to build New Chinatown with the open-air Central Plaza. Unlike other Chinese enclaves in the United States, New Chinatown was owned and planned from its inception by Chinese Americans. New Chinatown celebrated its grand opening with dignitaries, celebrities, community members, and a dedication by California governor Frank Merriam on June 25, 1938.

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Little Tokyo Historical Society

Los Angeles's Little Tokyo

9780738581460

$21.99

In 1884, a Japanese sailor named Hamanosuke Shigeta made his way to the eastern section of downtown Los Angeles and opened Little Tokyo's first business, an American-style café. By the early 20th century, this neighborhood on the banks of the Los Angeles River had developed into a vibrant community serving the burgeoning Japanese American population of Southern California. When Japanese Americans were forcibly removed to internment camps in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into World War II, Little Tokyo was rechristened "Bronzeville" as a newly established African American enclave popular for its jazz clubs and churches. Despite the War Relocation Authority's opposition to re-establishing Little Tokyo following the war, Japanese Americans gradually restored the strong ties evident today in 21st-century Little Tokyo--a multicultural, multigenerational community that is the largest Nihonmachi (Japantown) in the United States.

Cover image for Los Angeles's Little Tokyo, isbn: 9780738581460

Charles J. Fisher

Highland Park

9780738555706

$24.99

Founded during the 1886 land boom in Southern California midway between the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena, the original Highland Park Tract was part of the Rancho San Rafael. Highland Park was the first town to be annexed by Los Angeles, but it nonetheless retains a strong sense of its own identity and has taken a fiercely independent path. The community prides itself on its unique history, architecture, and diversity, and it has always been the home of artists and writers. One such resident was Charles Fletcher Lummis, who helped to preserve the history and culture of the land he dubbed the Southwest.

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Roberta H. Martínez

Latinos in Pasadena

9780738569550

$24.99

Histories of Pasadena are rich in details about important citizens, time-honored traditions, and storied enclaves such as Millionaires Row and Lamanda Park. But the legacies of Mexican Americans and other Latino men and women who often worked for Pasadena's rich and famous have been sparsely preserved through the generations—even though these citizens often made remarkable community contributions and lived in close proximity to their employers. A fuller story of the Pasadena area can be provided from these vintage images and the accompanying information culled from anecdotes, master's theses, newspaper articles, formal and informal oral histories, and the Ethnic History Research Project compiled for the City of Pasadena in 1995. Among the stories told is that of Antonio F. Coronel, a one-time Mexican Army officer who served as California state treasurer from 1866 to 1870 and whose image graced the 1904 Tournament of Roses program.

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Rick Thomas

The Arroyo Seco

9780738556086

$24.99

The Arroyo Seco, Spanish for dry wash, drains the southwestern San Gabriel Mountains and flows through Pasadena to its confluence with the Los Angeles River. The arroyo's banks became a transportation corridor of trails, railroads, and highways and an enclave for industrialists and artists. For more than a century, its very name evoking more than a stream, it has been a Los Angeles County region overlaying municipalities, eras, and cultures. Eight museums are located in or around the arroyo. Famous attractions included Busch Gardens and Cawston Ostrich Farm, as well as a real-life field of dreams, Jackie Robinson Stadium, and the granddaddy sporting field of them all, the Rose Bowl. The nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory's storied principals used this wide dry wash to launch the forerunners of space probes.

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Donna Bradley

Native Americans of San Diego County

9780738559841

$24.99

Archeological findings verify the occupation of San Diego County by Native Americans going back over 10,000 years, though little is recorded of their history before 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay and claimed the local territory for Spain. The native population at that time is estimated to have been 20,000, just as it is today. There are 18 reservations in the San Diego County area (17 of which are currently functioning), more than in any other county in the United States. The four primary tribal groups making up the Native Americans of the San Diego County area are the Kumeyaay (also known as Diegueño), Luiseño, Cupeño, and Cahuilla. Each of these groups has faced many hardships and setbacks while attempting to rebuild their nations to the proud peoples they once were, still are, and always shall be.

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Florante Ibanez

Filipinos in Carson and the South Bay

9780738570365

$24.99

One of Carson's most distinct features is its diversity. The city is roughly one-quarter each Hispanic, African American, white, and Asian/ Pacific Islander. This last group's vast majority are Filipinos who settled as early as the 1920s as farmworkers, U.S. military recruits, entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and other laborers, filling the economic needs of the Los Angeles region. This vibrant community hosts fiestas like the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture and has produced local community heroes, including Uncle Roy Morales and Auntie Helen Summers Brown. Filipino students of the 1970s organized to gain college admissions, establish ethnic studies, and foster civic leadership, while Filipino businesses have flourished in Carson, San Pedro, Wilmington, Long Beach, and the surrounding communities. Carson is recognized nationally as a Filipino American destination for families and businesses, very much connected to the island homeland.

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Sharon McGriff-Payne

African Americans in Vallejo

9780738595818

$24.99

African Americans have been part of the Vallejo mosaic since 1850, the year of the North Bay city's birth. John Grider, a Tennessee native and former slave who arrived in Vallejo in 1850, was one of the city's earliest residents and a veteran of the California Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. While many 19th-century black pioneers established homes, businesses, and schools, it was during the Great Migration period of 1910–1970s that the bulk of Vallejo's black community took firm root. During this period, black folks from throughout the South—tiny towns and big cities alike, from places like Itasca, Texas; Heidelberg, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Lake Wales, Florida—made their way west searching for war-industry jobs at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and lives relatively free of unrelenting racial discord. African Americans in Vallejo chronicles this proud and oftentimes complicated journey.

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Michelle Trujillo

Japanese Americans of Florin

9781467105910

$24.99

First-generation Japanese Issei immigrants arrived in Florin in the 1890s, after attempts at profitable strawberry cultivation by Florin landowners had failed. By 1905, however, Issei farmers had developed effective techniques for growing strawberries that delivered a resurgence of the crop. The Issei farmers discovered that Florin's shallow hardpan grew strawberries and grapes well; these fruits would blossom into Florin's major cash crops and lead to the crowning of Florin as the "strawberry capital of the world." But Japanese successes were hard-earned in the face of racist organizations such as the Asiatic Exclusion League and laws like Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. Florin was a community with a majority of Japanese Americans, but their forced removal--mandated by Roosevelt's order--dealt a crushing blow to the bustling agricultural town, as many Florin families never returned. The Japanese American Archival Collection (JAAC) was established in 1994 as an educational partnership between California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), and the Florin Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). The content collection was led by Florinite Mary Tsukamoto, an educator, author, and activist who was sent with her family to Japanese American concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.

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Claudine Chalmers

French San Francisco

9780738555843

$24.99

Nineteenth-century California was not a destination for the faint of heart, and Frenchmen are usually said to prefer their slippers to their traveling boots. Yet many visitors from France—starting in 1786 with legendary explorer Count de Lap©rouse—made their way to the remote and beautiful territory, leaving enduring accounts and images of their experience. As France's troubled revolutionary era began in the 1840s, tens of thousands of Frenchmen journeyed to California's goldfields. Some found wealth, others freedom, and some death. Many remained in San Francisco, helping shape the city and make it French from the inside.

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Dr. Jack Fujimoto

Sawtelle

9780738547978

$24.99

A 1.48-square-mile piece of unincorporated Los Angeles County when it was annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1922, tiny Sawtelle has lived very large in the hearts and minds of Japanese Americans. Their homes, livelihoods, religions, businesses, language, and other ethnocentric and social involvements are rooted in the area, with the Japanese Institute of Sawtelle as the cultural nexus. Bisected by Sawtelle Boulevard, this particular Japantown flourished through a close-knit network of immigrants who were denied citizenship until 1952 and were excluded by law from land ownership. Only through second-generation, American-born children could they buy real property. These vintage images—collected from local families, businesses, and organizations—provide rare glimpses into the Japanese immigrant experience in Los Angeles.

