Icons of the American West [2 volumes]
Icons of the American West [2 volumes]

Author: Gordon Morris Bakken

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-06-30

Total Pages: 636

ISBN-13: 1567206948

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The American West is rich in lore, cultural roots, and iconic images. The subject of countless movies, books, and songs, in many ways it embodies the American spirit. This lively two-volume set presents the stories of some of the most influential and representative Western icons—those that have captured the nation's imagination since the early days of westward exploration and that continue to do so within the environmental and technological frontier that is the modern West. This accessible treatment of the untamed enterprise of the 'Old West'—including cowboys, wild west shows, and gun battles—and the continued entrepreneurial imagination of the paradisical 'New West'—including environmentalists and the incorporation of national parks—elevates the reader's understanding of oft-romanticized subjcts and the conflicts and cultural changes that made them icons. Narrative entries include: ; Chief Joseph ; George Armstrong Custer ; Gold Rush ; Winchester Model 1873 ; Frederic Remington ; John Muir ; Las Vegas ; Bill Gates ; Disneyland ; Yellowstone National Park ; Sierra Club With vibrant photos and descriptive sidebars, this comprehensive set is a must-have for students of American history and culture.

Golden Dreams
Golden Dreams

Author: Frank Baumgarder

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Published: 2020-03-11

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1480886777

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When gold was found in Northern California, news of it spread like a wildfire during the spring and summer of 1848. At first, most people thought the reports were too good to be true, but as weeks and months flew by, they heard about more people striking it rich – and imaginations started to run wild. Tens of thousands of people started to dream about gold, and some of them left everything they knew to make the journey to California. It didn’t matter if you were black, white or brown – anyone could go. Even people in Central and South America, Australia, China, and Western Europe heard about the gold and made the journey. By 1855, hundreds of thousands of people had converged on California. In this study, the author shares diary entries from gold seekers, painting a detailed portrait of the frenzy that overtook the world, the lives of the miners, and how the move West changed the fabric of a nation. Without the dreams, hard work, and dedication of the miners who moved West, the United States of America would not be what it is today.

America Uncharted Future
America Uncharted Future

Author: Azhar ul Haque Sario

Publisher: Azhar Sario Authorship and Publishing

Published: 2024-09-26

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 3384367782

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"America Uncharted Future: Navigating the 21st Century" takes a fresh look at American history. It's not just a simple success story. It's a complex mix of many different things. The book shines a light on forgotten people and events. It talks about the fight for freedom, even when slavery existed. It shows how different cultures blend together in America. It's about the long struggle for equality. It shows America growing from a small nation to a powerful one. It talks about big changes in how people made a living and the inventions that changed everything. It's about democracy, wars, and the role of religion. It shows how popular culture has changed over time. It also talks about how the environment has been affected, how cities have grown, and how families have changed. The book ends by looking forward. It faces the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. It addresses globalization, technology, climate change, and the American Dream. It asks us to rethink what we know about American history. It encourages us to question the usual stories. It invites everyone to help create the future. This book reminds us of America's strength and struggles. It's a guide to understanding our complicated world today.

A Golden State
A Golden State

Author: Marlene Smith-Baranzini

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 9780520217706

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A collection of essays on mining and economic development in California from the Gold Rush through the end of the 19th century. This is the second in a series of four volumes comemmorating the state's sesquicentennial.

Assembling California
Assembling California

Author: John McPhee

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0374706026

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At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.

Empire's Crossroads
Empire's Crossroads

Author: Carrie Gibson

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 650

ISBN-13: 0802192351

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A “wide-ranging, vivid” narrative history of one of the most coveted and complex regions of the world: the Caribbean (The Observer). Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria and announced that he had arrived in the Orient, the Caribbean has been a stage for projected fantasies and competition between world powers. In Empire’s Crossroads, British American historian Carrie Gibson offers a panoramic view of the region from the northern rim of South America up to Cuba and its rich, important history. After that fateful landing in 1492, the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, and even the Swedes, Scots, and Germans sought their fortunes in the islands for the next two centuries. These fraught years gave way to a booming age of sugar, horrendous slavery, and extravagant wealth, as well as the Haitian Revolution and the long struggles for independence that ushered in the modern era. Gibson tells not only of imperial expansion—European and American—but also of life as it is lived in the islands, from before Columbus through the tumultuous twentieth century. Told “in fluid, colorful prose peppered with telling anecdotes,” Empire’s Crossroads provides an essential account of five centuries of history (Foreign Affairs). “Judicious, readable and extremely well-informed . . . Too many people know the Caribbean only as a tourist destination; [Gibson] takes us, instead, into its fascinating, complex and often tragic past. No vacation there will ever feel quite the same again.” —Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars and King Leopold’s Ghost

California
California

Author: Kevin Starr

Publisher: Modern Library

Published: 2007-03-13

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 081297753X

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“A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco