Cultivating California
Subtitle: Growers, Specialty Crops, and Labor, 1875-1920 (Revisiting Rural America)
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: November 16, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780801862212
Subjects: Agriculture & related industries; Economic history; Local history; Management of land & natural resources; Rural communities; First World War, 1914-1918; c 1800 to c 1900; c 1900 - c 1914; History - General History; Agricultural History; Migrant Workers; United States - State & Local - General; Business & Economics; Labor; History: American; Industries - General; History / United States / General; Agriculture - General; Migrant agricultural laborers; Agricultural laborers; California; History; Industrial relations
First sentence: THE FRESNO RAISIN HARVEST of 1902 began in late August and lasted five weeks.
Description: "In Cultivating California, Vaught shows how fruit and nut growers were neither industrialists nor agrarians. From the very outset, he explains, these "horticulturists" 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 with fresh fruit and produce for millions of Americans."--BOOK JACKET. "Over time, Vaught concludes, labor relations, market imperatives, and changing political conditions undermined the growers' horticultural ideal. Still cultural guardians in their own minds, growers would become cultural outcasts in the minds of most others - a view still prevalent today."--BOOK JACKET.