David Wyatt

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Five Fires

IN THIS WHOLLY original study, David Wyatt uses the metaphor of fire to tell the story of California. Wyatt focuses this “catastrophic history" of his native state on five events of social combustion and tangible fire that swept through California, alterin its physical and political landscape and the way both were represented in art and literature.

The book begins with the accidental importation and spread of the wild oat in the 1770s, a process that had its human parallel in the Spanish invaders. Wyatt then explores the impact of four other significant events: the GOld Rush, the 1906 earthquake and fire, the post-World War II defense-industry book, and the “fire of race" that erupted in Watts in 1965. This fifth fire, which flared throughout the Chinese and Mexican immigration experiences and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, has been at the core of California´s history, Wyatt argues.

From the journals of a Gold Camp “mineress" to AMy Tan´s novels, from Ansel Adams´s photography to Roman Polanski´s films, this book brings into dialogue a wide range of powerful, moving voices.