{"product_id":"backcountry-ghosts-california-homesteaders-and-the-making-of-a-dubious-dream-hardcover-1","title":"Backcountry Ghosts: California Homesteaders and the Making of a Dubious Dream - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJosh Sides\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCalifornia is an infamously tough place to be poor: home to about half of the entire nation's homeless population, burdened by staggering home prices and unsustainable rental rates, California is a state in crisis. But it wasn't always that way, as prize-winning historian Josh Sides reveals in \u003ci\u003eBackcountry Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, the most ambitious and sweeping social policy in the history of the United States. In the Golden State more than a hundred thousand people filed homesteading claims between 1863 and the late 1930s. More than sixty thousand Californians succeeded, claiming about ten million acres. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eBackcountry Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e Josh Sides tells the histories of these Californian homesteaders, their toil and enormous patience, successes and failures, doggedness in the face of natural elements and disasters, and resolve to defend hard-earned land for themselves and their children. While some of these homesteaders were fulfilling the American Dream--that all Americans should have the opportunity to own land regardless of their background or station--others used the Homestead Act to add to already vast landholdings or control water or mineral rights. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Sides recovers the fascinating stories of individual homesteaders in California, both those who succeeded and those who did not, and the ways they shaped the future of California and the American West. \u003ci\u003eBackcountry Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the dangers of American dreaming in a state still reeling from the ambitions that led to the Great Recession. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJosh Sides \u003c\/b\u003eis Whitsett Professor of California History, California State University at Northridge. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eL.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eErotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Bullough Prize and the Lewis Mumford Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 248\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 9.2 x 7.7 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 01, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52457027371315,"sku":"9781496213211","price":36.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/SExadXVxSk1kUGw3dllOc3AxcFEyQT09_aa4d7c9f-5926-4c39-989f-58dbfb93c9f5.webp?v=1759165028","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/backcountry-ghosts-california-homesteaders-and-the-making-of-a-dubious-dream-hardcover-1","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}