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Chapter One—First Stirrings In concert with the rest of the nation, California was growing as well, from a population of 92,597 in 1850 to 1,311,564 by the turn of the century. One of the magic words in California’s growth was railroads, which brought not only new settlers to the state…
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Prologue—1920 - 1939: Peace, Prohibition, Prosperity… and a Crash From darkness to light, from bitter cold to blazing warmth, from depth to height. Whatever metaphor you choose, America in 1920 had emerged from four long cruel war years to the threshold of a dazzling new era, one that was marked…
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Prologue—From Darkness… For most of the United States—and, indeed, the world—the year 1940 was a dark moment in history. After more than a decade of the Great Depression, the nation was only just emerging into a more hopeful future. Around the world, things continued to look bleak. Just months after…
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Prologue—Shattered Dreams As 1960 dawned, Americans had good reason to believe that a bountiful era was at hand. For the first time in nearly a decade, no Americans were fighting abroad. The 1950s had been a decade of prosperity (that is, if you were Anglo), inventions and innovations. Three out…
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Prologue — A Study in Contrasts After 80 years filled with wars interspersed by uneasy moments of peace, a great depression and unalloyed prosperity, assassinations and atomic energy, Americans in the last two decades of the 20th century might have hoped for a sustained period of calm. No such luck.…
