New Book Releases

We’re always on the hunt for the next great American history book. When we find it, you’ll see about it here, with our new book releases. We release new history books each month in a variety of subjects and series. Browse through all of our newest titles below, and discover your next favorite history book at Arcadia Publishing! [View all New Book Releases]

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Los Angeles's The Palms Neighborhood

Graton

9780738569895

$24.99

The town of Graton is located in the beautiful and fertile Green Valley, which was first settled in the mid-1800s by pioneer families such as the Sullivans, Gregsons, and Winklers. When the railroad came through the area, realtor James Gray and banker J. H. Brush bought land and created one of the first subdivisions in Sonoma County. They named the streets after themselves and their children, and in 1905, Graton was born. Along with the agricultural industry in California, the town thrived until the 1970s and then declined, only to be reborn in the 1990s. Throughout all Graton's phases, Oak Grove School (1854), the Pacific Christian Academy (1918), and the Graton Community Club (1914) remained vital. Graton is now part of a premiere wine-growing region, and visitors as well as locals are attracted to its vibrant downtown businesses, award-winning restaurants, and artistic community.

Around Boron

9780738569437

$24.99

In the late 1920s, this high desert area with little water and unproductive soil held no attraction for most people, but the small community of Amargo provided a grocery store, gas station, and of course a saloon for the convenience of tenacious gold and borax prospectors. In 1938, after the large deposit of borax was discovered and mining had begun, a town hall meeting was called and Le Roy Osborne, supervisor of Pacific Coast Borax Company, suggested changing the name from Amargo to Boron. Boron is the fifth element on the periodic table and combines with other nonmetallic minerals to form a family of related minerals called borates; after this was explained to those gathered at the town hall meeting, Boron was unanimously chosen as its new name and the community was forever linked to the borax mining industry.

Seaside

9780738569819

$24.99

Seaside's local history is unique and in many ways a microcosm of the ethnic mosaic that is California. Situated on the Monterey Bay, this working-class community of approximately 33,000 was incorporated in 1954; it was a typical military town, tied to Fort Ord, until the closure of the base in 1994. Seaside was home to a variety of ethnic groups, but after World War II, the city experienced a surge of immigration by African Americans associated with the military. Today the city is witness to another demographic shift symbolic of the state's changing face, as Mexican immigrants and their children now form the largest minority group in Seaside. Over the years, the city has continued to grow and attract new residents and visitors with its friendly community and striking coastal location.

Yountville

9780738569659

$24.99

Over the past decade, the town of Yountville has received worldwide recognition as a tourist destination specializing in fine wine, luxurious hotel and spa accommodations, and award-winning restaurants. In fact, these achievements and accolades have earned it the name "Heart of the Napa Valley." Longtime residents, however, realize that Yountville's temperate weather, rich soils, and serene environs have been attracting visitors to the area not for decades but rather for thousands of years. The original indigenous residents called the surrounding area Caymus and constructed their homes out of willow and tule. Later the village of Caymus became known as Sebastopol, a name used by mountain man George C. Yount, the first American settler to receive a Mexican land grant. Yount's Kentucky-style blockhouse provided a welcome mat for many of California's early pioneers. He is also credited with planting some of the first grapevines in the Napa Valley. Upon his death in 1865, local residents wanted to honor the contribution of Yount and changed the name from Sebastopol to Yountville.

Carlsbad

9780738569925

$24.99

Once a small coastal community known for avocados and flower fields, Carlsbad has grown into a sprawling suburban city, with a small beach-town feel that still maintains ties to its roots. The discovery of its mineral wells in 1885, and the subsequent naming of the city after the famed European spa in Karlsbad, Bohemia, put Carlsbad on the map as a world-class resort destination. Miles of beautiful beaches, and three lagoons located within its boundaries, have shaped Carlsbad into a recreational destination as well. The Flower Fields, with vibrant rows of colorful ranunculus, now serves as a reminder of the past and a link to the future, as shopping and businesses have grown up around them, helping Carlsbad evolve into the diverse, progressive city it is today.

Los Angeles's The Palms Neighborhood

9780738569932

$24.99

The Westside neighborhood of Palms is the oldest suburb of Los Angeles. Founded in 1886 halfway between L.A. and the beach on a steam railroad line, Palms attracted wealthy Angelinos escaping the summer's downtown heat as well as Easterners seeking a new life in "the natural home of the fig, olive, lemon, lime, apricot, and that class of fruit that brings the largest profit in the local market." Rancho Park and Mar Vista had yet to make it onto maps--it was all "The Palms." The school district stretched from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north toward Redondo Beach on the south. A lively social and business life sprang up, but gradually the metropolis enfolded Palms, which was annexed into Los Angeles in 1915. After World War II, subdivisions brought young families, the flatlands became a huge swath of apartments, and the barren hill area became the tree-shrouded Westside Village.