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Ricardo J. Reyes

Filipinos in Stockton

9780738556246

$24.99

The first Filipino settlers arrived in Stockton, California, around 1898, and through most of the 20th century, this city was home to the largest community of Filipinos outside the Philippines. Because countless Filipinos worked in, passed through, and settled here, it became the crossroads of Filipino America. Yet immigrants were greeted with signs that read Positively No Filipinos Allowed and were segregated to a four-block area centered on Lafayette and El Dorado Streets, which they called Little Manila. In the 1970s, redevelopment and the Crosstown Freeway decimated the Little Manila neighborhood. Despite these barriers, Filipino Americans have created a vibrant ethnic community and a rich cultural legacy. Filipino immigrants and their descendants have shaped the history, culture, and economy of the San Joaquin Delta area.

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Lawrence Tom

Locke and the Sacramento Delta Chinatowns

9780738596709

$24.99

Chinese pioneers in the Sacramento River Delta were the vital factor in reclaiming land and made significant contributions to California's agricultural industry from farming to canning. Since the 1860s, Chinese were already settled in the delta and created Chinatowns in and between the two towns of Freeport in the north and Rio Vista in the south. One of the towns, Locke, was unique in that it was built by the Chinese and was inhabited almost exclusively by the Chinese during the first half of the 1900s. The town of Locke represents the last remaining legacy of the Chinese pioneers who settled in the delta.

Cover image for Locke and the Sacramento Delta Chinatowns, isbn: 9780738596709

Jan Batiste Adkins

African Americans of San Francisco

9780738576190

$24.99

Beginning in the 1840s, black men and women heard the call to go west, migrating to California in search of gold, independence, freedom, and land to call their own. By the mid-1850s, a lively African American community had taken root in San Francisco. Churches and businesses were established, schools were built, newspapers were published, and aid societies were formed. For the next century, the history of San Francisco's African American community mirrored the nation's slow progress toward integration with triumphs and setbacks depicted in images of schools, churches, protest movements, business successes, and political struggles.

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Greg Rumney

The 1964 Flood of Humboldt and Del Norte

9781467130882

$24.99

The 1964 flood in the Eel and Klamath Rivers drainages represents an extreme weather event. Both the Northern California and Southern Oregon coasts are host to many floods, but the 1964 flood stands out as a representation of the perfect storm. Three events occurred that led to the flood. First, a cold front moved in and dropped several feet of snow. Second, a warm front called the pineapple connection moved in and released lots of rain while melting the snowfall—local measurements varied from 20 to 32 inches of rainwater in three days. And third, the highest tide of the year had backed up debris and water for several miles. At its peak, the Eel River was discharging more than 800,000 cubic feet per second. Another contributing factor was that besides being one of the fastest rising and falling rivers in the world, the Eel River has the heaviest sediment load second only to the Yellow River in China.

Cover image for The 1964 Flood of Humboldt and Del Norte, isbn: 9781467130882

Ojai Valley Museum

Ojai

9780738555775

$24.99

A resort community surrounded by mountains, Ojai is the gateway to Los Padres National Forest, the Sespe Creek Valley, and Lake Casitas Recreational Area. The setting offers inspiring views of and from Chief Peak and the majestic Topa Topa bluffs. The sleepy, spa reputation of Ojai (pronounced Oh-hi) belies one of the busier civic schedules of any California community its size. This corner of Ventura County is home of the world-renowned Ojai Music Festival and the century-old Ojai Tennis Tournament, as well as a concentration of top-quality boarding schools. It's a meeting and greeting place known for its painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, and filmmakers. The valley also welcomed the New Age when it was still very new—as many of the area's denizens are committed to the well-being of body, mind, and soul—and has been favored through the years by such resident spiritual leaders as the philosopher Krishnamurti.

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Jan Loomis

Brentwood

9780738556215

$24.99

The future Brentwood began to change more than a century ago when 300 wild acres of brushy canyons and rabbit and coyote habitat along with sheep-grazed mesas were contributed to the cause of needy veteran soldiers. Landowners Sen. John P. Jones of Nevada and Arcadia Bandini de Baker turned the land over to the board of managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The Pacific branch of this national hospice organization opened its doors to patients in 1888. Soon families and staff began to purchase lots and build homes near the gates. Businesses began to open to service the new residents. Through the late 20th century, this western area of the city of Los Angeles became known for beautiful neighborhoods, movie star residents, and a relaxed lifestyle—it became Brentwood.

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Richard A. Santillán

Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles

9781467124713

$24.99

Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles highlights the unforgettable teams, players, and coaches who graced the hallowed fields of East Los Angeles between 1917 and 2016 and brought immense joy and honor to their neighborhoods. Off the field, these players and their families helped create the multibillion-dollar wealth that depended on their backbreaking labor. More than a game, baseball and softball were political instruments designed to promote and empower civil, political, cultural, and gender rights, confronting head-on the reactionary forces of prejudice, intolerance, sexism, and xenophobia. A century later, baseball and softball are more popular than ever in East Los Angeles. Dedicated coaches still produce gifted players and future community leaders. These breathtaking photographs and heartfelt stories shed unparalleled light to the long and rich history of baseball and softball in the largest Mexican American community in the United States.

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Jim Brown

Folsom Prison

9780738559216

$24.99

Folsom Prison is California's second-oldest prison, dating back to 1880. In the decades following the Gold Rush, it housed some of the state's most notorious prisoners in stone, dungeon-like cells behind solid-metal doors; was the first prison with electric power; and for many years provided labor for various state projects, including construction, fabrication, and printing of license plates. Thrust into the public consciousness in the 1960s by high-profile performances from country music's Johnny Cash, the prison remains a notorious and legendary institution. The variety of offenders housed at Folsom are incarcerated for a large gamut of criminal behavior, and the California Department of Corrections has been dedicated to rehabilitation efforts throughout the facility's long history.

Cover image for Folsom Prison, isbn: 9780738559216

Carlos Bowden Jr.

Italians of the Bay Area

9780738546643

$24.99

These images are part of the life work of Italian immigrant Gino Sbrana, who started his American life in San Francisco as a vegetable peddler. By 1911, he had launched a large photographic studio, Pisa Foto, at Columbus and Broadway in San Francisco. Later Gino founded a studio in Oakland and, in 1919, settled in San Jose. Not content to confine his artistry to the formally posed studio portrait, he traveled over the Bay Area countryside with his large wooden field camera, using soft light on the shady side of barns or under large oaks to capture his fellow countrymen. Gino posed them in the coastal mist with machetes poised to harvest cauliflower, perched atop their brandnew motorcycles, assembled by trucks loaded with produce from the fields, sleeves rolled up and holding their vino.

Cover image for Italians of the Bay Area, isbn: 9780738546643

Lawrence Tom

Gold Country's Last Chinatown

9781467143233

$23.99

Marysville's Chinatown is the last remaining of thirty such communities built in California's Gold Country during the gold rush. Home to one of the oldest operating Taoist temples in California, this region's rich history includes a visit from Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China. For more than 150 years, the Chinese in Marysville have celebrated the Bok Kai Festival, and it's now the only place in America where people can experience the firing of the bombs and the mad dash to catch one of the good luck rings. Join authors Lawrence Tom and Brian Tom as they share the stories of the resolute Marysville Chinese and their pioneer forebears.

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Western Sonoma County Historic

Sebastopol's Gravenstein Apple Industry

9780738581736

$24.99

The Gravenstein apple has been etched into the identity of Sebastopol, California, which is one of the few places on earth to have extensively grown this elusive apple. The Gravenstein is an early apple whose only failing is perishability, but it is celebrated for its superior flavor. Yet Luther Burbank attempted to improve on the Gravenstein, producing the Winterstein and the Bonita for home gardeners. During the last 127 years, the Gravenstein has added millions of dollars to the local economy. It has provided a reason for celebrations, from the 1910 Apple Show to today's Apple Blossom Festival and Gravenstein Apple Fair. This is the Gravenstein's story, from its European roots to small-town homage, and the part this special apple has played in one community—and the reason the current decline in apple acreage is mourned.

