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Probably. Yes. Though there are clearly many things that could make a person upset with the "evil big company", the incredible detail about the families, their lives, and the entire history gives some balance to the view.As an environmentalist, I hate to see what happened (with big ag). Worth reading. As a Californian, I'm extremely glad I know something important about our history. After finally slogging through this giant book, I'm ready to recommend it to anybody who is interested in water and agriculture, and how the relationship between these two things has developed in the state of California.
I feel like I "lived" it by reading the pages of this long history of the Boswell family and how it has shaped not only California, but much of the agricultural system in the United States.What's more interesting to me is that the book left me with a good perspective, both good and bad, of how these giants of agriculture came to be. Too long. This book is not a light read, and sometimes a bit confusing to follow. As an American, I have a much deeper appreciation of how our country was formed, with all its entrepreneurial spirit and warts combined.Is the book long. Definitely. However, the length and amount of information - it was much more like reading a Michener book like Hawaii than a regular boring history book.
As a businessman, I can't help but be impressed.
The land around Tulare Lake eventually got folded into Boswell farming empire. If you wanted to focus on a single family/farming empire that played the biggest role in this alternation, then you could do no better than The King of California.Tulare Lake lies near the southern end of California's Central Valley. G. The draining of vast sweeps of wetlands along with the damming and channeling of four major rivers has altered the landscape in both a manner and at a scale that is, quite literally, unprecedented.
During dry years, as the shoreline contracted, the land could be transformed to grow grain or row crops. In fact, to grow a single T-shirt takes 257 gallons of water. If you own a piece of cotton underwear, chances are pretty good it's fibers came from land in California's Central Valley. And by default, you can be sure the Boswell family grew it. This particular chapter details the rise of a farming empire in California's Central Valley. Coming from Greene County Georgia, the Boswell family built this empire largely on the backs of migrant labor and water--lots and lots of water. In wet years, however, as the Sierra Nevada snow pack melted, the runoff of the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers filled this basin. The Californian land barons went by the names of Henry Miller, J.
Boswell was determined to rein these waters in and convinced the Federal Government to help.In an errant attempt to encourage small family farms, loopholes in the reclamation laws brought most of the land in the Central Valley under the control of a handful of private landowners. In the final analysis, the Boswell's got the land, the water rights, and handed the tax-payers the bill for the construction of Pine Flat Dam on the Kings River.I feel a bit of guilt when I throw on a mass produced cotton T-shirt (e.g., I can buy a three-pack for under ten dollars). The King of California tells the interesting story of how the Boswells became the single largest grower of cotton in the United States. Mass produced cotton uses a lot of water. The big runoff produced high flows into July and August, resulting in a vast and expanding lake shore. Because this cheap cotton underwear really isn't that cheap.
One other point: on the way to becoming one of the largest landowners in California, the Boswell's forever reshaped the landscape and drained Tulare Lake.Prior to settlement, the Central Valley's river floodplain system nourished some 1.4 million acres of tule marshes and wooded wetlands. Boswell, and "Cockeye" Salyer. J.G. The proximity of such a huge, seasonal lake to a large farming operation was a mixed blessing. The flooded farmland resulted in less crops, less money.
In numerous places, they abandon all journalistic detachment and express their opinion as fact, usually in a blistering condemnation of their target. As a transplant to California, I picked this book up out of historical curiosity and, from that perspective, it does not disappoint. The authors' inherent bias notwithstanding, they did a good job of research and crafted an engaging narrative. Consider this screed against former Los Angeles Times Publisher Harrison Gray Otis on page 83: "Otis was a fourth-rate publisher and first-rate bully who used the columns of his disgraceful newspaper to spill bile and venom at organized labor and an infinite list of enemies, real and imagined."-- Fact or Opinion. The story of the Boswell Company's growth and not-infrequent run-ins with regulators and legislators is an interesting, eminently readable history of California itself. Water rights and agriculture policy are, rather dry subjects in and of themselves, but told as part of the story of this interesting family and company, they come to life.The only drawback of the book is that the authors can barely conceal their utter contempt for their subject.
A great non-fiction companion piece would be "Wealth and Democracy" by Kevin Philips. I'm not feeling real verbose so just let me say that this book illustrates so much more about US history than the mere subject of cotton suggests. The Boswell story is the American story of our moving further and further away from democratic, egalitarian principles in the pursuit of various notions of efficiency.Great book.
The basic story is good, but the author takes too much time and too many pages to tell it. This book is way too long and somewhat redundant and boring.
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