A Rebel’s Outcry: Biography of Issei Civil Rights Leader Sei Fujii (1882-1954)

Sponsored by The Book Club of California "A Rebel’s Outcry: Biography of Issei Civil Rights Leader Sei Fujii (1882-1954)" is an illustrated biography and detailed look into the life of Japanese American civil rights leader Sei Fujii, known for overturning the California Alien Land Law in 1952 and founding the Japanese American newspaper Kashu Mainichi […]

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873

Sponsored by The Book Club of California 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM Pacific Virtual Presentation An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873, by Benjamin Madley, is the first full account of the government sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule. It has been widely praised as groundbreaking, raising […]

Peter Hiller on artist Jo Mora (1876-1947)

Sponsored by The Book Club of California MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2023 Contempo Jo Mora 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM Pacific In-person and virtual Presentation; all are welcome. The creative career of Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora (1876-1947) was both compelling and diverse. A painter, muralist, sculptor, building designer, cartographer, actor, set designer, cowboy, and husband and […]

California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric — and What It Means for America’s Power Grid

Sponsored by The Book Club of California Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which […]

Frank Ingerson and George Dennison: A Bay Area Love Story in Arts & Crafts (1910-1966)

Sponsored by The Book Club of California The Splendid Disarray of Beauty (2023) tells two intertwined stories, one of love, the other of art. In 1910, the San Franciscans Frank Ingerson and George Dennison became permanently paired in life and love. Known among their friends and in their community as the Boys, they remained in […]

Companions of Minds and Books: H.H. and Matilda Bancroft in Their Literary Industries

Sponsored by The Book Club of California Kim Bancroft will discuss the legacy of her great-great-grandparents, H.H. Bancroft, historian of the West and founder of The Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley, and his second wife, Matilda Bancroft, a writer and historian in her own right. After marrying H.H. in 1859, Emily wrote voluminous letters from […]

The Huntington: Buying and Building One of the World’s Greatest Libraries

Sponsored by The Book Club of Washington Buying and Building One of the World’s Greatest Libraries Presentation by Dr. Vanessa Wilkie Senior Curator of Medieval Manuscripts & British History at The Huntington Library Online Sunday, August 20, 2 pm PDT Register here: https://www.bookclubofwashington.org/events-1/buying-and-building-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-libraries Dr. Wilkie will take us back to a time when wealthy Americans […]

“My biography is the history of California:” Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and his Recuerdos

Sponsored by The Book Club of California Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807–90) grew up in Spanish California, became a leading military and political figure in Mexican California, and participated in some of the founding events of U.S. California, such as the Monterey Constitutional Convention and the first legislature. Like many Mexican Californios he lost most of […]

Nut Tree: From a California Ranch to a Design, Food, and Hospitality Icon

Sponsored by The Book Club of California Monday Sept. 11, 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM Pacific In-person and virtual presentation 5:30 PM Pacific - Reception 6:00 PM Pacific - Program Diane Power Zimmerman will share highlights from her book Nut Tree: From a California Ranch to a Design, Food, and Hospitality Icon. As the oldest […]

We are the Land: A History of Native California

Sponsored by The Book Club of California and Litquake 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM Pacific Virtual presentation Before there was such a thing as “California,” there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make […]

Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, The Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Sponsored by The Book Club of California When the more than 18 million visitors poured into the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco in 1915, they encountered a vision of the world born out of San Francisco’s particular local political and social climate. By seeking to please various constituent groups ranging from the government […]

Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr’s California

Sponsored by The Book Club of California An essential piece in California Studies, Redemptive Dreams: Engaging Kevin Starr’s California offers the first critical engagement with the vision of California’s most ambitious interpreter. While Starr’s multifaceted and polymathic vision of California offered a unique gaze—synthesizing central features, big themes, and incredible problems with the propitious golden […]