| Author | : Julia Ornelas-Higdon |
| Publisher | : U of Nebraska Press |
| Total Pages | : 290 |
| Release | : 2023 |
| Genre | : Business & Economics |
| ISBN | : 1496224272 |
The Grapes of Conquest examines the origins of the wine industry at the California missions, as well as its subsequent commercialization in nineteenth-century California under Mexican and American governance.
| Author | : Julia Ornelas-Higdon |
| Publisher | : U of Nebraska Press |
| Total Pages | : 291 |
| Release | : 2023-11 |
| Genre | : Business & Economics |
| ISBN | : 1496237870 |
California’s wine country conjures images of pastoral vineyards and cellars lined with oak barrels. As a mainstay of the state’s economy, California wines occupy the popular imagination like never before and drive tourism in famous viticultural regions across the state. Scholars know remarkably little, however, about the history of the wine industry and the diverse groups who built it. In fact, contemporary stereotypes belie how the state’s commercial wine industry was born amid social turmoil and racialized violence in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century California. In The Grapes of Conquest Julia Ornelas-Higdon addresses these gaps in the historical narrative and popular imagination. Beginning with the industry’s inception at the California missions, Ornelas-Higdon examines the evolution of wine growing across three distinct political regimes—Spanish, Mexican, and American—through the industry’s demise after Prohibition. This interethnic study of race and labor in California examines how California Natives, Mexican Californios, Chinese immigrants, and Euro-Americans came together to build the industry. Ornelas-Higdon identifies the birth of the wine industry as a significant missing piece of California history—one that reshapes scholars’ understandings of how conquest played out, how race and citizenship were constructed, and how agribusiness emerged across the region. The Grapes of Conquest unearths the working-class, multiracial roots of the California wine industry, challenging its contemporary identity as the purview of elite populations.
| Author | : Robert Sechrist |
| Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
| Total Pages | : 342 |
| Release | : 2017-04-24 |
| Genre | : Social Science |
| ISBN | : 1440854394 |
A fascinating and comprehensive introduction to the geography, culture, and history of wine that identifies the significance of this simple beverage throughout human history and today. Wine was one the key founding foods of Western culture (bread and oil being the other two). It has played a key role in human history for thousands of years, having been used for enjoyment, rituals, and religious purposes; today, the production and consumption of wine is a billion-dollar industry that plays an important role in the global economy. Planet of the Grapes: A Geography of Wine provides an interesting and accessible lens through which students can learn about geography, culture, society, history, religion, and the environment. The chapters cover the historical geography of wine, document how drinking wine has often been condemned as a vice, and describe wines by region and type, thereby providing a cultural geography of wine. Readers will learn about the historical geography of wine, terroir (the environmental conditions that affect grape crops), grape biogeography, the process of winemaking from a geographic perspective, the economic global significance of the wine trade, the ongoing love-hate relationship between wine and government, and what makes individual wine regions distinct. The content is written to be comprehensible to individuals without detailed previous knowledge about wine but provides detailed information and insight that wine connoisseurs will find engaging. Additionally, through the story of wine comes a unique telling of the social transformations in America that have resulted from sources such as anti-immigrant sentiment, pseudoscience, and censorship.
