Wild Tulare County
Wild Tulare County

Author: Terry L. Ommen

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2012-10-08

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1614237190

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the 1800s, Tulare County, California, was a hotbed of desperate characters whose deadly gunplay and murderous inclinations left a trail of bodies across the region. Although the Central Valley now makes its name in agriculture, Tulare County was once a bastion of the Wild West with a lineup of hardened criminals that has scarcely been equaled in the annals of crime. Train bandits, coldblooded murderers and callous outlaws armed with shotguns and butcher knives plagued Visalia, Porterville and other sleepy central California towns. Join historian and retired Visalia Police captain Terry Ommen as he relates the transgressions of Tulare County's roughest characters, including thrilling tales of the pistol-packing Mason-Henry Gang, a deadly duel between politically divided journalists and vigilante justice exacted by angry mobs.

The King Of California
The King Of California

Author: Mark Arax

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2005-02-16

Total Pages: 550

ISBN-13: 0786752793

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The fascinating story of a cotton magnate whose voracious appetite for land drove him to create the first big agricultural empire of the Central Valley of California, and shaped the landscape for decades to come. J.G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields." The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s,drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world. Indeed, the sophistication of Boswell 's agricultural operation -from lab to field to gin -- is unrivaled anywhere. Much more than a business story, this is a sweeping social history that details the saga of cotton growers who were chased from the South by the boll weevil and brought their black farmhands to California. It is a gripping read with cameos by a cast of famous characters, from Cecil B. DeMille to Cesar Chavez.

Pioneers in Paradise
Pioneers in Paradise

Author: Sophie Britten

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Published: 2022-02-10

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 1662908601

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book tells the hundred-year history of Three Rivers, California, from the 1850s to the 1950s. Three Rivers has always been a special place, one of rolling wooded hills, nestled close to the High Sierra mountains. Those mountains feed the rivers that give the place its name. It was an ideal place for the pioneers of this story to settle. The book is divided into two basic parts. The first tells the story of events and places, what life was like for those hardy souls who homesteaded in these hills. The second part relates stories and histories about individual people and their families: when they came to Three Rivers, when they arrived, and how their lives and the lives of their families were impacted by living here. Did they thrive? Did they go elsewhere to search for their dream? The author has endeavored to answer these questions. Book Review: "I am a local history buff and long-time member of the Tulare County Historical Society. When publications appear that pique my interest in Tulare County History, I usually acquire them. The author and her family are well known and highly respected in the Three Rivers area. Ms. Britten's contribution to the area's history by recording the background and lives of its pioneers is well done." -- Evan Long

Checkmate in Berlin
Checkmate in Berlin

Author: Giles Milton

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1250247551

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From a master of popular history, the lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II as it’s never been told before BERLIN’S FATE WAS SEALED AT THE 1945 YALTA CONFERENCE: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up among the victorious powers— the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In reality, once the four powers were no longer united by the common purpose of defeating Germany, they wasted little time reverting to their prewar hostility toward—and suspicion of—one another. The veneer of civility between the Western allies and the Soviets was to break down in spectacular fashion in Berlin. Rival systems, rival ideologies, and rival personalities ensured that the German capital became an explosive battleground. The warring leaders who ran Berlin’s four sectors were charismatic, mercurial men, and Giles Milton brings them all to rich and thrilling life here. We meet unforgettable individuals like America’s explosive Frank “Howlin’ Mad” Howley, a brusque sharp-tongued colonel with a relish for mischief and a loathing for all Russians. Appointed commandant of the city’s American sector, Howley fought an intensely personal battle against his wily nemesis, General Alexander Kotikov, commandant of the Soviet sector. Kotikov oozed charm as he proposed vodka toasts at his alcohol-fueled parties, but Howley correctly suspected his Soviet rival was Stalin’s agent, appointed to evict the Western allies from Berlin and ultimately from Germany as well. Throughout, Checkmate in Berlin recounts the first battle of the Cold War as we’ve never before seen it. An exhilarating tale of intense rivalry and raw power, it is above all a story of flawed individuals who were determined to win, and Milton does a masterful job of weaving between all the key players’ motivations and thinking at every turn. A story of unprecedented human drama, it’s one that had a profound, and often underestimated, shaping force on the modern world – one that’s still felt today.