The Forty-Niners

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt addressed the American Historical Association to call for American history to be written as compelling stories of literary quality. Editor Allen Johnson of Yale University responded by publishing the Chronicles of America series: 50 succinct volumes on regional and thematic American history. These books, intended for secondary schools and college students, are expository works of American history composed by competent historians in the 1920's, well before the special pleading and upending of social norms typical of histories after 1970. This series is focused on the mainstream of American political life and leadership from its initial volumes on Native Americans and European colonists to its final volumes on Woodrow Wilson, Canada, and the Hispanic Republics to our South. Stewart Edward White, the author of volume #25 of the Chronicles of America series, was a novelist and historian focused on westward expansion. His book covers the waning days of Mexican control over California, the Bear Flag Revolt, the conquest of the region in the Mexican War, the exciting days of the Gold Rush, and the transition of California from territory to statehood. The dynamic growth and swelling wealth of the Golden State led to fierce controversy in administration and an armed vigilante movement in the 1850's, which is a special focus of White's narrative. He also documents the urban life of early San Francisco, the migration of settlers, and the Mormon influence on the region.