{"product_id":"living-the-california-dream-9781496201300","title":"Living the California Dream","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExamines how African Americans pioneered America's frontier of leisure by creating communities and business projects in conjunction with their growing population in Southern California during the nation's Jim Crow era.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Alison Rose Jefferson documents a world I knew little about before reading her new important book. . . . Her book is a credit and an homage to the Black folk who toughed it out, bearing the indignity of police surveillance, arson, and financial and psychological violence so that their descendants could prosper.\"—Eisa Nefertari Ulen, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This work persuasively highlights the importance of public history and memory to combat the erasure of Black and local history. With the research from this book also being used to support campaigns to recognize African American leisure sites, like Bruce’s Beach, via plaques, site renaming, and through public education, Jefferson simultaneously demonstrates the more practical application of public history.\"—Jeanelle K. Hope, \u003ci\u003eWestern Historical Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book is a timely reminder that many hands built California, perpetuated its myth and legend as a western paradise, and those hands were not all white. This book brings Black people into the California story, raises them from obscure footnotes to important roles worth remembering, acknowledging, and memorializing.\"—Brian Tanguay, \u003ci\u003eCalifornia Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Jefferson] shows that African American leisure pioneers deserve accurate representation. This, then, can lay the groundwork for economic justice.\"—M. Alison Kibler, \u003ci\u003eNew Mexico Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jefferson’s book is a recommended read not only for public historians, but for the general public interested in understanding how easily local history can be lost, and how crucial the work to reclaim these overlooked narratives is in better understanding the past, present, and future of our nation.\"—Melissa A. Esmacher, \u003ci\u003ePublic Historian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Going forward, this book should continue to shape and inform how communities, in Southern California and beyond, remember and learn from their pasts.\"—Andrew W. Kahrl, \u003ci\u003eSouthern California Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In \u003ci\u003eLiving the California Dream\u003c\/i\u003e, Jefferson recognizes and responds to the urgency to collect and preserve the diverse geography of race embedded in Californian leisure sites during the Jim Crow Era.\"—Azariah M. Reese, \u003ci\u003eJournal of Geography\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jefferson's work is simultaneously a powerful indictment of white racist practices, an inspiring revelation of Black entrepreneurial courage, and a much-needed call for a more robust public history of African American self-determination.\"—Reynolds J Scott-Childress, \u003ci\u003eJournal of American History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jefferson's meticulous research and voluminous notes make this book an important contribution to the scholarship of California and the West. Most importantly, she brings these important historic sites back to life.\"—Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, \u003ci\u003eJournal of African American History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eLiving the California Dream\u003c\/i\u003e helps us understand the relationship between race, public space, and historical memory. It reveals the exclusion of African American experiences in and contributions to Southern California's recreational landscapes. Drawing on a rich collection of archived records, newspapers, maps, and photographs, Jefferson produces a new image of the Black experience in the West and makes a valuable contribution to the scholarship on African Americans in California.\"—Joy Miller, \u003ci\u003eJournal of San Diego History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e 1. Historical Context of Leisure, the California Dream, and the African American Experience during the Jim Crow Era\u003cbr\u003e 2. The Politics of Remembering African American Leisure and Removal at Bruce’s Beach\u003cbr\u003e 3. Race, Real Estate, and Remembrance in Santa Monica’s Ocean Park Neighborhood\u003cbr\u003e 4. A Resort Town Mecca for African American Pleasure Seekers at Lake Elsinore\u003cbr\u003e 5. African Americans and Exurban Adventures in the Parkridge Country Club and Subdivision Development\u003cbr\u003e 6. Race, Leisure, Subdivisions, Promoters, and Gambling on the California Dream at Eureka Villa\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409216119127,"sku":"9781496201300","price":40.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496201300.jpg?v=1730505983","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/living-the-california-dream-9781496201300","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}