The Elusive Eden charts the historical development of California, beginning with the evolution of the landscape and climate and the arrival of the first inhabitants, the Indians, through social, political, and environmental controversies of the present and the future. The book portrays a land of remarkable richness and complexity, settled by waves of people from diverse cultures. The text is organized chronologically into 10 parts, each developing a major theme or issue for a particular period in California's history. The first chapter of each part is a narrative that spotlights and dramatizes the personal responses of significant individuals at critical moments of historical change. The authors stress issues of current importance such as: ethnic groups, women, environmental history and social and cultural history.
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About the Author
Richard B. Rice received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Staff Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Vice President of the University of California before going to California State University, Hayward, where he also served as a Department Chairman, Division Head, and Dean. He taught United States and California history at Hayward from 1960 to 1995, part of that time as an Emeritus Professor on a faculty early retirement program. He is also an associate of the Winthrop Associates, a cultural research firm, and operates a 300-acre farm in northeastern California.
William A. Bullough is a Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Hayward. In 1970, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, after teaching in the state’s public schools for ten years. He is the author of Cities and Schools in the Gilded Age: The Evolution of an Urban Institution (1974), The Blind Boss and His City: Christopher Augustine Buckley and Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (1979), and articles in The San Francisco Irish, 1850-1976, (James P. Walsh, ed., 1978), The Historian, Pacific Historical Review, and California History. Professor Bullough is an accomplished photographer who has published and exhibited his prints and written articles for Darkroom Photography and similar journals. He is currently engaged in an investigation of the work of several nineteenth-century photographers of California for use as historical documents and assembling a selection of his own images for publication.
Richard J. Orsi is an Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, Hayward. A graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, he received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has published articles and book reviews in California History, Pacific Historian, Agricultural History, and The Journal of American History. He is the author of A List of References for the History of Agriculture in California (1974) and is nearing completion of another book, “A Railroad and the Development of the American West: The Southern Pacific Company, 1860-1930.” HE has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Huntington Library, and the Newberry Library. He is currently editor of California History, the quarterly of the California Historical Society. He also edited (with Alfred A. Runtle and Marlene Smith-Baranzini) Yosemite and Sequoia: A Century of California National Parks (1993).
William A. Bullough is a Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Hayward. In 1970, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, after teaching in the state’s public schools for ten years. He is the author of Cities and Schools in the Gilded Age: The Evolution of an Urban Institution (1974), The Blind Boss and His City: Christopher Augustine Buckley and Nineteenth-Century San Francisco (1979), and articles in The San Francisco Irish, 1850-1976, (James P. Walsh, ed., 1978), The Historian, Pacific Historical Review, and California History. Professor Bullough is an accomplished photographer who has published and exhibited his prints and written articles for Darkroom Photography and similar journals. He is currently engaged in an investigation of the work of several nineteenth-century photographers of California for use as historical documents and assembling a selection of his own images for publication.
Richard J. Orsi is an Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, Hayward. A graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, he received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has published articles and book reviews in California History, Pacific Historian, Agricultural History, and The Journal of American History. He is the author of A List of References for the History of Agriculture in California (1974) and is nearing completion of another book, “A Railroad and the Development of the American West: The Southern Pacific Company, 1860-1930.” HE has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Huntington Library, and the Newberry Library. He is currently editor of California History, the quarterly of the California Historical Society. He also edited (with Alfred A. Runtle and Marlene Smith-Baranzini) Yosemite and Sequoia: A Century of California National Parks (1993).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elusive Eden Captured,
By Donald M. Newell (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Elusive Eden: A New History of California (Hardcover)
History can be exciting, especially when the high points are rendered with such immediacy and clarity. California is both a microcosm and macrocaosm of American History. Richard Rice makes this connection resonant from the original Sutter's Mill gold rush to the current Silicon Valley "gold rush". The themes that define California are U.S. history writ large. Rice lets the reader appreciate California from a variety of personal perspectives: Henry Dana's in "Two Years Before The Mast", Leland Stanford and the other "robber barrons", Hiram Johnson and the reformers, into world war two and the Nisei internees, down through Reagan and the Brown family, and into current times. The history of water rights, which was the basis of the movie Chinatown, becomes a compelling and more accurate story here. The lucid prose is admirably supported by evocative photography. Discover California as it really was and is.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History of California,
By "robmac1" (Port Hadlock, Washington United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Elusive Eden: A New History of California (Paperback)
I had to use this book for a class I took at the University of California, Santa Barbara (History 177 -- Summer 1999). I thought the book was great in certain areas (prehistoric times, geography, and the native peoples), but deficient in others (water development, railroads, Bear Flag Revolt, gold rush, automobile). Also, California's history is much too complicated to be crammed into this book -- the author should have divided it up regionally, or on a time line to allow himself to get more in depth with this material. Otherwise, if you are interested in a good, yet incomplete overview of the history of the Golden State, read this book!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent introduction,
By
This review is from: The Elusive Eden: A New History of California (Paperback)
I have read numerous single volume, American state histories, and this work is among the very best. As the other reviewers have noted, it is well written, concise, and balanced in it its perspectives. The quality of this publication brings alive the fascination of the "Golden State," the "Ultimate Frontier," and allows one to quickly grasp the complex themes of California's development. Thank you!
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