From the Indians who inhabited the land before the first Europeans saw it through the warfare that would finally leave the province in American hands, this book, by the author of "Legends and Lies", traces the history of California.

Poetry. BEAR FLAG REPUBLIC features poems from ninety poets, including Killarney Clary, Wanda Coleman, Peter Everwine, Richard Garcia, Amy Gerstler, Robert Hass, Eloise Klein Healy, Jane Hirshfield, Garrett Hongo, Mark Jarman, Dorianne Laux, Philip Levine, Larry Levis, Morton Marcus, Czeslaw Milosz, Luis Omar Salinas, David St. John, Joseph Stroud, Amy Uyematsu, Diane Wakoski, Charles Wright, and Al Young, among many others. This great anthology also includes twenty-two essays from poets, including Robert Bly, Maxine Chernoff, Mark Jarman, Diane Wakoski, Charles Harper Webb, and more. "Speaking is natural; writing is not. Prose and poetry will forever combine and recombine to express what utterly needs to be told"--Al Young. "A prose poem has the shape of water; it spreads out. Some poems are that expansive, that open and fluid, and their shape needs to reflect their nature..."--Marsha de la O.

The Second Massachusetts Cavalry included the only organized group (5 companies totaling 504 men) from California to fight in the east during the Civil War. Led by a young Boston aristocrat, Colonel Charles R. Lowell, these men began their wartime careers in Northern Virginia in 1862, clashing with the partisan rangers of Major John S. Mosby, in a deadly world of guerrilla warfare. In August of 1864, the regiment was assigned to Major General Phil Sheridan’s Army of Shenandoah and served through all of the battles in the victorious campaign to clear the valley of Confederates, witnessing the final surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. This account tells what these men from California and Massachusetts accomplished, how they communicated, and how they viewed themselves. The book contains three appendices that list the battle casualties of the regiment during its largest engagements. Photographs and a bibliography are also included.

Dale L. Walker, historian and author of Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West, takes on the conquest of California in this vivid portrait of America's manifest destiny. Bear Flag Rising traces the history of California from the Indians who inhabited the land before the first Europeans saw it through the warfare that would finally leave the province in American hands. The lives of the Californios in tranquil days before the advent of American trappers and the steady decline of the province under Mexico's neglectful rule are brought to life in this epic chronicle. Battles and skirmishes, such as the bitter fight on the San Gabriel River during the march to recapture Los Angeles, are meticulously re-created in all their vicious glory. Above all, Bear Flag Rising is rich with the personalities of the conquest--from John Charles Fremont, the ambitious, enigmatic explorer, to Commodore Robert Field Stockton, a wealthy, imperious, and ruthless naval officer, and Stephen Watts Kearny, who made a 2,000-mile overland march from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, annexing New Mexico on the way, and arrived in California to face Mexican lancers in battle. Bear Flag Rising reveals, through exacting research and masterful prose, the full story of how Mexico lost California and how this Pacific paradise went on to become "the greatest jewel in the crown of the American Empire." At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

State geography, history, and culture are presented through directions for drawing the official seal, flag, flower, animal, and tree of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Historian Dale L. Walker chronicles the early days of the American Pacific Northwest in two engrossing accounts, now available in one volume: Pacific Destiny and Bear Flag Rising. Pacific Destiny: The Three-Century Journey to the Oregon Country Pacific Destiny chronicles the discovery, exploration, and settlement of America's Pacific Northwest. It is a story of cut-throat competition for control in an expanding America, first between Spain and England, then England and the United States. A story of explorers and tycoons, most notably John Jacob Astor, whose effort to establish a fur trading empire on the Columbia River ended with the massacre of his crew by the Vancouver Island Native Americans. Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846 Bear Flag Rising traces the history of California from the Native Americans who first inhabited the land through the warfare that would finally leave the province in the hands of European settlers. The lives of the Californians in tranquil days before the advent of American trappers and the steady decline of the province under Mexico's neglectful rule are brought to life in this epic chronicle. Battles and skirmishes, such as the bitter fight at San Pascual are meticulously recreated in all their vicious glory. Through exacting research and masterful prose, Bear Flag Rising reveals the full story of how Mexico lost California and how this Pacific paradise went on to became "the greatest jewel in the crown of the American Empire." At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.