Bibliography of California history


This is a bibliography of California history. It contains English language books and mainstream academic journal articles published after World War II.

About

Inclusion criteria

This list is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all works about California history. It is limited to works primarily or substantially about California history, published by state-level or higher academic universities or mainstream national-level publishers, or authored by recognized subject matter experts.
Works about Baja California before 1850 are included. Works regarding historical geography, and California's natural history are included, but works about municipal and local history are excluded. Notes are provided for annotations and citations for reviews in academic journals when helpful.

Citation style

This bibliography uses APA style citations. Entries do not use templates. References to reviews and notes for entries do use citation templates. Where books which are only partially related to California history are listed, the titles for chapters or sections should be indicated if possible, meaningful, and not excessive.
If a work has been translated into English, the translator should be included and a footnote with appropriate bibliographic information for the original language version should be included if possible.
When listing works with titles or names published with alternative English spellings, the form used in the latest published version should be used and the version and relevant bibliographic information noted if it previously was published or reviewed under a different title.

Series

Kevin Starr, former professor of History and California State Librarian has written many highly regarded books
on the history of California including the multi-volume Americans & the California Dream Series which contain a significant amount of history about Los Angeles and the surrounding area.
  • California: A History. New York: Modern Library.. Single Volume History of California.
  • Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990–2003. New York: Knopf..
Americans & the California Dream Series by Kevin Starr, published by Oxford University Press
  • Americans and the California Dream, 1850–1915.
  • Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era.
  • Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s.
  • Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California.
  • The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s.
  • Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940–1950.
  • ''Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950–1963.''

General works

  • Faragher, J. M.. California: An American History. Yale University Press.
  • Hart, James D. A Companion to California, 610pp; excellent encyclopedic coverage of 3000 topics; not online.
  • Pitt, Leonard. Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County. 625pp; excellent encyclopedic coverage of 2000 topics; not online.
  • Rice, Richard B., et al. The elusive Eden: A new history of California
  • Rolle, Andrew, and Arthur C. Verge. California: A history
  • Starr, Kevin. California: A history

Indigenous peoples

  • Bauer, W. J. . California through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History. University of Washington Press.
  • Madley, B.. An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873.
  • Phillips, G. H.. Vineyards and Vaqueros: Indian Labor and the Economic Expansion of Southern California, 1771–1877. University of Oklahoma Press.

Western U.S.

This section includes regional studies of what is now the southwestern United States that include substantial content about California.

Hispanic California

  • Beebe, R. M., & Senkewicz, R. M.. Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Beebe, R. M., & Senkewicz, R. M.. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo: Life in Spanish, Mexican, and American California. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Crosby, H. W.. Californio Portraits: Baja California’s Vanishing Culture. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Hyslop, S. G.. Contest for California: From Spanish Colonization to the American Conquest. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • John, R. S.. Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border. Princeton University Press.
  • Kessell, J. L.. Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Perez, E.. Colonial Intimacies: Interethnic Kinship, Sexuality, and Marriage in Southern California, 1769–1885. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Sanchez, G. J.. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. Oxford University Press.
  • Walker, D. L.. Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846. Forge Books.