Cover image for Sebastopol's Gravenstein Apple Industry, isbn: 9780738581736

Larry Bohannan

Palm Springs Golf

9781626199637

$21.99

Against a dramatic background of desert mountains, the sparkling green fairways of the Coachella Valley have attracted world-class golf tournaments, athletes and dignitaries for decades. In the 1920s, enterprising oil tycoon Tom O'Donnell built one of the first nine-hole courses in Palm Springs, and the area was a hangout for Hollywood's elite by the 1940s and '50s. Bob Hope's namesake PGA Tour event became a mainstay, while Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, the Marx Brothers, Marilyn Monroe and more frequented over the years. Today, the valley is a renowned perennial golf destination boasting over 120 courses and exceptional resorts. Follow award-winning local golf columnist Larry Bohannan as he recounts the storied history of the game under the desert palms.

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Dr. William Lipsky

Gay and Lesbian San Francisco

9780738531380

$24.99

In recent years, San Francisco has been synonymous with gay and lesbian pride, and the various achievements of the gay and lesbian community are personified in the city by the bay. The tumultuous and ongoing struggles for this community's civil rights from the 1950s to the present are well documented, but queer culture itself goes back much further than that, in fact all the way back to the California gold rush.

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Dr. Edward Zerin

Jewish San Francisco

9780738546834

$24.99

In San Francisco, the instant city of the gold rush days, Jews were pioneers among pioneers. Some came as immigrants directly from Europe, others as resettled adventurers from the East Coast, and still others as scions of southern Sephardic families. Out of this mixed multitude emerged a community with synagogues and institutions to care for the needy and the sick, along with a dignified social fabric. New immigrants following the Russian pogroms of 1883 were absorbed, and the ashen ruins from the 1906 earthquake were rebuilt. The city's cultural treasures and social needs were enriched, and the city's Jews were nurtured by civic commitments. Today's 70,000 San Francisco Jews, standing upon the shoulders of pioneering giants, continue to build and rebuild.

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Roots of Equality

Lavender Los Angeles

9780738574905

$24.99

Los Angeles has always been a city of possibilities and reinvention. A youthful and independent spirit permeates the culture and gives a sense of freedom found in few other places. This environment provided fertile ground for the growth of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community that had a major influence on LGBT life in the United States. For most of American history, queer identities were only visible in forms of entertainment, with most of the culture existing underground and in fear. By the 1950s, however, a few brave gay people living in Los Angeles dared to challenge society's negative views on homosexuality. For the next two decades, L.A. produced the nation's first LGBT leaders, organizations, and publications, and gave birth to the national movement for LGBT equality.

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Nick Popadiuk

Westminster

9781467109680

$23.99

Westminster Colony was founded in 1870 by Presbyterian minister Rev. Lemuel P. Webber. The colony, based on Protestant Christian tenets and temperance, was one of the earliest settlements in what would later become Orange County, California. It developed into an important agricultural area until farmlands gave way to suburban tract homes during the county’s population boom of the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1947, it became the background for the important Mendez v. Westminster case, which helped pave the way for the national dismantling of segregation in schools. A little more than a century after the first settlers arrived in Westminster, Little Saigon became the heart of Orange County’s Vietnamese immigrant community. This latest group of settlers continues to make notable and unique contributions to this historic city.

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Melvin Orpilla

Filipinos in Vallejo

9780738529691

$24.99

Filipinos came to Vallejo as early as 1912, and some families here can count five generations back to their roots in the Philippines. Many came to Mare Island Naval Shipyard, where Filipinos found steady, well-paying jobs that spared them from menial work and stoop labor in the fields of California. With each major conflict of the 20th century, and finally with the relaxation of immigration quotas in 1965, waves of Filipino newcomers arrived on these shores. They advanced in their work at the shipyards, settled down, and started families, buying homes and establishing successful businesses. Now this active, politically empowered Filipino community numbers in the tens of thousands, yet traditional histories ignore its contribution to Vallejo's heritage.

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Laura S. Borrman

Iconic San Francisco Dishes, Drinks & Desserts

9781625859587

$23.99

The roots of San Francisco's celebrated food and drink culture are as diverse as the city itself. A bountiful ocean, rich soil and ingenious residents combined to create unforgettable and enduring gastronomic legacies. Discover the disputed origins of local specialties like the Chicken Tetrazzini, chop suey and the classic martini, along with the legend behind the creation of Green Goddess Dressing. Learn how the abundance of the bay contributed to classics like the Hangtown Fry and Cioppino. Marvel at the introduction of America's first fortune cookie by Benkyodo Candy Factory and how a lack of refrigeration spawned the iconic Anchor Steam Beer. Pile the guacamole on a Mission Burrito and grab an Its-It for dessert. With classic and modern recipes from beloved establishments, author Laura Smith Borrman brings these and other culinary stories to life.

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Colette Kavanaugh

Arden-Arcade

9781467160018

$23.99

Arden-Arcade is a vibrant community. The first inhabitants were members of the Valley Nisenan tribe; however, world events, including the arrival of Europeans and the Gold Rush of 1849, changed the area’s dynamics in drastic ways. Arden-Arcade was part of the Mexican land grant known as the Rancho Del Paso. When Col. James Ben Ali Haggin became the owner of Rancho Del Paso, it became known for breeding champion racehorses. The horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1886—aptly named Ben Ali—was bred on Rancho Del Paso. In 1905, Orlando Robertson, owner of the Sacramento Colonization Company, purchased the land and began mapping out tracts for development, later advertising the area as the perfect place to farm citrus, olives, and hops. After World War II, Arden-Arcade experienced a boom of economic development. The construction of Town and Country Village, Country Club Centre, and Arden Fair Mall fueled the growth of residential homes. US Route 40 boasted numerous travel accommodations and was a popular destination until the construction of the Capital City Freeway. Notably, the area features many mid-century modern homes and buildings with Googie architecture.

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Alexandra Service

Northwestern Pacific Railroad

9781467130622

$24.99

The year 2014 marks the centennial of the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP), celebrated by driving a golden spike at Cain Rock in October 1914. This achievement was the culmination of a massive, six-year engineering effort to connect rail lines ending at Willits with the early lumber company railroads of the Humboldt Bay region. When it was completed, the NWP linked Eureka with San Francisco by rail, a milestone in the history of Humboldt and Northern Mendocino Counties. This book examines the impact of the NWP on Northwestern California. Although no longer operational, the railroad today symbolizes the ongoing struggle to connect this isolated region with the wider world.

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William D. Estrada

Los Angeles's Olvera Street

9780738531052

$24.99

Olvera Street Mexican marketplace and its plaza form the home of Latino culture in the Los Angeles region. Still standing in this downtown location of many fiestas, including Cinco de Mayo, are the Avila Adobe, plaza church— La Iglesia de Nuestra Se±ora La Reina de Los Angeles, Pico House, Sepulveda House, and L.A. Firehouse No. 1. El Pueblo de La Reina de Los Angeles was founded in 1781. The 1820s built plaza was ruled for decades by the magnanimous Judge Agustn Olvera. Wine Street was renamed in his honor after his 1876 death and took on a back-alley toughness depicted in early Hollywood films. In the 1920s, Christine Sterling campaigned to save
the Avila Adobe from demolition and transform Olvera Street into an internationally recognized tourist destination, which opened in 1930. Today the old plaza and Olvera Street shops, restaurants, museums, and vendors draw 1 million people annually under the auspices of El Pueblo de Los
Angeles Historical Monument.

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Richard A. Santillán

Mexican American Baseball in the Inland Empire

9780738593166

$24.99

Mexican American Baseball in the Inland Empire celebrates the thriving culture of former teams from Pomona, Ontario, Cucamonga, Chino, Claremont, San Bernardino, Colton, Riverside, Corona, Beaumont, and the Coachella Valley. From the early 20th century through the 1950s, baseball diamonds in the Inland Empire provided unique opportunities for nurturing athletic and educational skills, ethnic identity, and political self-determination for Mexican Americans during an era of segregation. Legendary men's and women's teams—such as the Corona Athletics, San Bernardino's Mitla Café, the Colton Mercuries, and Las Debs de Corona—served as an important means for Mexican American communities to examine civil and educational rights and offer valuable insight on social, cultural, and gender roles. These evocative photographs recall the often-neglected history of Mexican American barrio baseball clubs of the Inland Empire.

