Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

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CALIFORNIA HISTORY, December 2012
Published quarterly © 2012 by California
Historical Society
LC 75-640289/ISSN 0162-2897
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History.
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Attn: Janet Fireman
Loyola Marymount University
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California History CHS
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THE CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY is a
statewide membership-based organization designated
by the Legislature as the state historical
society. The California Historical Society inspires
and empowers Californians to make the past a
meaningful part of their contemporary lives.
A quarterly journal published by CHS since 1922,
California History features articles by leading
scholars and writers focusing on the heritage
of California and the West from pre-Columbian
to modern times. Illustrated articles, pictorial
essays, and book reviews examine the ongoing
dialogue between the past and the present.
CHS assumes no responsibility for statements
or opinions of the authors . MANUSCRIPTS for
publication and editorial correspondence should
be sent to Janet Fireman, Editor, California
History, History Department, Loyola Marymount
University, One LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA
90045-8415, or jfireman@lmu.edu. BOOKS FOR
REVIEW should be sent to James Rawls, Reviews
Editor, California Historical Society, 678 Mission
Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-4014 .
California historical Society
www.californiahistoricalsociety.org
from the editor
changes
David Bowie wrote and recorded the song “Changes” in 1971. Perhaps he meant
the mysterious lyrics to reflect his chameleon-like persona or technological
changes in the music industry. Whatever the inspiration, countless listeners
have found tender value in Bowie’s admonition to “Turn and face the strange
changes . . . but I can’t trace time.”
Neither could Californians trace or control the changes time brought over the
centuries. For Native Americans when Spaniards established missions, presidios,
and towns, and for Californios of Spanish and Mexican descent when
Americans conquered Alta California, achieved statehood, and built a burgeoning
state, time did anything but stand still.
Change, of course, is what history is about, and in this issue, three essays encapsulate
much of the chronology and many effects of sweeping social, political, economic,
cultural, and personal changes that people—and time—brought about.
In his essay, “‘With the God of Battles I Can Destroy All Such Villains’: War,
Religion, and the Impact of Islam on Spanish and Mexican California, 1769–
1846,” Michael Gonzalez asks how much, and in what form, the Muslim idea of
sacred violence influenced the Franciscan priests and Spanish-speaking settlers
who lived in California.
In “Courtship and Conquest: Alfred Sully’s Intimate Intrusion at Monterey,”
Stephen G. Hyslop brings perspective to the complexities of personal relationships
between conquered peoples and their conquerors, relating U.S. Army
Lieutenant Sully’s intimate social interactions with Californios, Native Americans,
and Southerners during his long military career.
Phoebe Cutler, in “Joaquin Miller and the Social Circle at the Hights,” provides
a colorful sketch of the controversial and magnetic “Poet of the Sierras.” Once a
gold miner, Indian fighter, Pony Express rider, backwoods judge, and journalist,
Miller envisioned his Oakland Hills outpost “the Hights”—built in the mid-
1880s—as an artists’ retreat. His vision became reality as California’s literati,
artists, and political figures flocked to him and his eccentric ranch at the turn of
the last century.
As if to demonstrate the incontrovertible permanence of change with the passage
of time, this issue—vol. 90, no. 1—is the last print edition of the journal,
as decided by the Board of Trustees of the California Historical Society. An electronic
issue, vol. 90, no. 2, will be published in April 2013 as the last appearance
of California History, terminating its ninety-year existence.
Janet Fireman
California History • volume 90 number 1 2012