I haven't even read it yet, but based on Starr's other California books, this should be great. Carol >Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:18:40 -0800 >Reply-To: H-NET List on California Studies <H-CALIFORNIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU> >Sender: H-NET List on California Studies <H-CALIFORNIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU> >From: Bill Issel <bi@sfsu.edu> >Subject: Meeker on Starr and Orsi, _Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, > Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California_ >To: H-CALIFORNIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU > >H-NET BOOK REVIEW >Published by H-California@h-net.msu.edu (March, 2001) > >Kevin Starr and Richard J. Orsi, eds. _Rooted in Barbarous >Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California_. >California History Sesquicentennial Series, vol. III. Berkeley, >Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2000. x >+ 364 pp. Tables, figures, notes, and index; $60.00 (cloth), >ISBN 0-050-22497-3; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 0-520-22496-5. > >Reviewed for H-California by Martin D. Meeker ><martin_meeker@yahoo.com>, Visiting Lecturer, Department of >History, University of California, Berkeley > >Published by H-California > >"An ecumenical challenge of unprecedented magnitude" > >Striking at the very heart of the California myth, _Rooted in >Barbarous Soil: People, Culture and Community in Gold Rush >California_, a collection of essays edited by Kevin Starr and >Richard Orsi, seeks to offer a sweeping new picture of society >and culture in Gold Rush era California. Published by the >University of California Press in association with the >California Historical Society, _Rooted in Barbarous Soil_ is the >third of four books in Richard Orsi's California History >Sesquicentennial Series; other collections in the series have >examined California before the Gold Rush, mining and economic >development in California, and politics and law in California. >Like these other important collections, Starr's and Orsi's >_Rooted in Barbarous Soil_ brings the questions, problems, and >methodologies of the New Western History to bear on what many >think to be the decisive event in California history: the Gold >Rush. > >Unlike the other volumes in this series, which take on more >narrowly defined topics, Rooted in Barbarous Soil attempts a >particularly ambitious task. In covering both society and >culture in Gold Rush California, the collection addresses a >wide-range of topics including ethnicity, racism, migration, >patterns of settlement, urbanism, women, gender, sexuality, art, >literature, education, religion, and popular culture. In >bringing these diverse and perhaps all-encompassing areas of >concentration together, the editors at least implicitly attempt >to create an overall synthesis of social and cultural historical >methodologies and themes. > >What binds these authors and their diverse essays together? >Fortunately, the reader is treated to two useful attempts to >address this question: first in the brief preface, co-authored >by Micheal Duty and Richard Orsi, and then in the introductory >chapter, written by Kevin Starr. Duty and Orsi introduce the >central problematic as a paradox. "Perhaps never in the >time-honored American tradition of frontiering did >'civilization' appear to sink so low as in gold-rush >California," Duty and Orsi assert; but, they also add that >during the same period, "social and cultural forms emerged, >solidified, spread, and took hold" (vii). Is Gold Rush >California best characterized as a period of social >disorganization or social reorganization? Duty and Orsi-and >several of the essayists that follow-make the paradoxical >statement: "both." > >In his fine introductory essay, Kevin Starr elaborates on this >theme and makes a significant contribution by considering its >moral implications. Starr begins with the telling of a parable. >The men of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company made >their overseas voyage to California in 1849 to make a fortune in >the gold fields. However, as Starr reveals, the well-organized >company of 122 men quickly disbanded after arriving in >California and within a year many were dead, many more had >returned to the eastern seaboard, and still more had yet to find >the gold they had come for. This story of social disorganization >serves a parable for Gold Rush California overall. However, as >Starr notes, not only did Americans suffer disarray while in >California, but both longtime Mexican residents of California >(the Californios) and immigrants from countries around the world >became caught up in the prejudice and violence that chaos >breeds. > >It is this history of unequal relations, of racism, of the >cultural conquest of California by the United States that has >captured the attention of many scholars now reexamining the Gold >Rush and the history of the West overall. Starr writes that this >new history, which appears prominently is this volume, "is not a >pretty story; but it is a true story, and it must be faced" (6). >Yet, rather than strike down the old narrative of the Gold Rush, >of the glorious rise of American California, Starr requests that >readers of the volume strive for a complex moral perspective >which does not replace "good" simply with "bad." He writes, "We >can find no point outside of history to judge the frequently >depressing behavior of the Forty-niners as far as racial and >ethnic matters are concerned. Bearing witness through these >essays to a terrible burden of past oppression, we cannot exempt >ourselves from continuities and responsibilities of prejudice >and racial animosities down to our own