Books > History
|
Buy Now
Dirty Deeds - Land, Violence, and the 1856 San Francisco Vigilance Committee (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,122
Discovery Miles 11 220
|
|
Dirty Deeds - Land, Violence, and the 1856 San Francisco Vigilance Committee (Hardcover)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
The California gold rush of 1849 created fortunes for San Francisco
merchants, whose wealth depended on control of the city's docks.
But ownership of waterfront property was hotly contested. In an
1856 dispute over land titles, a county official shot an outspoken
newspaperman, prompting a group of merchants to organize the San
Francisco Committee of Vigilance. The committee, which met in
secret, fed biased stories to the newspapers, depicting itself as a
necessary substitute for incompetent law enforcement. But its
actual purpose was quite different. In Dirty Deeds, historian Nancy
J. Taniguchi draws on the 1856 Committee's minutes - long lost
until she unearthed them - to present the first clear picture of
its actions and motivations. San Francisco's real estate comprised
a patchwork of land grants left from the Spanish and Mexican
governments - grants that had been appropriated and sold over and
over. Even after the establishment of a federal board in 1851 to
settle the complicated California claims, land titles remained
confused, and most of the land in the city belonged to no one. The
acquisition of key waterfront properties in San Francisco by an
ambitious politician motivated the thirty-odd merchants who called
themselves ""the Executives"" of the Vigilance Committee to go
directly after these parcels. Despite the organization's assertion
of working on behalf of law and order, its tactics - kidnapping,
forced deportations, and even murder - went far beyond the bounds
of law. For more than a century, scholars have accepted the
vigilantes' self-serving claims to honorable motives. Dirty Deeds
tells the real story, in which a band of men took over a city in an
attempt to control the most valuable land on the West Coast.
Ranging far beyond San Francisco, the 1856 Vigilance Committee's
activities affected events on the East Coast, in Central America,
and in courts throughout the United States even after the Civil
War.
General
Imprint: |
University of Oklahoma Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
October 2016 |
Authors: |
Nancy J Taniguchi
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 26mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8061-5398-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
History >
General
Books >
History >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8061-5398-9 |
Barcode: |
9780806153988 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.