America and the California Dream

This book is a narrative of the development of California during the period 1850-1915. But it is also much more than that. It is a look at the literature written about the territory, as well as the literature produced by some of the area's leading citizens. And, most importantly, it is a chronicle of the leading citizens in California, whose diverse personalities reflected the respective eras in which they lived.

Chapter One, "Prophetic Patterns," deals with California under Spanish and later Mexican rule. It describes the beauty of California, and Starr describes many of the "foreigners," French, American and others, who visited the area and coveted it for their homelands. Two statements by the author sum up this desire on the part of outsiders, (French, British, Russians and Americans,) to take California away from the Latins. Starr says, "Racist contempt flawed the origins of American California in hatred, injustice and bloodshed. Tragically, one California was destroyed so that another might take its place" (21). And, the author asserts, "American California begins as an act of conquest climaxing a history of contempt" (21). What were the reasons for this contempt?

Foreign visitors such as Laperouse and Vancouver (French and British, respectively) visited the area when the Spanish mission system was still in force. Starr s

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immigration swelled the state's Catholic population, already fairly large because of the number of Hispanics in the state. Irish diocesan priests and Catholic nuns came out to supplement the local clergy and numerous Catholic grammar schools, orphanages, hospitals and childrens' academies were established. The Catholics were in California to stay, frustrating the work of the Protestant preachers. Interestingly, Protestant preachers believed that the Christianizing of the Orient was the only good that would come out of the California phenomenon (109). Secularly, California became the springboard and agent of American influence in the Far East, a role it maintains to this day. Unfortunately, the harsh treatment of Orientals in the state was an omen of things to come. "A Rapid, Monstrous Maturity" first deals with the fact that Californians cherished their history (110). Like New Englanders anxious to trace their heritage back to the Mayflower landing, Californians whose families lived in the (as yet unadmitted) state founded the Society of California Pioneers in 1850 "to collect and preserve information connected with the early settlement and conquest of the country, and to perpetuate the memory of those whose sagacity, ente
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Approximate Word count = 3001
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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