Since 1846

  • Arax, M.. The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California. Knopf.
  • Beesley, D.. Crow's Range: An Environmental History Of The Sierra Nevada University of Nevada Press
  • Blunt, K.. California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric--and What It Means for America’s Power Grid. Portfolio.
  • Brands, H. W.. The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream. Doubleday.
  • Brook, James, Chris Carlsson, and Nancy J. Peters, eds. Reclaiming San Francisco: history, politics, culture
  • Cole, Tom. A short history of San Francisco.
  • Ellison, William Henry. A self-governing dominion, California, 1849-1860, scholarly history.
  • Ethington, Philip J. The public city: the political construction of urban life in San Francisco, 1850-1900
  • Gordon, Margaret S. Employment expansion and population growth, the California experience: 1900-1950
  • Higgins, Andrew Stone. Higher Education for All: Racial Inequality, Cold War Liberalism, and the California Master Plan.,
  • Hutchison, Claude Burton. California agriculture.
  • Isenberg, A. C.. The California Gold Rush: A Brief History with Documents..
  • Issel, William, and Robert W. Cherny. San Francisco, 1865-1932: Politics, power, and urban development.
  • Johnson, S. L.. Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush. W W Norton & Co Inc.
  • Libecap, G.,. Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West's First Great Water Transfer Stanford Economics and Finance.
  • Lotchin, Roger W. The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego .
  • Millard, Bailey. History of the San Francisco Bay Region: History and Biography
  • Nash, Gerald D. State government and economic development : a history of administrative policies in California, 1849-1933
  • North, D. M. T.. California at War: The State and the People during World War I. University Press of Kansas.
  • Olmstead, Alan L., and Paul W. Rhode. A history of California agriculture.
  • Pincetl, Stephanie S. Transforming California: A political history of land use and development,
  • Rawls, J. J.; Orsi, R. J. eds. A Golden State: mining and economic development in Gold Rush California University of California Press.
  • Richards, Rand. Historic San Francisco: A concise history and guide
  • Runte, A. Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness University of Nebraska Press.
  • Rosales, Oliver A.. Civil Rights in Bakersfield: Segregation and Multiracial Activism in the Central Valley. University of Texas Press.
  • Ruiz, V. L.. Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950..
  • Sinclair, Mick. San Francisco: A cultural and literary history. .
Academic journal articles
  • Biber, Eric. "". The American Journal of Legal History. 46 : 119–208.
  • Burns, J. F.. "Taming the Elephant: An Introduction to California's Statehood and Constitutional Era". California History. 81 : 1–26.
  • Kazin, Michael. "The Great Exception Revisited: Organized Labor and Politics in San Francisco and Los Angeles, 1870-1940" Pacific Historical Review 55#3 pp.371-402.
  • Orsi, Richard J. "Railroads in the History of California and the Far West: An Introduction." California History 70.1 : 2-11.
  • Paddison, Joshua. "Capturing California". California History. 81 : 126–136. .
  • Paul, Rodman W. "The Beginnings of Agriculture in California: Innovation vs. Continuity." California Historical Quarterly 52.1 : 16-27.
  • Pisani, Donald J. "Squatter law in California, 1850-1858." Western Historical Quarterly 25.3 : 277-310.
  • Putnam, Jackson K. "The pattern of modern California politics." Pacific Historical Review 61.1 : 23-52.
  • Stadtman, Verne A. The University of California, 1868-1968
  • Stephenson, Nathaniel Wright. "California and the Compromise of 1850." Pacific Historical Review 4.2 : 114-122.
  • White, John H. "The Railroad Reaches California: Men, Machines, and Cultural Migration." California Historical Quarterly 52.2 : 131-144.

Biographical

  • Arax, M., & Wartzman, R.. The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire. PublicAffairs.
  • Bullough, William A. The Blind Boss & His City: Christopher Augustine Buckley and Nineteenth-Century San Francisco
  • Guinn, J. M. Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century 1019 pp by a professional historian. The first 200 pages contain histories of each county. The last 800 pages contain several hundred short biographies..
  • Larkin, T. O., & Hawgood, J.. First and Last Consul: Thomas O. Larkin and the Americanization of California..
  • Pawel, M.. The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation..
  • Standiford, L.. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles..

Historiography and bibliographies

  • Weber, Francis J.. "". Southern California Quarterly. 50: 5–32.

Historical atlases

  • Browning, P. Place Names of the Sierra Nevada: From Abbot to Zumwalt, Wilderness Press
  • Gudde, E. G.. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names Fourth edition.. University of California Press.
  • Hayes, D., & Labonté, C.. Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps. University of California Press.

Academic journals

California History. Published by the California Historical Society and the University of California Press., Print.Pacific Historical Review. Published by the University of California Press. Online, Print.

Primary sources

This section contains a limited list of primary sources related to California history.

Collections

  • Brewer, W. H., & Chittenden, R. H.. Up And Down California In 1860-1864: The Journal Of William H. Brewer. Literary Licensing.
  • LeConte, J. A Journal of Ramblings Through the High Sierra of California by the University Excursion Party Sierra Club.
  • Murrell, G. M.. “There Is More in Luck than Work”: The Letters of a Young Kentuckian in the California Gold Rush . Ed. Juliette Bourdin. Les Perséides.
  • Reed, A. Old Mammoth: A First Hand Account Live Oak Press
  • Roper, S. Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber Mountaineers Books
  • Siepel, K. H.. Conquistador Voices: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants. Spruce Tree Press.
  • Siepel, K. H.. Conquistador Voices: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants. Spruce Tree Press.
  • Vallejo, M. G.. Recuerdos: Historical and Personal Remembrances Relating to Alta California, 1769–1849. University of Oklahoma Press.

Individual documents

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