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Bill Yenne

Noe Valley

9781467103756

$24.99

Noe Valley is known as San Francisco’s “Village within the City.

” Originally part of Jose de Jesus Noe’s old Spanish land grant, Noe Valley became a vibrant neighborhood that is considered to be one the city’s most desirable residential areas.

Bill Yenne is an award-winning, best-selling author and historian whose many works include previous books on Noe Valley and San Francisco. He and his wife have lived in Noe Valley for four decades, watching their children and grandchildren grow as members of this community.

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Gerrie Schipske

LGBTQ+ Long Beach

9781467161343

$24.99

Long Beach, California, founded in the 1880s by conservative, pro-temperance settlers, has been known as “American Colony,” “Queen of the Beaches,” “Iowa-By-The Sea,” “Home of the Pike,” and “Paradise for Pansies.” This book gives a glimpse of how Long Beach went from making national headlines in 1914 for entrapping 31 gay men as “social vagrants” to receiving a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s “Municipal Equality Index” for issues that contribute to a positive climate for LGBTQA+ people. Over time, Long Beach changed, becoming one of the most diverse cities in California. Voters elected a lesbian to city council in 2006 and a gay mayor in 2014 who they sent to Congress in 2022. Its new main library is named in honor of its hometown lesbian heroine, Billie Jean King. Today, Long Beach has the third largest “Pride Parade and Festival” in California.

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Tony Wade

Lost Restaurants of Fairfield, California

9781467152259

$21.99

Delve into the memories, meals, and the men and women behind Fairfield's' beloved former dining spots.

Since the city's incorporation in 1903, Fairfield's restaurants have reflected the simple tastes of suburban life, serving up good food and great times at places like the Firehouse Deli-Café, the Hi-Fi Drive-In and beyond. Longtime residents knew the best Mexican food north of Tijuana could be found at Dan & Ruth's Café, and Voici, where the movers and shakers met, claimed the crown as swankiest spot in town. Smorga Bob's, the buffet-style family restaurant where locals could let their hair down and get their grub on, is missed to this day.

Join longtime Daily Republic columnist and accidental local historian Tony Wade on a delicious tour of bygone eateries.

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Alex Moreno Areyan

Mexican Americans in Los Angeles

9780738580067

$21.99

Mexican Americans established and nurtured the foundation, fiber, and fabric of Los Angeles since the first pobladores arrived in 1781. Pride in family, work, community, and religion coalesces into their legacy from East Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley to the port areas of Wilmington and San Pedro. Men and women of Mexican heritage comprised 47 percent of Los Angeles County's Latino population in the 21st century. The modern Mexican American saga is embodied in the success of Congressman Edward Roybal, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard, dynamic civic leader Dionicio Morales, and Los Angeles County supervisor Gloria Molina. Labor leader Cesar Chavez instilled passion and hope, while prizefighters Art Aragon, Paul Gonzalez, and Oscar De La Hoya and actors Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado, Ricardo Montalban, and Edward James Olmos provided inspiration. The city's first Mexican American mayor in more than a century, Antonio Villaraigosa, was elected in 2005. This book is a distillation of a proud people's contributions to, and achievements in, a great city.

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James T. Lucas

Greeks in San Francisco

9781467116886

$24.99

The history of San Francisco's Greek community is linked to the history of San Francisco. The first Greeks to arrive were sailors, miners, and laborers. By the 1880s, they had formed benevolent, civic, and fraternal organizations. In 1904, the first Greek Orthodox Church west of Chicago was established, and Third Street became the heart of the Greek community. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of their new community, but undaunted, the Greeks of San Francisco rebuilt their lives to become business leaders and politicians, contributing their entrepreneurial and philanthropic spirit to the city's rich heritage.

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Meg Rogers

The Portuguese in San Leandro

9780738558332

$21.99

The Gold Rush drew the Portuguese from the Azores, sweeping them across the Atlantic Ocean and around South America's Cape Horn to the California shore. When gold failed to pan out, many Portuguese moved to the hamlet of San Leandro on the San Francisco Bay where land was reasonable and the ground fertile. Gradually the post-Gold Rush settlers joined with former Portuguese shore whalers to farm the fields of San Leandro. San Leandro became a principal landing place for newly arrived Portuguese immigrants putting down roots on small farms. A steady stream of relatives from the Azores and Hawaii poured into San Leandro's fertile foothills, and by 1911 the Portuguese comprised over two-thirds of the city's population. The early days were rough--Portuguese immigrants banded together in fraternal societies to overcome a lack of resources and to help one another navigate a strange world whose language they did not speak. Today the Portuguese Immigrant monument in Root Park's plaza commemorates the journey of Portuguese settlers who left everything behind to start a new life in the new world.

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Lorraine Hee-Chorley

Chinese in Mendocino County

9780738559131

$21.99

Mendocino County's name comes from the Native Americans who resided seasonally on the coast. The county is known as a scenic destination for its panoramic views of the sea, parks, wineries, and open space. Less well known are the diverse cultural groups who were responsible for building the county of Mendocino. The Chinese were instrumental in the county's development in the 1800s, but little has been written documenting their contribution to local history. Various museums throughout the region tell only fragments of their story. Outside of the over-100-year-old Taoist Temple of Kwan Tai in the village of Mendocino, which is well documented, this volume will become the first broad history of the Chinese in Mendocino County.

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Gerrie Schipske

Rosie the Riveter in Long Beach

9780738525327

$7.99

During World War II, an unprecedented number of women took jobs in the defense industry. Thousands of these "Rosie the Riveters" came to the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Long Beach, the largest wartime aircraft manufacturer.

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Evangeline Canonizado Buell

Filipinos in the East Bay

9780738558325

$24.99

Filipinos are a community nearly 2.5-million strong in the United States in 2007. At the turn of the 20th century, the first wave of Filipino migration began, continuing until the start of World War II. During this time span, sponsored students, veterans of the Philippine-American War and their families, and young men recruited in the Philippines to serve in the U.S. military or work in California and Hawaii's expanding agricultural industries would all arrive in the United States. On the San Francisco Bay Area's eastern shore, Filipino presence in the labor force transitioned with the region's economic and social evolution from mainly farm and service laborers to industrial workers to professional, administrative, and service workers. Today the East Bay is a vibrant center of the Filipino community's deeply rooted and rich cultural, political, and economic life.

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Jennifer Cho

Chinese in Hollywood

9780738599731

$24.99

Hollywood has long exerted an international influence on the global imagination. In the first half of the 20th century, Chinese American actors who aspired to a career in Hollywood found their opportunities limited to roles that propagated Asian stereotypes. Meanwhile, many Chinese roles were given to non-Asian actors playing yellowface. It has been a long, hard road for Chinese in Hollywood who have striven to build meaningful careers behind and in front of the camera. This book focuses on the contributions of Chinese and Chinese Americans to the film and television industries as well as those who lived and worked in the Hollywood area. Vintage photographs celebrate pioneers such as Anna May Wong, Tyrus Wong, Milton Quon, James Wong Howe, and many more. From the silent film era to the present, the history of Chinese in Hollywood will surpass 100 years.

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Carina Monica Montoya Forsythe

Filipinos in Hollywood

9780738555980

$24.99

The memoirs of Filipinos in Hollywood span more than 80 years, dating back to the early 1920s when the first wave of immigrants, who were mostly males, arrived and settled in Los Angeles. Despite the obstacles and hardships of discrimination, these early Filipino settlers had high hopes and dreams for the future. Many sought employment in Hollywood, only to be marginalized into service-related fields, becoming waiters, busboys, dishwashers, cooks, houseboys, janitors, and chauffeurs. They worked at popular restaurants, homes of the rich and famous, movie and television studios, clubs, and diners. For decades, Filipinos were the least recognized and least documented Asians in Hollywood. But many emerged from the shadows to become highly recognized talents, some occupying positions in the entertainment industry that makes Hollywood what it is today—the world's capital of entertainment and glamour.

