The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769–1920 (At Table) - Softcover

Ornelas-Higdon, Julia

 
9781496239518: The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769–1920 (At Table)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1496239512 ISBN 13: 9781496239518
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2023

Synopsis

Honorable Mention for the 2024 Frederick Jackson Turner Award

California’s wine country conjures images of pastoral vineyards and cellars lined with oak barrels. As a mainstay of the state’s economy, California wines occupy the popular imagination like never before and drive tourism in famous viticultural regions across the state. Scholars know remarkably little, however, about the history of the wine industry and the diverse groups who built it. In fact, contemporary stereotypes belie how the state’s commercial wine industry was born amid social turmoil and racialized violence in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century California.

In The Grapes of Conquest Julia Ornelas-Higdon addresses these gaps in the historical narrative and popular imagination. Beginning with the industry’s inception at the California missions, Ornelas-Higdon examines the evolution of wine growing across three distinct political regimes—Spanish, Mexican, and American—through the industry’s demise after Prohibition. This interethnic study of race and labor in California examines how California Natives, Mexican Californios, Chinese immigrants, and Euro-Americans came together to build the industry. Ornelas-Higdon identifies the birth of the wine industry as a significant missing piece of California history—one that reshapes scholars’ understandings of how conquest played out, how race and citizenship were constructed, and how agribusiness emerged across the region. The Grapes of Conquest unearths the working-class, multiracial roots of the California wine industry, challenging its contemporary identity as the purview of elite populations.

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About the Author

Julia Ornelas-Higdon is an associate professor of history at California State University, Channel Islands.

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Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Publication date
2023
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1496239512
ISBN 13 
9781496239518
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
292

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781496224279: The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769–1920 (At Table)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1496224272 ISBN 13:  9781496224279
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2023
Hardcover