Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915

Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915
Author: Kevin Starr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 513
Release: 1986-12-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199923256

Examining California's formative years, this innovative study seeks to discover the origins of the California dream and the social, psychological, and symbolic impact it has had not only on Californians but also on the rest of the country.

The Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest
Author: Raymond D. Gastil
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2010-04-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786455918

The Pacific Northwest--for the purposes of this book mostly Oregon and Washington--has sometimes been seen as lacking significant cultural history. Home to idyllic environmental wonders, the region has been plagued by the notion that the best and brightest often left in search of greater things, that the mainstream world was thousands of miles away--or at least as far south as California. This book describes the Pacific Northwest's search for a regional identity from the first Indian-European contacts through the late twentieth century, identifying those individuals and groups "who at least struggled to give meaning to the Northwest experience." It places particular emphasis on writers and other celebrated individuals in the arts, detailing how their lives and works both reflected the region and also enhanced its sense of self.