Competing Visions: A History of California (Cherny, Lemke-Santiangelo, and Castillo)
- Page ID
- 126936
The decision to write this textbook grew out of our experience teaching California history to an increasingly diverse student population. Our classrooms contain an exciting mix of students from a myriad of ethnic, multiethnic, international, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Their levels of academic readiness also differ, and nearly all are products of a visual, rather than print-oriented, culture. In light of this diversity, we, as educators, needed a text geared toward varied learning styles and academic skill levels—one that would stress reading comprehension, critical thinking, and the synthesis and integration of knowledge. Just as important, we needed a more inclusive text that reflects the history of all of our students—one designed to foster active identification with the past, civic engagement, an appreciation of diversity, and cross-cultural communication and understanding. Thus, we wrote the text for our students and ourselves, and with the hope that our colleagues would find it equally useful.
- Front Matter
- 1: California’s Origins- The Land and the People, Before Spanish Settlement
- 2: The Spanish Colonization of California, 1769–1821
- 3: Mexican Californios- Conflict and Culture, 1821–1846
- 4: War, Conquest, and Gold- The American Era Begins, 1845–1855
- 5: California and the Crisis of the Union, 1850–1870
- 6: California in the Gilded Age, 1870–1900
- 7: California in the Progressive Era, 1895–1920
- 8: California Between the Wars, 1919–1941
- 9: World War II and the Great Transformation
- 10: Postwar California- Prosperity and Discontent in the Golden State- 1946–1963
- 11: Divided We Stand- Activism and Politics, 1964–1970
- 12: Era of Limits and New Opportunities- 1970–1990
- 13: California in Our Times
- Back Matter
Thumbnail: Gold Gate Bridge, San Francisco. (Unsplash License; Joonyeop Baek via Unsplash)