Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913Written by one of America's preeminent labor historians, this book is the definitive account of one of the most spectacular, captivating, complex and strangely neglected stories in Western history--the emergence of migratory farmworkers and the development of California agriculture. Street has systematically worked his way through a mountain of archival materials--more than 500 manuscript collections, scattered in 22 states, including Spain and Mexico--to follow the farmworker story from its beginnings on Spanish missions into the second decade of the twentieth century. The result is a comprehensive tour de force. Scene by scene, the epic narrative clarifies and breathes new life into a controversial and instructive saga long surrounded by myth, conjecture, and scholarly neglect. With its panoramic view spanning 144 years and moving from the US-Mexico border to Oregon, Beasts of the Field reveals diverse patterns of life and labor in the fields that varied among different crops, regions, time periods, and racial and ethic groups. Enormous in scope, packed with surprising twists and turns, and devastating in impact, this compelling, revelatory work of American social history will inform generations to come of the history of California and the nation. |
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Contents
Chapter | 18 |
Chapter Three | 35 |
BOOK TWO THE MEANING OF FREE LABOR | 84 |
Chapter | 112 |
Chapter Seven | 132 |
BOOK THREE GOLDEN HARVEST | 156 |
Chapter Nine | 175 |
Chapter | 202 |
Chapter Fifteen | 331 |
Chapter Sixteen | 368 |
BOOK FIVE JAPANESE FARM WORKERS | 407 |
Chapter Eighteen | 440 |
Chapter Nineteen | 470 |
Chapter Twenty | 497 |
BOOK SIX BINDLE | 527 |
Chapter TwentyTwo | 548 |
BOOK FOUR IMMIGRANTS FROM THE EAST | 230 |
Chapter Twelve | 255 |
Chapter Thirteen | 283 |
Chapter TwentyThree | 572 |
of West Coast towns soapboxers for the Industrial Workers of | 629 |
Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913 Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913, Richard Steven Street |
| Author | Richard Steven Street |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Stanford University Press, 2004 |
| ISBN | 0804738807, 9780804738804 |
| Length | 904 pages |
| Subjects | › › › Business & Economics / Careers / Job Hunting Business & Economics / Labor History / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY) Social Science / Agriculture & Food |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |