Description

By Joan Irvine Smith and Jean Stern, with a timeline by James Irvine Swinden

“This massive tome is a very enjoyable and accessible history of California from the prehistoric settlers up through the Spanish explorations, the mission era, and the Modoc War of the 1870’s, where the narrative comes to an end. Clearly written with many colorful stories that vividly portray the often turbulent events that mark California’s progress towards statehood, and illustrated with hundreds of paintings from 19th Century artists and the California Impressionists, as well as photographs of places and artifacts, it is thorough but extremely readable, and while produced for popular consumption, was carefully checked for accuracy by scholars in the History Department at Chapman University. The illustrations alone provide a valuable art historical education.”

Publisher: Chapman University Press and Irvine Museum, 2001
Hardbound; 368 pages, 9 x 12 inches, 405 color plates and 88 black and white images, extensive timeline, bibliography and index.