Mining California: An Ecological History

Isenberg's densely written text provides an overview of the industrialization of mining, logging, ranching and agriculture in California between 1850 and 1900 that, while well researched and exceedingly informative, assumes a greater familiarity with North American and California history than most readers are likely to have. However, Isenberg provides a perspective almost entirely missing from other history texts, showing how our forebears' environmental decisions continue to affect our lives. He examines how technologies developed to mine the gold deposits of the Sierra Nevada, to log the redwoods of the Northwest coast and to develop the Central Valley into a productive agricultural region caused profound environmental changes that altered the course of industrialization and politics. Of particular interest is the role that hydraulic mining played in starting the ""water wars"" that have pervaded Western politics for the past 150 years. He makes a strong case that California, rapidly industrialized before any other Western state, set the model for industrial development in the American West. Most interestingly, he compares the sequestration of Native Americans in reservations and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture to the enclosure of British commons in preceding centuries. The extensive bibliography is rich in primary source material, and the text is thoroughly footnoted. This is not a book for the general reader; rather, it is best suited for an upper-division or graduate-level seminar course.