Osborne's work is the first history text to explore the sweep of California's past in relationship to its connections within the maritime world of the Pacific Basin.

• Presents a provocative and original interpretation of the entire span of California history
• Reveals how the area's Pacific Basin connections have shaped the Golden State's past
• Refutes the widely held notion among historians that California was isolated before the onset of the American period in the mid-1800s
• Represents the first text to draw on anthropologist Jon Erlandson's findings that...