Three Years in California: William Perkins' Journal of Life at Sonora, 1849-1852

William Perkins (1827-1893)

Published by University of California Press, Berkeley, 1964

About this Item

424 pages with plates and index. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 1/2") bound i n original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Introduction and annotations by Dale Morgan and James R Scobie. from the library of Professor Donald Worcester. First edition. William Perkins was a young Canadian who became an Argonaut early in 1849 when he boarded a steamboat at Cincinnati, and descended the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, past New Orleans, to Brazos Santiago in Texas. There he disembarked to journey across Mexico to mazatlan on the Pacific coast, where he found a passage on another vessel bound for the golden Gate, Pausing briefly in San Francisco, he went on to the southern gold field around Sonora, where he worked first as a miner and later as a storekeeper and merchant before returning to New Orleans in 1852. Perkins' journal is a unique document in the literature of western America. Donald E. Worcester (1915-2003) was an American historian who specialized in Southwestern United States and Latin American history. He was president of the Western History Association from 1974-1975. Worcester graduated from Bard College in 1939. He received an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941. He then served in the US Naval Reserve in World War II. He received a PhD. from Berkeley in 1947. From 1947 until 1963 he was a professor at the University of Florida. He then was a professor at Texas Christian University and history department chair. From 1960 until 1965 he was managing editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review. Worcester's view that history is made of complexities, not dualities, is seen as foundational for much of the understanding by later scholars of Southwest United States history. Condition: Worcester's stamp on front end paper and head page end, corners bumped. Jacket spine sunned else a very good copy in a near fine copy. Seller Inventory # BOOKS005662

Bibliographic Details

Title: Three Years in California: William Perkins' ...

Publisher: University of California Press, Berkeley

Publication Date: 1964

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

Edition: 1st Edition