The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 17691920
English
By (author): Julia Ornelas-Higdon
Honorable Mention for the 2024 OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award
Californias wine country conjures images of pastoral vineyards and cellars lined with oak barrels. As a mainstay of the states 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 states 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 industrys inception at the California missions, Ornelas-Higdon examines the evolution of wine growing across three distinct political regimesSpanish, Mexican, and Americanthrough the industrys 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 historyone 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. See more
Californias wine country conjures images of pastoral vineyards and cellars lined with oak barrels. As a mainstay of the states 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 states 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 industrys inception at the California missions, Ornelas-Higdon examines the evolution of wine growing across three distinct political regimesSpanish, Mexican, and Americanthrough the industrys 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 historyone 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. See more
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