West Sacramento, in Yolo County, is just across the river from the state capital that shares part of its name. But it has a very distinct history. First called Washington, the area became an agricultural and industrial center that attracted Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian immigrants and helped to feed and supply the growing metropolis of Sacramento and surrounding counties. In 1911, the ambitious West Sacramento Land Company laid down electric rail links to downtown Sacramento and cleared the land for what they hoped would be large-scale developments and population growth. Eventually West Sacramento did grow, and in 1987 the communities of West Sacramento, Broderick, Bryte, and Southport joined together to become one of the newest incorporated cities in the state.

Historically speaking, Sacramento benefited from a gold rush, an agricultural boom and, more recently, a brewing renaissance. The region's craft beer scene exploded from six to more than sixty breweries in about a decade, and the roots of that culture stretch back more than a century. Before Prohibition, thousands of acres of local hops supplied brewers across the country. Local farms are once again taking advantage of the temperate climate. In 1958, the University of California-Davis started America's foremost brewing science program, producing some of California's top brewers. Rubicon's 1989 award-winning IPA was just the beginning for the current, innovative resurgence. Author Justin Chechourka explores the complexities and nuance of this fermenting heritage.

In the early 1900s, Sacramento became a battleground in a statewide struggle. On one side were Progressive political reformers and suffragettes. Opposing them were bars, dance halls, brothels and powerful business interests. Caught in the middle was the city's West End, a place where Grant "Skewball" Cross hosted jazz dances that often attracted police attention and Charmion performed her infamous trapeze striptease act before becoming a movie star. It was home to the "Queen of the Sacramento Tenderloin," Cherry de Saint Maurice, who met her untimely end at the peak of her success, and Ancil Hoffman, who ingeniously got around the city's dancing laws by renting riverboats for his soirées. Historian William Burg shares the long-hidden stories of criminals and crusaders from Sacramento's past.