March 19th, Faculty Club
12:00 noon

Led by R. Todd Welker

Since the early modern period, Europeans and Americans have kept diaries in order to monitor their economic obligations around the communities in which they lived. California farmers in the late-nineteenth century were no exception. Based on a systematic analysis of a few sample years of the diary of one farmer in Santa Clara County, this talk explores the everyday economic practices of ordinary farmers in the Golden State and the meanings that they attached to those practices.

Agriculture lies at the heart of California's prosperity; the culture of the vast California countryside remains a powerful element in the complex mix that has shaped the fabled and unique contemporary identity of the Golden State. We invite the campus community to join us for this informal talk. Our Round Tables aim to highlight the fruitfulness of Bancroft's collections to developing an understanding of our society and its history.