Cultivating California : growers, specialty crops, and labor, 1875-1920
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Cultivating California : growers, specialty crops, and labor, 1875-1920
(Revisiting rural America / Pete Daniel and Deborah K. Fitzgerald, series editors)
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
California's climate and geography divide the state into a number of diverse and productive subregions, each with its own specialty crops, economy and cultural identity. Yet, ever since journalist Carey McWilliams coined the phrase "factories in the field", students of California agriculture have largely characterized speciality crop growers in monolithic terms - as people devoid of any ideology or culture except the desire to cut costs and maximize profits. In the early years, every grower was not in fact like every other, David Vaught argues, whether one examines their labour systems, recruiting methodds, harvest needs, marketing strategies, farm size, or their relationships with their communites, unions and the state. In this work, Vaught shows how fruit and nut growers were neither industrialists nor agrarians. From the outset, he explains, these "horticulturalists" saw themselves as guardians of California's unique culture - raising crops for market while self-consciously building healthy and prosperous communities. The hard work, foresight and devotion to detail required to nurture an orchard or vineyard made them, they insisted, cultivators of a better society.
This heightened self-image gained credence as California became synonymous, in the minds of millions of Americans, with fresh fruit and produce. Over time, Vaught concludes, labour relations, seasonal and other pressures beyond their control, the vagaries of distant markets and their own racial ambivalence undermined the growers' horticultural ideal.
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