San Ramon Valley:

9780738530819

$24.99

The San Ramon Valley stretches for 20 beautiful miles under the shadow of Mount Diablo and includes the bustling communities of San Ramon, Alamo, and Danville. Some 113,000 people make their homes here in a scenic area of open spaces, gracious homes, and tree-lined streets. Also here are major business hubs and the winding Interstate 680 freeway. Of course, this valley wasn't always so populous. In the 1850s, while nearby San Francisco boomed and Oakland grew up, this valley remained rural. Mount Diablo became an important early survey marker during California's gold rush, but only in recent decades have the early ranchos and small villages given way to the modern cities we know today.

Lodi

9780738569246

$24.99

Originally founded as the town of Mokelumne in 1869, Lodi formed when a group of settlers persuaded the Central Pacific Railroad to build a route from Sacramento to Stockton through their land. Mokelumne changed its name to Lodi in 1874 and incorporated as a city in 1906. Described early on as the queen city of the San Joaquin Valley, the Lodi area quickly boomed into an agricultural powerhouse, its fertile soil producing wheat, watermelons, orchards, and wine grapes. Laura DeForce Gordon, the second female lawyer in California, called Lodi home, as did winemaking pioneer Robert Mondavi. Lodi is also the birthplace of A&W Root Beer, first sold by Roy Allen at his drugstore on Pine Street. Today Lodi boasts over 75,000 acres of vineyards and 60 wineries, producing over 40 percent of California's zinfandel grapes and making this town the zinfandel capital of the world.

Laguna Beach

9780738569970

$24.99

As one of the West Coast's most unique and beautiful resort cities, Laguna Beach has thrived as an enduring enclave of art culture, a destination of hidden beaches, and a coastline rich in natural wonders, which its officials and residents strive to maintain. Settlers arrived in the 1870s, and by the summer of 1918 Laguna's first art gallery opened, featuring works by a growing collective of local artists. Hundreds of visitors came on opening day and, in the next month, 2,000 more visited the small art gallery. In 1932, Laguna started what would become a world-renowned event called the Festival of the Arts and later added the equally famous Pageant of the Masters. Since its simple beginnings as a small village situated where Laguna Canyon opens onto the Pacific shoreline to the reason there are traffic jams on Coast Highway during hot-month weekends, this southern Orange County jewel has continued to be a great draw for beachgoers, painters, and nature lovers the world over.

Santa Clarita Valley

9780738569383

$24.99

A trade crossroads dating back to Native American times, Santa Clarita may be relatively new in the story of Los Angeles County's suburban sprawl, but old-timers also recall it as the "Navel of the Universe." A Chinese general once declared the Santa Clarita Valley one of the top 10 military targets on Earth. Located east of the Ventura County line where the valley creates a break in the Angeles National Forest, Santa Clarita has been home to cowboys, movie stars, farmers, and pistol fighters. With a diverse population of 250,000 today, the Santa Clarita Valley still boasts an eclectic heritage. The West's first major oil refinery is located here. The ground was bloodied by at least 21 deaths in one of America's last and greatest range wars. And local lore has maintained that the world's largest grizzly bear, weighing more than a ton, was shot here.

Encino

9780738569918

$24.99

The San Fernando Valley area that became the modern city of Encino has gone through a surprisingly international sequence of ownership, beginning with Native American tribes, then the Spanish and Californios, followed by the French, Basques, and Americans. In the post-World War II boom, Encino became an affluent enclave of those who portrayed all of the above on the screen: Hollywood movie and television stars. Encino originated around an artesian spring that served for several thousand years as the gathering place of three tribes: the Fernandeño, Tongva, and Chumash. This spring, which was documented in Fr. Juan Crespi's diary during the Portola Expedition in 1769, today still provides water within the grounds of Los Encinos State Historic Park. El encino is Spanish for "the oak," and the area was so named for the vast panorama of oak groves covering it.

Solvang

9780738559353

$24.99

"Denmark in America" describes the charming village of Solvang, California. What began as a Danish colony has become something entirely different than what the founders intended. Following World War II, Danish-style architecture was emphasized in this Santa Barbara County coastal community, and generations of visitors have come to Solvang for the annual Danish Days celebration. However, understanding Solvang as merely a tourist destination would overlook the historical foundation upon which the Danish colony was established in the Santa Ynez Valley--to establish a cultural community for religious and educational purposes in the desirable California climate. This book celebrates the old Solvang as well as the one millions of tourists know today.

Fullerton

9780738547886

$24.99

This remarkable collection of over 200 vintage postcards, which date from 1891, visually document Fullerton's growth from an agricultural settlement into a city of 130,000 residents. Unique and rare postcards of all types--advertising, greeting, historical, photographic, and novelty--provide glimpses down through the years of Fullerton's hopes and possibilities, successes and accomplishments, as one of Orange County's most wealthy and important communities. Fullerton and Orange County have a rich social history, and the pictures and messages stored on the fronts and backs of these postcards showcase the people, places, and events that were the most important to residents over the decades.