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Timber, Sail, and Rail
An Archaeology of Industry, Immigration, and the Loma Prieta Mill
Marco Meniketti
222 pages, 50 illus., bibliog., index
ISBN 978-1-78920-726-2 $135.00/£99.00 / Hb / Published (June 2020)
eISBN 978-1-78920-727-9 eBook
Reviews
“Timber, Sail, and Rail gives an outstanding summary of the issues of industry, labor, and ethnicity that are central to historical archaeology. With a well-crafted account of the growth of the Santa Cruz timber industry and its relationship to national and global trends, Meniketti offers a detailed description of an undertheorized field. It will be a compelling read for those with an interest in California history, labor and industry, immigration and ethnic identity, and industrial landscapes.” • California Archaeology
“…a valuable examination of the timber industry’s technology, culture, and people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” • Technology and Culture
“…one of the best books in the field of industrial archaeology. As excavations continue, we can expect that Meniketti will produce additional studies of high quality.” • IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archaeology
“Although archaeologists have investigated logging sites for several decades, rarely has this work found publication or broader contextualization. In Timber, Sail, and Rail, the author does just this. This book connects the technological and labor histories, and firmly situates archaeological investigations at the Loma Prieta Mill within the regional contexts of immigration and extractive industry.” • Paul White, University of Nevada, Reno
Description
While taking a critical look at the labor and social issues related to timber, the story of labor, immigration, and development around the San Francisco Bay region is told through the lens of an archaeological case study of a major player of the timber industry between 1885 and 1920. Timber, Sail, and Rail recounts the mill operations and broadly examines its intersections with other industries, such as shipping, brick manufacture, rail companies, lime production, and other lesser enterprises. Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork, as well as ethnography and regional archival work, are examined to emphasize technological and labor components at the historic Loma Prieta mill.
Marco Meniketti is a Professor and senior archaeologist at San Jose State University in California. He has received the Vogel Prize from the Society for Industrial Archeology and the SJSU College of Social Science award for Excellence in Teaching and is the 2020 recipient of the Austen D. Warburton Award of Merit by the College of Social Science at San Jose State University. From 2017–20 he served as Chair of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology.