"An extraordinary book by a master historian! Orsi demonstrates that the Southern Pacific was not simply a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power; it had a strong sense of the public good and a devotion to building stable, prosperous communities. This superb book should be required reading for all historians of the West, business, and the environment."--Donald J. Pisani, author of "Water and American Government"
"This deep and extensive examination of the Southern Pacific's development activities in California will encourage readers to look beyond the overblown rhetoric of the railroad's many political enemies and see afresh its many positive economic accomplishments as it worked to build the Twentieth-Century West. Orsi's presentation is as luminous as it is impressive"--Carlos Schwantes, author of "Going Places: Transportation Redefines the Twentieth Century West"
"This brilliantly researched and beautifully written study of one of America's greatest railroads offers wonderful insights into both transportation and Western history. Orsi places the early history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in proper focus by skillfully untangling the long-standing Octopus myth. This work deserves to be called a landmark in the field."--H. Roger Grant, author of "Follow the Flag: A History of the Wabash Railroad Company"
""Sunset Limited" illuminates not only the workings and ambitions of the Southern Pacific railroad but teaches us a great deal about the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American West as well. This is a wonderful scholarly study: remarkably thorough, ambitious, and gracefully rendered."--William Deverell, author of"Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910"

Perhaps never in the time-honored American tradition of frontiering did "civilization" appear to sink so low as in gold-rush California. A mercurial economy swung from boom to bust, and back again, rendering everyone's fortunes ephemeral. A volatile assemblage of transients were fixated on "making their pile" and returning home. Rooted in Barbarous Soil, Volume 3 in the four-volume California History Sesquicentennial Series, is the only book of its kind to examine gold-rush society and culture, to present modern interpretations, and to gather up-to-date bibliographies of its topics.

Chapters by leading scholars in their respective fields explore a range of topics including migration and settlement; ethnic diversity, assimilation, cooperation, and conflict; the dispossession of Indians and the Californios; the founding of schools and universities; urban life; women in early California; the sexual frontier; and the development of religion, art, literature, and popular culture.

General themes lend unity to the chapters: reinterpreting gold-rush society and culture for modern Californians; the interplay of traditional cultures and frontier innovation; the impact of the California experience on the nation and the wider world; and the importance and continuing legacy of ethnic and cultural diversity. Together with the other three volumes in the series, Rooted in Barbarous Soil will stand as a monument not only to scholarship on the Gold Rush, but also to central themes in American historical scholarship at the end of the century.

One of a series of books written to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the admission of California to the Union, emphasizes the natural environment, the history of the Indians, exploration, and social and economic history, rather than the traditional institutional studies of mission and presidio. Takes advantage of the latest research and includes contributions by leading scholars"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.