California Western

Gold fever. It swept the country from coast to coast, luring more than a hundred thousand seekers to the untamed territory of California. For them, the Gold Rush of 1848 represented the American Dream come true. But for the settlers who lived there, it was an all-out assault on the homes they’d struggled so hard to build. Now boomtowns arise overnight, teeming with outlaws, killers, and desperate men. In Sacramento Valley, former Texas Ranger Rick Miller struggles to keep the peace with nothing more than a six shooter and guts.

At the height of California's Gold Rush, men left everything behind for the chance at striking it rich. Now, some 30 years after its peak, gold fever still entices adventurous Easterners like James Macklin Chance, a poor Pennsylvanian who is drawn to California by the dream of lasting wealth - a dream so powerful he'll stop at nothing to see it through. 

Acclaimed author, historian, and Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Starr is a professor at the University of Southern California. His extensive knowledge shines through this concise, yet comprehensive, depiction of the most fascinating aspects in California's history. From its colonial beginnings through Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the Golden State has become a uniquely American phenomenon that has enchanted people with the possibility of a better life.

Dive into a cinematic narrative history of the American frontier, where a shimmering discovery ignited a global stampede. Perfect for your morning commute, this gritty immersion transports you straight into the noise, mud, and lawlessness of 19th-century boomtowns. Go beyond campfire myths of...

'A candid, rollicking read…roars with honesty, chaos, self-awareness, literary ambition and drunken benders.' – The Times A unique and audacious memoir, by turns affecting, funny. uncanny and unforgettable. This is a memoir like no other. It claws at me with its long, thin nails. I wince as...

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times ("incandescent...hilarious...a triumph"), Oprah Daily ("surreal, absurd, lucid, and wise"), Vanity Fair ("Broder [is] a genius and a sorceress"), and more! From the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly absurdist novel about...

A recent finishing school graduate, 18-year-old Garnet Cameron is desperate for direction. Too driven for the restrictive manners of the upper class, Garnet is naturally drawn to Oliver Hale, a frontier trader from the West. Unlike the men to whom she's accustomed, Oliver treats Garnet as an equal and respects her independence. His tales of adventure on the plains thrill her. And his proposal of marriage is accepted. Then Garnet discovers how ill-prepared she is for the punishing landscape of the Jubilee Trail and the even harsher realities of human nature.

For three-years, Jeb Benjamin and Zach Daughtry dreamed of traveling to California to gain their fortune, once released from Camp Douglas, an infamous Union POW hellhole. When the Confederate veterans reach Jeb’s sisters ranch in the Rio Grande valley, they find it in flames, his sister’s family dead and the ranch’s cattle stolen. Death and destruction haunt the veterans. A border war flares with General Juan Cortiña’s irregulars. Jeb learns Juan’s younger brother, Miguel, has raided their ranch, kidnapping his 14-year-old niece.

Gold fever. It swept the country from coast to coast, luring more than a hundred thousand seekers to the untamed territory of California. For them, the Gold Rush of 1848 represented the American Dream come true. But for the settlers who lived there, it was an all-out assault on the homes they'd struggled so hard to build. Now boomtowns arise overnight, teeming with outlaws, killers, and desperate men. In Sacramento Valley, former Texas Ranger Rick Miller struggles to keep the peace with nothing more than a six shooter and guts.

Will Cannon rides the rails to the California wine country looking for the Blackman Gang. He starts buying and shipping horses, but the outlaw boss, Ricardo, doesn't want anyone getting in his way, and the battle lines are drawn. Will gets some help from some young cowboys and a band of Modoc Indians to fight the outlaws.

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier. Across the Pecos, the Rio Colorado and La Panza mountains, the Texans and their longhorns kept charging-all the way to California gold! Between The Bandera Range And...

Her sister gone, her roommates soon to follow, Leora Mitchell must now face the fact that she, along with the others, are mail-order brides. For years, her life revolved around Brown’s Textile Mill, her sister Lottie, and their friends. Now, as mail-order brides, they’d be scattered across the country, ready to start a new life. The only problem was Leora had no idea what that life looked like, nor did she have any idea who she was without the familiar faces she loved so much.

Mail Order Bride: Sent by God to the California Cowboy is about a young woman in New York City who has fallen onto hard times after being released from the orphanage she had been in for a majority of her life. Two kind women take her into a halfway house, but there is reason for her to leave New York immediately. The only way the women feel they can keep her safe is to ship her off to California where their nephew, they tell her, needs a good housekeeper and cook for his ranch.

Julia has hopes to meet her true love by responding to a Mail Order Bride advertisement from the west. On the way, Julia is stricken with a severe illness and is scared for her life. She also fears that she will not have a chance to get to know the man that God has led her to. Will she recover? Will the cowboy and his hopeful bride have a chance to know their true love?