{"product_id":"the-end-of-eden-agrarian-spaces-and-the-rise-of-the-california-social-novel-9781943859566","title":"The End of Eden: Agrarian Spaces and the Rise of","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story of the Joad family’s journey from their ravaged farm in dustbowl Oklahoma to the storied paradise of California helped inform a nation about the brutality, poverty, and vicious competition among fellow immigrants desperate for work. But Steinbeck is only one successor to a rich and esteemed literary tradition in California. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on history and cultural theory, \u003ci\u003eThe End of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e traces the rise of the California social novel, its embrace of the agrarian dream, and its ambivalence about technology and the development it enables. It relies on various cultural conceptions of space, among them, the American Public Land Survey (the source of the “grid” allotments shaping homestead claims), Mexican-era diseños, and Native American traditions that defined a fluid relationship between human beings and the land.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e This animation of four California social novels of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries demonstrates how conflicts over space and place signify cultural conflict. It is deeply informed by the author’s understanding of historical land issues. The works include Joaquin Miller’s \u003ci\u003eUnwritten History: Life Amongst the Modocs, \u003c\/i\u003eHelen Hunt Jackson’s\u003ci\u003e Ramona, \u003c\/i\u003eFrank Norris’ \u003ci\u003eThe Octopus, \u003c\/i\u003eand Mary Austin’s\u003ci\u003e The Ford\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMiller’s \u003ci\u003eUnwritten History: Life Amongst the Modocs\u003c\/i\u003e and Jackson’s \u003ci\u003eRamona\u003c\/i\u003e examine the tragic but inevitable consequences for native people of making space—inhabited already by Native American and Hispanic populations—safe for Americans who pursue the agrarian dream without regard to its effects upon those who claim prior tenure on the land. Norris’ \u003ci\u003eThe Octopus\u003c\/i\u003e and Austin’s\u003ci\u003e The Ford \u003c\/i\u003eexamine the murkier story of trying to preserve or to reclaim the agrarian dream when confronted by the unchecked materialist interests of American capitalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wide-reaching interdisciplinary approach to various cultural conceptions of space, \u003ci\u003eThe End of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e provides a crucial understanding of the conflicts depicted in social novels that lament the ways in which land is allocated and developed, the ways in which American agrarianism—and its promise of local, sustainable land use—is undermined, and how it applies to contemporary California. In an era where California confronts, yet again, the complicated patterns of land use: fracking, water use and water rights, coastal regulation and management, and agribusiness, this groundbreaking work provides an ever-relevant context.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe End of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e is a wide reaching interdisciplinary approach focused on the time of the American conquest into the early Progressive era. Offering in-depth readings of four California social novels that address conflicts over space and power, the book is an original way to understand social protest and cultural upheaval during a time of rapid change in California.\"\" - Jan Goggans, University of California, Merced","brand":"University of Nevada Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51043328721239,"sku":"9781943859566","price":48.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781943859566.jpg?v=1750957860","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-end-of-eden-agrarian-spaces-and-the-rise-of-the-california-social-novel-9781943859566","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}