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Thuy Vo Dang

Vietnamese in Orange County

9781467133210

$24.99

Vietnamese Americans have transformed the social, cultural, economic, and political life of Orange County, California. Previously, there were Vietnamese international students, international or war brides, or military personnel living in the United States, but the majority arrived as refugees and immigrants after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Although they are lumped together as refugees, Vietnamese Americans are diverse in terms of their class, ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, and ideological backgrounds. Their migration path varied, and they often struggled with resettling in a new homeland and rebuilding their lives. They are dispersed throughout the country, but many are concentrated in central Orange County, where three cities—Westminster, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana—have Welcome to Little Saigon signs. They constitute the largest population of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam and have created flourishing residential neighborhoods and bustling commercial centers and contribute to the political and cultural life of the region. This book captures snapshots of Vietnamese life in Orange County over the span of 40 years and shows a dynamic, vibrant community that is revitalizing the region.

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Lea Terhune

California's Pioneering Punjabis

9781467148870

$39.95

“…evocative vignettes and inspiring stories from many of California’s South Asian American citizens…” Paul Michael Taylor, Director, Asian Cultural History Program, Smithsonian Institution.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, adventurous travelers left the Punjab in India to seek their fortune in California and beyond. Laboring in farms, fields and orchards for low wages while enduring racial discrimination, they strove to put down roots in their new home. Bhagat Singh Thind, an immigrant who served in the United States Army, had his citizenship granted and revoked twice before a 1936 law expanded naturalization to all World War I veterans, regardless of race. Dalip Singh Saund obtained a master’s degree and doctorate in mathematics from UC Berkeley only to return to farming when no one would hire him. In 1956, Saund went on to become the first Asian elected to the U.S. Congress. Ethnic South Asians are now found in every trade and profession in the United States, including the Office of the Vice President. Descendants of the first Punjabi immigrants from Yuba City to the Imperial Valley still farm, adding to the rich tapestry of the Central Valley.

Author Lea Terhune recounts the risks, setbacks and persistence of the people who achieved their American dreams.

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Salvatore Manna

Olives in California's Gold Country

9781467131667

$24.99

The history of the olive in the Gold Country of Northern California is a story of the Spanish in the New World, of the Gold Rush, of immigrants from Italy and other Mediterranean countries, of bold pioneers, enterprising farmers and scientists, and of businessmen and businesswomen. Focusing on Calaveras County in the south and Placer County in the north, but also exploring the olive throughout most of Northern California, including olive havens such as Corning and Oroville, that story is told within these pages through rare and fascinating photographs. For those who wish to explore the olive in Northern California, whether its history, industry or technology, this volume provides both an appetizer and a satisfying entrée. As love of the olive grows, for the first time a book tells the tale of the olive tree, the king of trees, in the Mother Lode of California.

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Beverly Lane

Historic Tales of Alamo, California

9781467148108

$21.99

One of the oldest communities in the East Bay

Alamo is brimming with tales of hope, loss and triumph. Discover the story of the Romero brothers, who lost their rancho to a shrewd and litigious attorney, and the early pioneers who banded together to buy it back at an extraordinary sum. Learn about the deep agricultural roots put down by newcomers drawn to the temperate climate and beautiful valley. Revisit this rural community’s transformation from grazing land for Mission San Jose to a beloved home for generations of ranchers, writers, and activists.

Join historian Beverly Lane and researcher Sharon Burke as they share fascinating tales of Alamo’s past.

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Georgia G. Sercl

Arlington

9780738555805

$24.99

The neighborhood of Arlington, located about five miles southwest of downtown Riverside, was first settled in the 1870s and was later developed as a town site in 1877 by philanthropist Samuel C. Evans and William Sayward. Citrus groves flourished in the area, providing the community with a newfound wealth. Large and gracious homes were built on wide streets lined with beautiful shade trees. Arlington's commercial district at Van Buren Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue expanded to include a bank, chamber of commerce, newspaper, store, church, boardinghouse, and post office with its own Arlington postmark, in use since 1888. In the early 1900s, an electric railway was built down the center of Magnolia Avenue ending at beautiful Chemewa Park with its large trees, dance pavilion, zoo, and polo field. Today Arlington retains much of its neighborhood feeling while undergoing a large-scale redevelopment project for a future retail and commercial district.

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David Landers

Glendora

9780738508269

$24.99

Growing up under the Spanish mission system, much of Glendora's vibrant history is founded on the sweat of the farmers, ranchers, and entrepreneurs who tempered the land and made it what it is today. Author David Landers captures the history of Glendora and the surrounding area through over 200 vintage images, from its early hacendados days to its glory as one of the nation's largest citrus producers. Easterner Henry Dalton came to the Glendora area in 1843, and, capitalizing on the revolutionary troubles that California was embroiled in with Mexico, created a community of ranches, farms, vineyards, and tanneries. The 1870s brought many new settlers, including some of the future leaders of the city that would be called Glendora: Cullen, Bender, La Fetra, and Warren. Chicago industrialist George Whitcomb bought over 200 acres, and the city of Glendora was finally established. Pictured here are some the earliest photographs of the region, including images of the Santa Fe Railroad that established the citrus industry in Glendora, the Glendora Fruit Association and the families that diligently worked for it, the packing houses, buildings, and early residents.

Cover image for Glendora, isbn: 9780738508269

Evie Ybarra

Ghosts of Ventura County's Heritage Valley

9781467119856

$21.99

Strange secrets and eerie tales shadow the idyllic beauty of the Heritage Valley and the meandering Santa Clara River. The spirit of a playful little boy wanders the halls of the historic Glen Tavern Inn, and the ghostly phantom of the real Zorro, Joaquin Murrieta, guards his buried gold in the foothills of Piru. The chilling cries of La Llorona echo along Sespe Creek, and a beast is still reportedly seen loping upright across the countryside near Santa Paula. Outside Fillmore, the Lady in White lingers by the old sycamore tree, sometimes materializing in cars traveling down Highway 126. Author Evie Ybarra recounts spine-tingling tales and local lore from Valencia to Ventura.

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Olivia Cueva-Fernandez

Mexican Americans in Wilmington

9780738581743

$24.99

Under Spanish, Mexican, and American flags, the Los Angeles harbor area has developed many industries and businesses that survived on Mexican labor, supporting families of Mexican origin for more than a century. Pioneering Mexican Americans have worked the railroads, fields, canneries, plants, refineries, waterfront, and family-owned businesses for generations, forming strong bonds and lifelong friendships. Active in the military and sports, as well as involved in the church and community, Mexican Americans have overcome poverty, hardships, and discrimination, retained cultural values and customs, intermarried and assimilated with other cultures, and become the largest ethnic group in Wilmington. Many of the early families still have relatives that live and work in Wilmington, with sons and daughters achieving successful careers in various realms. Through education, hard work, and determination, Wilmington's Mexican Americans have contributed extensively to the harbor's vibrant American way of life.

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Ralph A. Clark

Italians of San Joaquin County

9781467132329

$24.99

Italians were among the first European settlers in California, as fishermen from Italy arrived in the 1830s. After gold was discovered in 1848, immigrants from all over the world came for the opportunity that California presented. For the Italians, they encountered a terrain and climate so similar to their homeland that many stayed on to make California their new home. In San Joaquin County, the Italian influence remains profound, with the immigrants and their descendants helping develop the area's cultural, agricultural, and business climate into what it is today. The legacy of the Italian pioneers has enriched San Joaquin County in immeasurable ways. Every aspect of life here has been touched, molded, and made better by this industrious group who came to a distant land to make a better life.

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Lillian Gong-Guy

Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley

9780738547770

$24.99

The fertile Santa Clara Valley—once called the Valley of Heart's Delight and later Silicon Valley—has long been home to a substantial Chinese population. Like other immigrants, they arrived seeking opportunity and armed with survival instincts and the ability to persevere, but the struggles they faced were unique. From 1866 to 1931, five distinct Chinatowns existed in San Jose, each one devastated by mysterious fires or stifled by unjust laws. Early Chinese in the region labored relentlessly, building railroads and levees and toiling as laundrymen, grocers, cooks, servants, field hands, and factory workers. In the 20th century, new industries replaced agriculture, and an influx of Chinese invigorated the valley with innovative ideas, helping it emerge as a leader in technology.