time" (7). Moreover, he >adds, "Not until all racism and ethnic prejudice is purged from >American society altogether should we feel morally superior to >the California miners chronicled in this volume" (7). Thus, in >challenging the moralizing perspective of several of the >volume's contributors, Starr sets the moral tone for the >collection. He asks that readers hold the paradox of social >chaos and order, of cultural conquest and commonwealth at the >forefront of their thoughts when considering the issues raised >and the new perspectives offered. > >Following Starr's introduction comes a series of essays that >examine, with varying degrees of sophistication, the social and >cultural change that came with the Gold Rush. Malcolm >Rohrbough's "No Boy's Play: Migration and Settlement in Early >Gold Rush California" repeats the well known story of how the >discovery of gold came to be a reality on the eastern seaboard, >how groups organized and made the journey to California, and how >migrants attempted to maintain a degree of social organization >in a chaotic world. The next essay, Sucheng Chan's "A People of >Exceptional Character: Ethnic Diversity, Nativism, and Racism in >the California Gold Rush," is a masterful synthesis of material >about race and ethnic relations. Moreover, it provides a useful >analytical structure that most studies of racism in California >do not; in particular, Chan explains the transition from ethnic >consciousness to nativism to racism by paying close attention to >the geography, the order of arrival of migrants, the locational >settlement patterns, and the differences among white ethnics as >well as people of color. > >James Sandos's essay, "'Because he is a liar and a thief': >Conquering the Residents of 'Old' California, 1850-1880," builds >on Chan's article by providing a more in-depth account of the >treatment of native Californian Indians and of Californios by >white migrants. This essays contributes to our base of knowledge >through its many comparisons: between victimization and >resistance, Indians and Californios, Indians in the east and in >the west, and Indians in northern and southern California. >Sandos ends his essay on an upbeat-and perhaps too facile-note >by appreciating the good that casinos have brought to >contemporary Indian reservations. > >Robert Phelps's "'All hands have gone downtown': Urban Places in >Gold Rush California" marks a shift in perspective from the >previous essays, which were concerned mostly with racism and its >consequences. Inspired by works like Richard Wade's The Urban >Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790-1830 (1959) and Lewis >Mumford's The City in History (1961), Phelps argues that cities >in the California were of greater relative importance to their >surrounding hinterlands than cities in the east. He proves his >thesis by examining not only San Francisco, but also the key >roles played by cities like Sacramento, Nevada City, and >Marysville as they became regional social, cultural, and >economic centers. > >In "Weaving a Different World: Women and the California Gold >Rush," Nancy Taniguchi provides a synthesis of recent research >in California women's history and finds that "as California >transformed, so did the lives of its women" (142). This episodic >essay reveals these changes by discussing women in the mines, >Chinese women, women and work, women and violence, female >performers, and "respectable" women. Though Taniguchi claims >that weaving women into California history changes our >understanding of the latter, her evidence seems to support the >opposite -- that by examining women in the west, our notions of >gender in history will be challenged. > >Although the collection is not organized into sections -- by my >estimation, a mistake-the remaining six essays more closely >adhere to various elements of cultural history. "'As jolly as a >clam at high water': The Rise of Art in Gold Rush California," >by Anthony Kirk (who also served well as the volume's >illustrations editor), is a lively essay that celebrates the >youthful adventurers who came to California and the equally >adventurous artists who struggled to depict their historic >wanderings. The contribution of Kirk's essay lies in linking >mining with art-and hinting that in both endeavors luck more >than talent seems to determine who succeeds. Michael >Kowalewski's essay, "Romancing the Gold Rush: The Literature of >the California Frontier," attempts to explain how Gold Rush era >writing, both fiction and nonfiction, was influenced by its >unique historical context. While Kowalewski asserts that "The >most engaging gold-rush writing allowed California's new >landscapes and the new behavior and idiomatic speech of its >inhabitants to challenge the aesthetic and social criteria >eastern readers might bring to a work" (209), he unfortunately >offers little evidence to demonstrate how this might work. > >The transmission of culture from one generation to the next is a >theme considered in the following two essays, Irving Hendrick's >"From Indifference to Imperative Duty: Educating Children in >Early California" and Steven Avella's "Phelan's Cemetary: >Religion in the Urbanizing West, 1850-1869, in Los Angeles, San >Francisco, and Sacramento." Hendrick provides a workmanlike >history of education from the late 1840s through the 1860s. The >most interesting element of the essay concerns the career of >state superintendent of public education Andrew Moulder and how >he introduced racial politics into the educational system. >Avella's essay uses the history of religion in California as >window to peer onto the multicultural composition of the state's >cities; among the interesting points Avella makes is that >"California's dynamic diversity