Review
"With deep research, shrewd analysis, and vivid writing. John Walton reveals how we live in a web of competing stories that connect future and present to a contested past. In recovering the particular riches of Monterey's literally storied past, Walton finds universal experiences of labor, resistance, loss, and silencing. His own masterful storytelling lets us develop a fuller, more humanetie to the people of our past."
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From the Inside Flap
"John Walton never writes predictable books, and Monterey, California, is not a predictable place; the pairing is perfect. Although rooted in Monterey, this book explores how people in general construct historical narratives. Storied Land is as thought-provoking a discussion of public history and what it means to tell stories about the past as anything that I have read."--Richard White, author of
Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories"With deep research, shrewd analysis, and vivid writing, John Walton reveals how we live in a web of competing stories that connect future and present to a contested past. In recovering the particular riches of Monterey's literally storied past, Walton finds universal experiences of labor, resistance, loss, and silencing. His own masterful storytelling lets us develop a fuller, more humane tie to the people of our past."--Alan Taylor, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic"In the borderlands between archived event and public memory, John Walton has found a pathway to understanding the process whereby a community remembers, forgets, denies, affirms, or otherwise structures or re-structures its understanding of itself. Excavating a region and a city important to Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and American California,
A Storied Land makes a welcomed contribution to California studies and the larger history and sociology of place."--Kevin Starr, author of
Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era "Once again, John Walton has turned the facts about California into a compelling narrative and a profound meditation on the nature of history and collective memory."--Howard Becker, author of
Art Worlds