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The History of Alta California: A Memoir of Mexican California
by Antonio Maria Osio (Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz, editors) (1996) |
Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush
Ramon A. Gutierrez (editor) (1998) |
Land in California — The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining Claims, Railroad Grants, Land Scrip, Homesteads
by W. W. Robinson (1979) |
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Osio wrote his book in 1851, immediately following the Mexican-American War, and his first-person perspective, day-to-day details of family life, and readable style make this a fascinating introduction to the times. |
A grand survey of California's Spanish and Mexican cultures before the Gold Rush of 1849 swept them to the periphery. |
Far from being dry (despite being written by an amateur historian who worked as a land title researcher), this is an excellent introduction to the tangled process by which California's land was transferred from native peoples to the hands of the powerful and wealthy. |
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