In Cultivating California, David Vaught shows how fruit and nut growers were neither industrialists nor agrarians. From the very outset, he explains, these "horticulturists" saw themselves as guardians of California's unique culture–raising crops for market while self-consciously building healthy and prosperous communities. Every grower was not, in fact, like every other, Vaught argues, whether one examines their labor systems, recruiting methods, harvest needs, marketing strategies, farm size, or their relationships with their communities, unions, and the state. The hard work, foresight, and devotion to detail required to nurture an orchard or vineyard made them, they insisted, cultivators of a better society. Over time, however, labor relations, market imperatives, and changing political conditions undermined the growers' horticultural ideal.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
This is an important book because it dares to take on—with considerable success—a paradigm that has prevailed since the publication of Carey McWilliams's Factories in the Field in 1939. Cultivating California is a crisply written, fast-paced narrative based upon extraordinary research. It is also a courageous effort to clarify the history of agriculture in California by making room for the high ideals of the turn-of-the-century horticultural generation.
(Kevin Starr Business History Review )This detailed history of four central and northern California agricultural communities is developed around pivotal issues of race, gender, market forces, and entrepreneurial vision. It is local history at its best.
(Harry C. McDean Western Historical Quarterly )Cultivating California is expertly researched and gracefully written... [It] is an extremely important book that will be read by scholars in agricultural, labor, and California history.
(David Igler Agricultural History )Vaught... is a good writer, but an even more valuable trait... is his dedication to research. This book tells an intriguing story, and it should thus rank very high on the reading list of any historian interested in the history of agriculture and labor in the American West.
(Carlos A. Schwantes Journal of American History )A must for scholars interested in the Golden State's controversial history.
(Paul Rhode Agricultural History Review )Cultivating California broadens our understanding of California agriculture and offers scholars an important new view into the culture of agricultural management in the early 1900s.
(Brian Black Enterprise and Society )There is much to admire in Vaught's work. Besides looking at the details of the crops upon which he focuses—readers will feel as if they are right on the ground in Vaught's accounts—Vaught illustrates clearly how linkages developed between marketing, labor, and the self-images of the growers.
(Mansel Blackford Southern California Quarterly )Going beyond the traditional approaches, Vaught's fascinating new study provides California's specialty crop growers with a human face.
(Paul Rhode Agricultural History Review )This significant work... Offers significant implications for the understanding of both California and American history during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
(Robert M. Senkewicz Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era )About the Author
David Vaught is an associate professor of history at Texas A&M University.
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This review is from: Cultivating California: Growers, Specialty Crops, and Labor, 1875-1920 (Revisiting Rural America) (Paperback)
"This is an important book because it dares to take on -- with considerable success -- a paradigm that has prevailed since the publication of Carey McWilliams's Factories in the Field in 1939. Cultivating California is a crisply written, fast-paced narrative based upon extraordinary research. It is also a courageous effort to clarify the history of agriculture in California by making room for the high ideals of the turn-of-the-century horticultural generation." -- Kevin Starr, Business History Review"This detailed history of four central and northern California agricultural communities is developed around pivotal issues of race, gender, market forces, and entrepreneurial vision. It is local history at its best." -- Harry C. McDean, Western Historical Quarterly "Cultivating California is expertly researched and gracefully written... [It] is an extremely important book that will be read by scholars in agricultural, labor, and California history." -- David Igler, Agricultural History "Vaught... is a good writer, but an even more valuable trait... is his dedication to research. This book tells an intriguing story, and it should thus rank very high on the reading list of any historian interested in the history of agriculture and labor in the American West." -- Carlos A. Schwantes, Journal of American History "A must for scholars interested in the Golden State's controversial history." -- Paul Rhode, Agricultural History Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Accessibly revealed in the course of this involving account,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cultivating California: Growers, Specialty Crops, and Labor, 1875-1920 (Revisiting Rural America) (Paperback)
Students of California history and agricultural development will find Cultivating California an intriguing story of growers, specialty crops, and labor developments in the state from 1875-1920, revealing how politicians, growers, and organizations interacted in the process of cultivating California's crops. Labor relations and agricultural development planning are all accessibly revealed in the course of this involving account.
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THE FRESNO RAISIN HARVEST of 1902 began in late August and lasted five weeks. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
specialty crop growers, citrus colony, knocking almonds, specialty crop culture, horticultural ideal, almond culture, farm labor relations, specialty crop agriculture, farm labor policy, almond growers, raisin industry, fresh deciduous fruit, raisin culture, almond industry, farm labor problem, fruit district, raisin growers, fruit belt, hop growers, farm advisors, fruit growers, one grower, orchard workers, shipping house, vineyard work Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Placer County, Council of Defense, University of California, San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento Valley, Bear River, California Fruit Grower, Raisin Day, Food Administration, College of Agriculture, Fresno County, Southern Pacific, United States, Pack Rural Press, Clemons Horst, New York, Commonwealth Club, Fresno Morning Republican, Harry Butler, Putah Creek, Washington Colony, Yolo County, California Fruit News, Central Pacific New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
- Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California by Carey McWilliams on 8 pages
- Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (Americans and the California Dream) by Kevin Starr in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (abridged ed.) (Working Class in American History) by Melvyn Dubofsky in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- State Government and Economic Development (The Management of public lands in the United States) by Gerald D. Nash in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- A Guidebook to California Agriculture by Ann Scheuring in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
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