USA. Monograph comprising a history of the trade unionization of warehouse workers in california - discusses the atmosphere of trade union organization of the 1930's, the merging of warehouse workers with the longshoremen (dockers) to form the ilwu, attempts to federate with the teamsters union (transport workers), the effects of a lockout on management attitudes, etc. Extensive references.
In the lawless, drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893, two extraordinary lives collide. Nora is an unflinching frontierswoman, alone in a house abandoned by the men in her life. Lurie is a man haunted by ghosts--he sees lost souls who want something from him. The way in which Nora and Lurie's stories intertwine is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.ovel.
In China in the 1920s and 1930s, foreigners were frequently at risk of being captured by bandits and held for ransom. The phenomenon became so common that foreigners who were captured were called "foreign tickets" (yang piao). Because of their unique status in China due to extraterritoriality, foreign captives were more prized than Chinese victims. Successive CCP leaders in various Soviet areas also in the 1920s and 1930s greatly valued the "foreign tickets" they captured. In 1930 there were an estimated twenty-five missionaries in China being held by Communist groups. The foreigners suffered great deprivations in captivity; some were tortured and a small number were killed. The CCP plundered their personal and church possessions and even took funds intended for relief efforts. However, it must be said, that the CCP, like Chinese bandits, tended to treat foreigners slightly better than they did Chinese captives, whose lives were held very cheap. It is in this context that A Foreign Missionary on the Long March, a previously unpublished eyewitness account of the Chinese Communist Party's epoch Long March, so resonates. The author, a New Zealand-born missionary for the China Inland Mission from 1913 to 1945 was captured and held hostage for 413 days by the CCP's Sixth Army from 1934 to 1935. Hayman's grim account of the Red Army in retreat gives a new perspective on the historic Long March, as well as a glimpse of the CCP in the time before Mao came to prominence. It also blurs the line between the Communists and common bandits. CCP historiography has turned the Long March into the founding myth of the PRC. Hayman's memoirs offer a fresh perspective on this crucial period of CCP history and implicitly, in the role it plays in the CCP's current hold on power.
Traces the explorations of the conquistador Coronado throughout the American Southwest and illustrates the land and its Spanish legacy in numerous photographs.
"Of late historians have become increasingly interested in the vast re-ordering of the environment involved in the creation of America. Nowhere was this more true than in the Sacramento Valley where re-ordering edged into folly. Battling the Inland Sea is a powerful evocation of the losses and gains involved in battling the mighty Sacramento River. But more than this, it is an exploration of the national will as it sought to rearrange nature herself with such mixed results. Here is history dealing with the most elemental forces of land, water and engineering as they are shaped by public policy. Here is the profound drama of value and symbol which occurs when Americans come into conflict with forces over which they can exercise, as Robert Kelley shows, only the most transitory and pyrrhic victories."—Kevin Starr, author of the Americans and the California Dream "Robert Kelley's research into the origins of California's first great flood control system has already helped to inform the shaping of the state's water laws. Now he opens up the benefits of that work for the average reader in a wonderfully clear and engaging story that manages, among other things, to show that water development in the United States hasn't been just a matter of engineering but a cultural and intellectual achievement as well."—William Kahrl, author of Water and Power "A vividly written narrative of one of the major transformations of the physical world we inhabit. Robert Kelley draws upon his rich store of learning and insight to set the struggles over the Sacramento Valley into a broad context. His book contains important lessons for those who would understand the American economy, environment, politics, or culture."—Daniel W. Howe, author of The Political Culture of the American Whigs
With Giramondo’s publication of Barley Patch and A History of Books, Gerald Murnane has attracted renewed interest as a brilliant writer and Nobel Prize contender. First published 25 years ago, Inland is one of Murnane’s most complex and rewarding works, a study of guilt, longing and regret rich in metaphysical insights. From his native district in the Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale, Murnane’s narrator imagines another world, in Szolnok county Hungary, and within that world another, in Ideal South Dakota, each haunted by the betrayal of a young girl, each driven by the possibility of restitution. Murnane’s mastery over language and his pressing towards the edges of what fiction can accomplish make this book a landmark in Australian literature.
"After nine years spent suffocating in the arid expanse of the Midwest, far from the sea where her mother drowned, Callie Morgan and her father are returning to the coast. But something is calling to her from the river behind their house and from the ocean miles away. Just as Callie's life begins to feel like her own, and as the potential for romance is blossoming, the intoxicating pull of the dark wather seeps into her mind, filling her with doubt and revealing family secrets. Is it madness, or is there a voice, beckoning her to come ot the sea"--Back cover.
The Inland Sea is a beautifully written, poignant novel told in a series of twelve intricately connected stories depicting twenty-five years in the life of Vincent Torno and the extremes of family and landscape that shape and haunt him.
The Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles, is known as Southern California's big backyard. The nearly 200 noteworthy hikes in this guide explore the state's three tallest mountains, the stark beauty of the high desert, and trails that wind through urban and regional parks. Each hike is shown on custom-created maps for use with a GPS.
Tracing the origins of the Hawaiians and other Polynesians back to the shores of the South China Sea, archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch follows their voyages of discovery across the Pacific in this fascinating history of Hawaiian culture from about one thousand years ago. Combining more than four decades of his own research with Native Hawaiian oral traditions and the evidence of archaeology, Kirch puts a human face on the gradual rise to power of the Hawaiian god-kings, who by the late eighteenth century were locked in a series of wars for ultimate control of the entire archipelago. This lively, accessible chronicle works back from Captain James Cook’s encounter with the pristine kingdom in 1778, when the British explorers encountered an island civilization governed by rulers who could not be gazed upon by common people. Interweaving anecdotes from his own widespread travel and extensive archaeological investigations into the broader historical narrative, Kirch shows how the early Polynesian settlers of Hawai'i adapted to this new island landscape and created highly productive agricultural systems.