and distinctiveness . might very >well stimulate a major reinterpretation of the controlling >narratives of American religious history" (253). > >In the book's two final essays, Gary Kurutz's "Popular Culture >on the Golden Shore" and Susan Lee Johnson's "'My own private >life': Toward a History of Desire in Gold Rush California," >questions of culture and society intertwine and result in some >of the volume's most attention-grabbing essays. Kurutz's essay >is a survey of California's colorful, Gold Rush era popular >culture and amusements. While few new insights are offered (with >the exception of his discussion of ethnicity and sports), the >essay provides a good jumping-off point for scholars interested >in researching the subject in the future. > >The essay by Johnson is one of the volume's most original and >ambitious contributions. Johnson begins the project of remedying >the woeful lack of attention given to sexuality in Gold Rush >California by historians of the American West. Historians' >apparent blindness to this topic is particularly striking >considering that at some places in some periods the gender ratio >was as unbalanced as 97 percent men to three percent women-a >factor that would not only influence sexuality but social >relations overall. Through innovative use of source material, >Johnson introduces a series of themes related to race, class, >age, and gender that provide the first step in the writing of >the history of Gold Rush sexuality. > >The contributions of this volume are many. However, perhaps the >most interesting contribution -- the beginning of a synthesis of >social and cultural history -- also hints at an unfulfilled >promise of the volume. Succinctly, I think that this collection >of vastly different essays does not add up to the sum of its >parts. If there were more exchange among the essayists, if they >were grappling with more of the same issues, sources, and >methodologies, perhaps then the volume could be considered a >unified whole. Then, readers would put down the volume with a >solid impression of the current state of knowledge and thinking >about society and culture in Gold Rush California. Although >clearly not their charge, I think that collaborations between >the authors might have been interesting. > >For instance, I think that if Rohrbaugh and Kirk had combined >their research, new and interesting insights about the >consequential relationship between images of California and >mass-distributed knowledge about California might have been >made. Similarly, what if Chan and Kurutz had pooled their >material? I suspect we would have been treated to a >groundbreaking analysis of how popular culture helped reinforce >or maybe even challenge the emerging social hierarchies in the >state. > >Some of the sheer diversity of the collection -- both in regard >to subject matter as well as effectiveness -- is evident when >considering the sources used. Many of the essays rely primarily >on secondary studies to build synoptic accounts. However, some >authors dig a little deeper and use their sources more wisely >than others. For instance, Chan cites a wide-range of secondary >material, including books and articles that date back to the >early twentieth century; while she mines a great deal of >information from these sources, she also uses them carefully, >viewing them as primary as well as secondary documents. On the >other hand, I found Taniguchi's sources familiar and her reading >of at least one book (Asbury's Barbary Coast) not as >sophisticated as it might have been. > >Finally, I think that the need for a better synthesis of social >and cultural history, of primary and secondary sources, rings >true as well for the question of the volume's moral perspective. >Speaking about the moral problem faced by American gold rush >migrants-as well as current scholars of the era-Starr writes, >"the Gold Rush posed an ecumenical challenge of unprecedented >magnitude" (6). Were the contributors up to this challenge of >accounting for the diversity of people found in California's >history and the moral paradoxes that come with it? > >While reading _Rooted in Barbarous Soil_, particularly the >excellent essays by Starr, Chan, Sandos, Avella, and Johnson, I >was reminded time and again of Michael Rogin's provocative 1985 >essay, "Moby-Dick and the American 1848" in which he likens >Ahab's self-destructive pursuit of the white whale to the >impending crisis of national unity following the >Mexican-American War. At the heart of Rogin's essay and several >essays in the collection under consideration here is a moral >quandary. This quandary forces us, as historians, to consider >the relative costs of what is lost and what is gained when one >social order is replaced by another -- especially when that >transition is marked by violence, by megalomania, and by a >disregard for the innocent and for history. These are big >questions. And in making us again realize that these big >questions are at the heart of the real story of the California >Gold Rush, the editors of and contributors to Rooted in >Barbarous Soil perform a great service. And they let historians >and anyone interested in California history know that even after >150 years of being one of the most celebrated, criticized, and >talked about events in American history, timeless questions >about the Gold Rush will continue to influence our understanding >of its implications and shape our moral judgments of its legacy. > > Copyright (c) 2001 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This work > may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit > is given to the author and the list. For other permission, > please contact H-Net@h-net.msu.edu. > > Carol De Priest <http://www.goodnet.com/~dpriest/>