California: The Great ExceptionIn 1949, lawyer, historian, and journalist Carey McWilliams stepped back to assess the state of California at the end of its first one hundred years—its history, population, politics, agriculture, and social concerns. As he examined the reasons for the prodigious growth and productivity that have characterized California since the Gold Rush, he praised the vitality of the new citizens who had come from all over the world to populate the state in a very short time. But he also made clear how brutally the new Californians dealt with "the Indian problem," the water problem, and the need for migrant labor to facilitate California's massive and highly profitable agricultural industry. As we look back now on 150 years of statehood, it is particularly useful to place the events of the past fifty years in the context of McWilliams's assessment in California: The Great Exception. Lewis Lapham has written a new foreword for this edition. |
Contents
Kearneyism Reenacted | 3 |
The Revolt of the Thirties | 4 |
Californias Bloody Shirt | 5 |
Homebred KnightErrant | 6 |
The Flood Paradoxical | 7 |
Brush Fires and Burns | 8 |
CHAPTER VI | 9 |
CHAPTER III | 25 |
Technology and the West | 246 |
CHAPTER XIV | 249 |
Certain California Eccentrics | 251 |
The Development of Mt Wilson | 254 |
Not the Moon | 257 |
Science in an Orange Grove | 259 |
Antennas on a Mountain | 263 |
The Right Side of the Mountains | 265 |
THE MUSTANG COLT | 39 |
CHAPTER V | 63 |
CALIFORNIA LATIFUNDIA | 89 |
THE MOSAIC OF CALIFORNIAS | 103 |
CHAPTER VIII | 123 |
CHAPTER IX | 147 |
CHAPTER X | 171 |
The Hidden Spring | 189 |
THE STATE THAT SWINGS AND SWAYS 1 The Bulge in the Middle | 192 |
The Guy Who Gets Things Done | 199 |
Campaigns | 205 |
Commodity Market | 207 |
CHAPTER XII | 213 |
THE CULTURAL APPROACH | 214 |
The Momentum of an Early Start | 215 |
The Edge of Novelty | 218 |
Local Needs and New Markets | 223 |
Bull of the West | 227 |
THE FABULOUS BOOM | 233 |
The LongTerm Trend | 234 |
The Emergence of Western Steel | 239 |
The Question of Power | 240 |
The Price of Expansion | 243 |
THE ONELEGGED GIANT CHAPTER XV | 269 |
The Drouth of 1948 | 271 |
Geological Waters | 274 |
Menace or Resource? | 293 |
Water Imperialism | 297 |
The Imperial Valley | 301 |
The OverDivision of Water | 308 |
THE CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT 1 CaliforniaUpside Down | 317 |
Genesis of the Project | 320 |
The Intrepid Colonel | 325 |
Giant of Giants | 328 |
The Irrelevant Cow Company | 331 |
The Power Question | 335 |
State vs Federal Control | 338 |
Ο PANTHER OF THE SPLENDID HIDE 1 The Problem of California | 341 |
The End of Exceptionalism | 344 |
Jack and Jill | 347 |
California the Tiger | 353 |
On Western Unity | 358 |
The Future Is West | 363 |
| 369 | |
| 370 | |
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