For centuries, California's environment has nurtured remarkable people. Ohlone Lope Inigo found a way to protect his family in troubled times on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Pioneer Juana Briones made a fortune from her rancho yet took the time to care for those in need. Innovator Thomas Foon Chew discovered a climate for success, in spite of the obstacles. Around the region that became Silicon Valley, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin found inspiration, poet Robert Louis Stevenson uncovered adventure and Sarah Winchester built a house that would intrigue people long after she was gone. Author Robin Chapman shares fascinating tales of those who exemplify the enterprising spirit of the Golden State.
Picked warm from a tree, a California apricot opens into halves as easily as if it came with a dotted line down its center. The seed infuses the core with a hint of almond; the fruit carries the scent of citrus and jasmine; and it tastes, some say, like manna from heaven. In these pages, Robin Chapman recalls the season when the Santa Clara Valley was the largest apricot producer in the world and recounts the stories of Silicon Valley's now lost orchards. From the Spaniards in the eighteenth century who first planted apricots in the Mission Santa Clara gardens to the post-World War II families who built their homes among subdivided orchards, relive the long summer days ripe with bumper crops of this much-anticipated delicacy. Book jacket.
The Santa Clara Valley, with its rich soil and sunny weather, has been home to great diversity and great innovation long before it became known as Silicon Valley. California's first immigrants from Mexico were astonished by its beauty. "The land is moist and the hills have an abundance of rosemary and herbs, sunflowers in bloom, vines as plentiful as a vineyard," wrote one. From the movie stars of Hollywood's golden era who once came to play to billionaires who grew apricots for pleasure, the valley has hosted orchards, electric railroads, Army camps and even a love-struck poet. Join author and historian Robin Chapman as she uncovers the true tales of this ever-changing place.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived
Widely recognized as one of the West Coast's most important and critically acclaimed practitioners of conceptual and installation art, David Ireland (born 1930) has taken the concept of art itself as one of his subjects. A self-described "post-discipline" artist, guided by Zen thought and postmodern aesthetics, Ireland moves fluidly from making small drawings to creating sculptures as large as houses. Freely incorporating anything within his conceptual or physical reach—dirt, concrete, wire, and other everyday materials—his work is subtle, puzzling, and witty, and consistently challenges traditional definitions of art. In this book accompanying the first full-scale retrospective of Ireland's work, curator and author Karen Tsujimoto provides an insightful overview of more than thirty years of the artist's accomplishments, from his drawings, sculptures, and site-specific installations to his remarkable series of architectural transformations, including his well-known house at 500 Capp Street in San Francisco. Chronicling Ireland's circuitous route to his calling, Tsujimoto explores how key life experiences have influenced his artistic perspective—from his early art-student days, through his years as an African importer and safari guide, to his long-standing interest in Eastern, and particularly Zen, philosophy and his deep connections with the San Francisco Bay Area conceptual art community. An illuminating essay by art historian and curator Jennifer R. Gross also considers Ireland's art in terms of historical materialism—assessing his use of neglected materials and artifacts as a process of cultural preservation.
In the public radio landscape, the Pacifica stations stand out as inn0ovators of diverse and controversial broadcasting. Pacifica's fifty years of struggle against social and political conformity began with a group of young men and women who hoped to change the world with a credo of non-violence. Pacifica Radio traces the cultural and political currents that shaped the first listener-supported radio station, KPFA FM in Berkeley, and accompanied Pacifica's gradual expansion into a 5 station network. In this expanded paperback edition, Lasar provides a postscript ("A Crisis of Containment") that examines the external pressures and organizational problems within the Pacifica Foundation that led, in early 1999, to the police shutdown of network station KPFA. Lasar, an admittedly pro-KPFA partisan in the conflict, gives a first-person account, calling it "the worst crisis in the history of community radio." Yet Pacifica Radio is about more than just the network's recent troubles. It is the story of visionary Lewis Hill and the small band of pacifists who in 1946, set out to build institutions that would promote dialogue between individuals and nations. KPFA took to the air in 1949 with stunningly unconventional programs that challenged the dreary cultural consensus of the Cold War. No one in the Bay Area, or anywhere else, had heard anything like it on the airwaves. The first edition of Pacifica Radio, which made the San Francisco Chronicle's non-fiction bestseller list, was praised as "fascinating reading" by In These Times, "Lasar has an eye for paradox, irony and contradiction," wrote the Santa Rose Press Democrat, "but he is first and foremost an able and astute historian."
Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913) describes the establishment of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, along with an overview of the history of the Carmel Mission and the Monterey Peninsula. The book's emphasis is on the development of Carmel as a Bohemian artists' and writers' colony at the start of the 20th century. The town's first decade of existence is described: the businesses and services offered, and the residential architecture. There are biographies of the well-known Bohemian artists, writers, poets, builders, and other notable residents and visitors in the early 1900's. This original group of settlers, the majority of whom came from Northern California's Bay Area, were distinctive individuals, who were drawn to the coastal village by its scenic beauty and the inspiration it provided for their intellectual pursuits. They set the tone that made Carmel-by-the-Sea a Bohemian enclave on the West Coast, and distinguished it as a unique place. These early residents and visitors left a significant and lasting impact on the future of the seaside town, which in turn attracted other creative talents to the area, through the years and still to this day. Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913), preserves the literary, artistic, cultural, and architectural heritage of Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula region.
A timely work, this book showcases articles by leading Canadian and international historians interested in environmental action and policy, including Colin M. Coates, Ramsay Cooke, Ken Cruikshank, and Donald Worster.