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Elnora Kelly Tayag

Filipinos in Ventura County

9780738574738

$24.99

Filipino immigrants came to Ventura County in the 1920s, beginning American lives mostly as farm laborers in work camps, notably the Arneill Ranch and Springville Ranch in Camarillo. They organized early societies like the Filipino Brotherhood Association of Ventura County, the Jordan Lodge 604 Legionarios del Trabajo, the Caballeros de Dimas Alang, the Filipino Optimist Club, and the Filipino Community of Ventura County. During World War II, Filipinos served in the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army. The omnipresence of the U.S. Navy in coastal Ventura prodded many second- and third-generation Filipinos to serve their country in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the Persian Gulf. Today the same spirit of community engagement is illustrated in the 26 local Filipino organizations all under the umbrella of the Filipino American Council, which celebrates history, community, and culture.

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Katherine Yungmee Kim

Los Angeles's Koreatown

9780738575520

$24.99

Koreatown, located in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, is the heart and nexus for Koreans in America. In the early 20th century, a small Korean community--many of whom were active leaders and supporters of the Korean independence movement--initially settled around Bunker Hill. The community migrated in the 1930s toward Jefferson Boulevard, near the University of Southern California, to an area known as Old Koreatown. By the late 1960s, following the freeway construction boom and the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, Korean markets, restaurants, and businesses began to blossom along Olympic Boulevard. Today, Koreatown is a thriving urban center where Koreans, Hispanics, and Bangladeshis coreside in one of the most densely populated and diverse sections of Los Angeles. Its boundaries were officially designated by the Los Angeles City Council on August 20, 2010.

Cover image for Los Angeles's Koreatown, isbn: 9780738575520

Duane Deterville

Black Artists in Oakland

9780738547251

$24.99

Oakland's famous and vibrant arts heritage is known throughout the country, but many people are unaware of the extent of this city's contribution to the national stage in terms of music, dance, visual arts,
and literature. Black Artists in Oakland celebrates this amazing story over the past half century through vintage images, from the early days of Slim Jenkins's nightclub to the changing styles of Esther's Orbit Room and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. More than 200 photographs lift the curtain on many inspiring artists—masters in their chosen aesthetic and neighbors to the community. Among the artists highlighted in these pages are Ruth Beckford, Raymond Saunders, Alice
Walker, and E. W. Wainwright.

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Jennifer Anne Garey

California Cavalry

9781467131100

$24.99

California was home to the one of the first Native American cavalries and one of the first African American cavalries, commonly known as the Buffalo Soldiers. It was in California where the country saw the last official military cavalry in operation. California Cavalry displays the history of cavalry battalions and regiments, detailing a critical and controversial period and the eventual change from horse to mechanized technology. This book attempts to approach the topic of the cavalry in California both from indigenous and from military perspectives. Geographic regions are expanded beyond California to give context and continuity to the movement of military operations.

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Doug Krikorian

Los Angeles Sports Memories

9781626199897

$21.99

For five decades, distinguished sportswriter Doug Krikorian chronicled LA's most transcendent sports moments. Revisit revered columns enshrining iconic achievements like when rookie Magic Johnson scored forty-two points and collected fifteen rebounds, leading the Lakers to the NBA title against the Philadelphia 76ers. Celebrate with the Angels all over again after their 2002 World Series victory. Reflect on momentous stories featuring Eric Dickerson, Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali and many other illustrious personalities. From Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's fervent feud to Dodger Kirk Gibson's legendary game-winning 1988 World Series opener home run, relive the triumphs and tribulations of one of America's marquee sports towns.

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Clifford Trafzer

Native Americans of Riverside County

9780738546858

$24.99

The Colorado Desert lands that became Riverside County in the 19th century were home to diverse bands of California Indian people, including the Cahuilla, Gabrielino, Serrano, Luise–o, Chemehuevi, and Mojave tribes. Other Native Americans call the county home, including urban Indians who moved here in the 20th century. The tribes of Riverside County are survivors, descendants of sovereign people who left their mark on the county's history eons before the first European explorers entered the land. These historic photographs depicting the tribes and their way of life were culled from the authors' personal archives as well as the collections of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians Museum, Twenty-nine Palms Tribe, Riverside Municipal Museum, and the University of California, Riverside.

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Richard A. Santillán

Mexican American Baseball in Sacramento

9781467102698

$24.99

Mexican American Baseball in Sacramento explores the history and culture of teams and players from the Sacramento region. Since the early 20th century, baseball diamonds in California's capital and surrounding communities have nurtured athletic talent, educational skills, ethnic identity, and political self-determination for Mexican Americans. The often-neglected historical narrative of these men's and women's teams tells the story of community, migration, military service, education, gender, social justice, and perseverance. Players often became important members of their communities, and some even went on to become professional athletes—paving a path for Latinos in sports. These photographs serve as a lens to both local sports history and Mexican American history.

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Marisela Barbosa-Cortez

Hispanics and Latinos in Vallejo

9781467107747

$23.99

Originally part of Rancho Suscol, Mexican land granted to Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the city of Vallejo, California, has been home to a Hispanic and Latino community since its establishment in the mid-19th century.

The son of General Vallejo was the first medical doctor in Vallejo, and Frank Antonio Blanco was the city’s first public school probation officer. His son Edwin J. Blanco was a public elected official. During World War II, the bracero program brought an influx of Mexican immigrants, and the city of Vallejo saw a resurgence in Spanish-speaking community members. Over the next few decades, community organizations were created, and the number of Hispanic- and Latino-owned businesses increased. In the last decades of the 20th century, the community grew to over 25 percent of the city’s population. Today, Hispanics and Latinos are business owners, professionals, job creators, advocates, and a strong economic power in the city.

A mother, wife, business owner, and community advocate originally from Mexico, Marisela Barbosa-Cortez immigrated to Vallejo with her parents, Graciela and Israel; her sisters Maria and Sonia; and her brother Jose. Barbosa-Cortez is a forward-thinking catalyst for change, and her commitment to community betterment is reflected through her years of involvement and leadership in the areas of economic development, advocacy for children and women, and civic engagement.

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Frederick W. Marrazzo

Italians in the Santa Clara Valley

9780738555621

$24.99

Attracted by the mild climate and abundance of fertile land, Italians came to the Santa Clara Valley from all regions of Italy, including Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Beginning in the 1880s, the Eden of the World beckoned Italian immigrants as farmers, ranchers, orchardists, vegetable growers, and winemakers. Italian men, women, and children filled the numerous canneries and packinghouses supplying the rest of the nation with fresh produce. Once the largest ethnic group in the valley, Italians' impact on the region has been profound, yet is often overlooked. The photographs in this book present a special glimpse into the lives of a people whose irrepressible optimism, kindness, and can-do spirit overcame the challenges and obstacles put before them.

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Carolyn Fregulia

Italians of the Gold Country

9780738555584

$24.99

California's gold country has been profoundly influenced by Italian culture for the last 160 years. Immigrants from Italy's northern provinces were drawn here by the lure of gold, but it was the allure of the California foothills, where they found the terrain and Mediterranean climate similar to that of Italy, that convinced them to stay. California's fledgling economy provided unparalleled opportunities for Italian businessmen, and unclaimed land was available for agriculturalists. Settlement soon brought women and children, and within a decade, Italians represented a significant portion of the population in the region, numbering among the gold country's leading farmers, merchants, and tradesmen. The Mother Lode also offered women unique advantages, and Italian women proved wonderfully resourceful when necessity demanded. The 1870s saw a second wave of immigration, as Italian laborers arrived to work in the large, corporate-owned gold mines. Descendents of many of these Italian pioneers remain in the gold country to this day.

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Carina Monica Montoya Forsythe

Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown

9780738569543

$24.99

Historic Filipinotown was officially designated by Los Angeles City Council District 13 as one of the city's historic geographic areas on August 2, 2002. It is the first Filipino community in America to merit a named area with distinct geographic boundaries. Also known as the Temple-Beverly Corridor, this area is located just west of central downtown. Historic Filipinotown was once home to one of the largest Filipino enclaves in California, a place where many Filipinos purchased their first homes, raised families, and established businesses. The cultural continuity of Filipino families and businesses in the corridor in the 21st century inspired the collective efforts of Filipino organizations, Los Angeles community leaders, and individuals working in concert to establish Historic Filipinotown and maintain its vibrant culture.

