Customer Reviews

Napa: The Transformation of an American Town (CA) (Making of America)

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This book goes beyond the myth of Napa as a tourist destination and tells the real history of the town, based on interviews and primary research. The author includes stories of labor history, social movements, and the impact of development on small town America. You will never see Napa the same way again after reading this amazing book!

Napa's beauty, wineries, and weather draw visitors. To discover the history of this town, Lauren Coodley's book anchors Napa in its fascinating past. To visit here without reading her book is to miss the remarkable evolution of Napa: Indigenous people, Spanish landowners, gold seekers, farmers: all played a part in transforming the face of Napa and Napa Valley. The book is filled with wonderful photographs, and includes a recipe for Malfatti, the well known 'raviolis without flour' still served today at The Depot restaurant. I strongly suggest reading this before your visit to Napa. It will be all the more enjoyable for doing so.

I grew up in Southern California and Napa is not my home town, but this book captured and held my interest every page of the way. It is a surprisingly poignant account of how life has evolved in Napa for the people and creatures living there - from thousands of years ago, up through the decades of the 20th century. I think almost anyone could enjoy this classic American story - the rise and fall of the native Americans, waves of settlers migrating from everywhere, the gold rush, the changing role of women, rise and fall of labor unions & small business, racial relations, and most recently - urban sprawl in a one industry (wine making) city. All this is told through very personal accounts about or by people living in Napa during these times. I particularly appreciated the author's focus on women and girls. If only our school text books could be half this interesting. I highly recommend this book.