The rise of the Southern Pacific Railroad in California owes a great deal to the citrus industry and vice versa. Ben Jenkins joins the show to discuss how these two industries came to define the state during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Essential Reading:

Benjamin Jenkins, The Octopus's Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California (2023).

Recommended Reading:

Genevieve Carpio, Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (2019).

Jared Farmer, Trees in Paradise: The Botanical Conquest of California (2017).

Phoebe Kropp, California Vieja: Culture and Memory in a Modern American Place (2008).

Richard J. Orsi, Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1950-1930 (2007).

Douglas Sackman, Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden (2007).

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