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Dale Ann Sato

Japanese Americans of the South Bay

9780738559612

$24.99

Early-20th-century settlers in Los Angeles County's South Bay region found fallow rancho land worthy of cultivation, as well as roads and railways to move produce to markets. First-generation Japanese Issei immigrants became pioneering strawberry, vegetable, and flower growers and cannery fishermen. Their fields blanketed the landscape between oil derricks and along sloughs and the dry-farmed coastline. Families pooled resources and built Japanese language schools for their Americanborn Nisei children that doubled as meeting halls. Small mom-and-pop businesses and services sprang up in Gardena and elsewhere, catering to Japanese neighborhoods. The evacuation, detention, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II devastated their sense of belonging and livelihoods that had taken 40 years to establish. Today South Bay is home to multigenerational Japanese and Asian Americans who continue that legacy of industry, beautification, and diversity.

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Brian Tom

Marysville's Chinatown

9780738559766

$24.99

Marysville's Chinatown was once one of the most important Chinatowns in America. The early Chinese settlers called Marysville Sanfow, or "the third city," meaning the third city by river to the goldfields. Two of the first four Chinese American judges in California were from Marysville as was the first Chinese American elected to the San Francisco Board of Education. The Marysville Chinatown was among the first Chinatowns built in California's Gold Country and is the only one to survive to this day. Because of this, it is possible to view the full panorama of Chinese-American history through the viewpoint of this one Chinatown.

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Margury Bitetti

Italians in Los Angeles

9780738547756

$24.99

Over 568,000 Italian Americans live in the Greater Los Angeles area—95,000 within the city itself making the Italian American population in Los Angeles the fourth largest in the United States.
Unlike many other American cities with a nuclear Little Italy, the Italian American community of Los Angeles has extended in all directions, gracing the entire region with its rich gifts and talents in art, architecture, banking, engineering, literature, cuisine, winemaking, and
film. Italian men and women of knowledge, courage, and insight have embraced these industries to make life better for future generations. This book provides a glimpse into the Italian heritage that lies at the heart and soul of Los Angeles. To honor each individual contribution would require many volumes; the people and businesses profiled in this
book are representations of the vast Italian community that is woven into the tapestry of Los Angeles.

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Mae Respicio Koerner

Filipinos in Los Angeles

9780738547299

$24.99

The year 2006 marked the centennial of Filipino migration to the United States, when 15 migrant workers called sakadas arrived in Hawaii to work on the islands' sugar plantations. Today the largest concentration of Filipinos outside of the Philippines exists in Southern California. In the 1920s, the first substantial wave of newcomers settled in downtown Los Angeles, eventually migrating to areas just northwest of downtown, a district now designated by the city as Historic Filipinotown. The majority of early Filipino settlers were males who found employment in service-oriented industries, including work as janitors, dishwashers, and houseboys. Filipino Americans now contribute to all aspects of life and culture and live in virtually every Los Angeles neighborhood and suburb, including Eagle Rock, Cerritos, Glendale, Carson, and West Covina.

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Susan Needham

Cambodians in Long Beach

9780738556239

$24.99

A relatively new immigrant group in the United States, Cambodians arrived in large numbers only after the 1975 U.S. military withdrawal from Southeast Asia. The region's resulting volatility included Cambodia's overthrow by the brutal Khmer Rouge. The four-year reign of terror by these Communist extremists resulted in the deaths of an estimated two million Cambodians in what has become known as the killing fields. Many early Cambodian evacuees settled in Long Beach, which today contains the largest concentration of Cambodians in the United States. Later arrivals, survivors of the Khmer Rouge trauma, were drawn to Long Beach by family and friends, jobs, the coastal climate, and access to the Port of Long Beach's Asian imports. Long Beach has since become the political, economic, and cultural center of activities influencing Cambodian culture in the diaspora as well as Cambodia itself.

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William Wong

Oakland's Chinatown

9780738529257

$24.99

Oakland's Chinatown has a history every bit as compelling as its more famous neighbor across San Francisco Bay. Chinese have been a presence in Oakland since the 1850s, bringing with them a rich and complex tradition that survived legalized discrimination that lingered until the 1950s. Once confined to a small area of downtown where restaurants stir-fried, laundries steamed, and vegetable stands crowded the sidewalks, Chinese gradually moved out into every area of Oakland, and the stands evolved into corner groceries that cemented entire neighborhoods. Chinese helped Oakland grow into a modern business and cultural center and have gained prominence in every aspect of the city's commerce, politics, and arts.

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Jan Batiste Adkins

African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County

9781467102438

$24.99

The rich history of people of African heritage in the Santa Clara Valley began as early as 1777, and in the 1800s, a lively black community took root. By the Great Migration in the 1900s, neighborhoods in San Jose, Palo Alto, and Santa Clara became home to many African Americans from Southern and Midwest states who were seeking new opportunities. By the 1960s, African Americans found jobs in the emerging technology industry, at Ford Motor Company, and in public service agencies. African Americans pursued degrees at San Jose State College (SJSC), the University of Santa Clara, Stanford University, and community colleges located in the Santa Clara Valley. SJSC's athletic programs opened the door for student athletes, while Dr. Harry Edwards, John Carlos, and Tommy Smith took on civil rights challenges. The complicated history of the black community throughout Santa Clara County has mirrored the nation's slow progress towards social and economic success. This progress is captured in the presented images chronicling individual stories of political struggle, success, and triumph.

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Alice D. Solis

Mexican Americans in Torrance

9781467127738

$24.99

La Rana (The Frog) is two street blocks located between Crenshaw Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue in Torrance, California. La Rana has a colorful history of immigrants who settled in 1908 from various parts of Mexico with the following surnames: Torres, Ordaz, Grajeda, Flores, Alvarez, Duarte, and Solis. These families fled the Mexican Revolution and religious persecution in search of a brighter future for their children. They attended Torrance schools, such as Torrance Elementary, Nativity Catholic School, Torrance High School, and El Camino College. They earned degrees of higher education from a variety of schools like the University of California, Santa Barbara; California State University Long Beach; Loyola Marymount; the University of Arizona; and American InterContinental University. Today, those progenies include Devin Molina, an anthropologist; James Yanes, a medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases; Eddie Solis, an anesthesiologist; and Maria Dolores White, a nurse practitioner. Other professions include lawyers, nurses, teachers, police officers, accountants, professional baseball players, and a fire chief, as well as many business owners. Their stories are told through vintage photographs gathered from personal collections and commentary from friends and neighbors of the lives they led and the dreams they shared.

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Abraham Hoffman

California's Deadliest Earthquakes

9781467136020

$23.99

A detailed look at the state’s most terrifying and destructive disasters.

Home to hundreds of faults, California leads the nation in frequency of earthquakes every year. And despite enduring their share of the natural disasters, residents still speculate over the inevitable “big one.”

More than three thousand people lost their lives during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Long Beach’s 1933 earthquake caused nearly $50 million in damages. And the Northridge earthquake injured thousands and left a $550 million economic hit.

Historian Abraham Hoffman explores the personal accounts and aftermath of California’s most destructive tremors.

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Larry Strawther

Seal Beach

9781626194892

$23.99

The wooden pier, tree-lined Main Street and ocean views, coupled with a prosperous and happy community, led Forbes magazine to name Seal Beach one of the five friendliest towns in America. Getting there, however, was a bumpy adventure. Starting in the 1860s as Anaheim Landing, the first seaport in what would become Orange County, it soon became a summer retreat for squatters and illegal saloons. Despite the efforts of real estate developers to turn the town into an amusement resort and an early center for aviation and motion pictures, Seal Beach became neighboring Long Beach's tavern, brothel and gambling destination. But order and prosperity eventually prevailed to create today's quiet residential city. Join author Larry Strawther as he tracks Seal Beach's evolution from raucous port to cherished community.

