Based on a wealth of family papers, period images, and popular literature, this is the first book devoted to the broad history of sibling relations in America. Illuminating the evolution of the modern family system, Siblings shows how brothers and sisters have helped each other in the face of the dramatic political, economic, and cultural changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As Hemphill demonstrates, siblings function across all races as humanity's shock-absorbers as well as valued kin and keepers of memory.

Jacob Wright Harlan (born 1828) grew up in Indiana and moved to Michigan where he joined an uncle who organized a wagon train to California in 1845. California '46 to '88 (1888) contains Harlan's memories of his overland journey to California in 1846, acquaintance with rescuers and survivors of the Reid and Donner Parties, Frémont's battalion in 1846-1847, San Francisco milk and livery businesses, storekeeping in gold camps near Coloma and Sonora, farming and ranching in and near San José, San Joaquín Valley, Alameda, and Choloma Valley. He then recalls his second overland trip to California, 1853, as part of cattle drive and real estate development in San Leandro.

"This is a rich and learned volume that has a story to tell to those seeking to understand contemporary Southern California."—David Johnson, managing editor of the Pacific Historical Review "Engagingly written and well researched, California Vieja is an intriguing, persuasive examination of the politics of memory and the built environment in southern California."—Vicki Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America