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Chris Epting

Huntington Beach

9780738558288

$24.99

The 100-year history of Huntington Beach is a rich amalgam of agriculture, oil, surfing, beach culture, aerospace, and small-town America. This comparative, visual evolution of the city is crafted for both locals and tourists alike, featuring some of the most defining views ever captured of Surf City, USA®.

Cover image for Huntington Beach, isbn: 9780738558288

Alexandria Brown

Hidden History of Napa Valley

9781467138994

$21.99

Napa Valley is known for its wine and winemakers, but just beneath the fertile soil lies another, more complex version of its history. Uncover the story of Napa’s first Chinatown—once home to nearly five hundred immigrants—that dwindled to fewer than seventeen residents before the last buildings were razed in the early twentieth century. Meet the small but determined group of African American farmers and barbers who called Napa home and the indomitable May Howard, a successful businesswoman and brothel owner. Learn about the Bracero Program that kept many of Napa’s wineries, including Krug, Beaulieu and Stag’s Leap, thriving during World War II. Join author Alexandria Brown as she explores these lesser-known stories of the ordinary people who helped shape modern-day wine country.

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Hannah S. Cohen

Remarkable Women of San Diego

9781467118262

$21.99

San Diego enjoys a diverse legacy of formidable female leaders. Ellen Browning Scripps financed and established the groundbreaking Scripps Oceanography Institute. In 1927, Belle Benchley became the nation's first female zoo director and for nearly thirty years pioneered new forms of exhibition and developed the world-class San Diego Zoo. Guatemalan activist and advocate Luisa Moreno established the United Fish Cannery Workers Union to protect the rights of workers during World War II. Ruth Alexander set new altitude records for light planes at the peak of the city's aviation boom. Bertha Pendleton became the first female and first African American San Diego school superintendent in 1993. Authors Hannah Cohen and Gloria Harris document these and many more stories of extraordinary local women.

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Mike Ventimiglia

Italians of the Monterey Peninsula

9781467133067

$24.99

Since the early 1900s, Monterey was known for its fishing, mostly for salmon and the abalone that was plentiful in Monterey Bay. The migration of the Sicilian Italian community is credited for reaping what was called the Silver Harvest. The Silver Harvest is the name that was given to the fishing of sardines in Monterey, which mostly was done by the Sicilian Italians who established the working fabric in the sardine industry for nearly five decades. Most of that generation is gone, and only a few are memorialized in books. It is this author's attempt to capture the working class that made Monterey the Sardine Capital of the World.

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Jenny Cho

Chinatown and China City in Los Angeles

9780738581651

$24.99

By 1900, the Chinese population of Los Angeles City and County had grown to over 3,000 residents who were primarily situated around an enclave called Old Chinatown. When Old Chinatown was razed to build Union Station, Chinese business owners led by Peter SooHoo Sr. purchased land a few blocks north of downtown to build New Chinatown. Both New Chinatown and another enclave called China City opened in 1938, but China City ultimately closed down after a series of fires.

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Jan Batiste Adkins

African Americans of Monterey County

9781467132602

$24.99

People of African heritage have traveled to Monterey since the 1770s, when African Spaniard Alexo Nino, a ship's caulker, traveled with Fr. Junipero Serra to Monterey via the San Antonio. For centuries since Nino, black men and women migrated to the Monterey Bay area in search of a new life. In the 20th century, some African Americans established businesses, bought homes, and encouraged family members and friends to settle in Monterey County. Others pursued military careers. Out of these communities came churches, schools, service organizations, and social groups. For the next century, the history of Monterey County's African American communities have mirrored the nation's slow progress toward integration with triumphs and setbacks that have been captured in images of employment opportunities, churches, business successes, and political struggles.

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John McCormick

Chinese in Napa Valley

9781467152785

$23.99

Unearth the origins of Napa Valley’s prosperity.

Chinese laborers were once the backbone of Napa Valley. Throughout the late 1800s, they toiled in the grape fields, mines, hop farms, leather tanneries and laundries, and carved out neighborhoods in towns throughout the Valley. These contributions did little to deter discrimination and Anti-Chinese Leagues sprang up to harass and intimidate immigrants like Chan Wah Jack, who ran the successful Sang Lung store in Napa’s Chinatown. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act hastened the decline of local Chinatowns and these once vibrant communities disappeared while the industries they helped to foster flourished.

Join author John McCormick as he uncovers the forgotten contributions of the Chinese people in California’s most famous wine region.

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Glenn Ditman

Riverbank

9781467130158

$24.99

In the 1850s, the Riverbank area was little more than a ferry site along the Stanislaus River. A small town grew up there until the Union Pacific Railroad built a line farther east, causing the first attempt at settlement to soon die out. In 1895, however, the Santa Fe Railway crossed the river close to the original site of the ferry, and the town of Riverbank was born. Riverbank's history is a study in change. Its various influences—from the railway and agriculture to its Army ammunitions plant to its days as a country-western music mecca—earned it the motto The City of Action. It has been built by different cultures, including Irish and German immigrants and modern-day Hispanic arrivals. Its founders, movers, and shakers are as diverse, rich, and interesting as its colorful past.

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Paul H. Betancourt

Kerman

9781467115421

$24.99

Kerman sits in the heart of California's great San Joaquin Valley. First established in 1891 as a train stop for the Southern Pacific Railroad, the town site was originally named Collis Station for the railroad's president, Collis P. Huntington. Even in its earliest days, agriculture was the driving force behind Kerman's economy. Advances in irrigation as well as Kerman's close proximity to two of the region's largest rivers—Kings and San Joaquin—resulted in abundant access to water, attracting farmers and land investors at the start of the 20th century. As the community grew, alfalfa hay, raisins, and dairy products became mainstays in Kerman's agricultural production. By 1910, Kerman had a volunteer fire department, a library, and new businesses. Images of America: Kerman explores the first 80 years of a town that continues to grow and diversify.

Cover image for Kerman, isbn: 9781467115421

Michael R. Hardwick

La Purisma Concepcin

9781626199842

$21.99

In two centuries, La Purísima Concepción went from a fledgling frontier mission to a renowned California State Historic Park. Once home to many Spanish soldiers, settlers and hundreds of Chumash Indians, La Purísima held the seat of the California Mission government under Father Mariano Payeras. It withstood catastrophic events, including widespread disease in early years and a great Southern California earthquake in 1812. Emerging from ruins for the last time in 1934, after restoration by the Civilian Conservation Corps, structures appear today as they did in the early nineteenth century. The uniquely restored California Mission complex operates as a state park in a pastoral setting. Author and archivist Michael R. Hardwick chronicles the story of La Purísima and the resilient people and culture that made a lasting influence.

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William T. Larkins

Oakland Aviation

9780738556000

$24.99

From hot-air balloons to jets, no other place has had a more diverse and significant aviation history than the city of Oakland. Starting in the mid-1850s with balloons, the city has seen the development of many aircraft innovations, including gliders, the first powered dirigible in North America, some of the first powered airplanes, and even early flying boats. Oakland witnessed the advent of stunt flying, the first transpacific flights, and the Dole Race, as well as many early commercial aviation operations, and a host of other groundbreaking advancements.

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Ingrid P. Wicken

Skiing in Southern California

9780738555683

$24.99

Known for its sunshine and sandy beaches filled with bathing beauties and musclemen, Southern California is a Mediterranean-climate haven for winter-weary Americans from Michigan to Maine. But for those with a hankering for winter sports, one could scarcely ignore the snowcapped peaks of Mount Baldy and San Gorgonio shimmering in the bright California sunshine. By the 1930s, skiing was all the rage, with the towns of Big Pines, Lake Arrowhead, and Big Bear Lake evolving into popular snow-sport locales. Southern California was also home to many who made their mark in the world of American skiing: Walter Mosauer, the father of skiing in Southern California; Tyler Van Degrift, owner of Los Angeles's first ski shop; Clarita Heath Bright, talented member of the first U.S. Women's Olympic ski team; Dorothy McClung Wullich, first woman member of the National Ski Patrol; and Sepp Benedikter and Tommi Tyndall, both leading the way with ski schools and instruction. These and many others are documented here in this collection of rare and vintage images of Southern California skiing.