Napa Valley is known for its wine and winemakers, but just beneath the fertile soil lies another, more complex version of its history. Uncover the story of Napa's first Chinatown--once home to nearly five hundred immigrants--that dwindled to fewer than seventeen residents before the last buildings were razed in the early twentieth century. Meet the small but determined group of African American farmers and barbers who called Napa home and the indomitable May Howard, a successful businesswoman and brothel owner. Learn about the Bracero Program that kept many of Napa's wineries, including Krug, Beaulieu and Stag's Leap, thriving during World War II. Join author Alexandria Brown as she explores these lesser-known stories of the ordinary people who helped shape modern-day wine country.

Annotation How has California's landscape changed? What did now-familiar places look like during prior centuries? This book explores these questions by taking readers on a dazzling visual tour of Napa Valley from the early 1800s onward - a forgotten land of brilliant wildflower fields, lush wetlands, and grand oak savannas.

Charles Sullivan's Napa Wine: A History, is the engaging story of the rise to prominence of what many believe to be the greatest winegrowing area in the Western hemisphere. This new edition completes that picture, bringing to light more than a decade of dramatic changes and shifted norms visited upon the valley, from pholoxera-wasted vineyards to High Court-officiated territorial battles, told in a rousing, transportive narrative. Beginning in 1817 with the movement of Spanish missions into the San Francisco Bay area, Sullivan winds his way through the great wine boom of the late 19th-century, the crippling effect of Prohibition, and Napa's rise out of its havoc to its eventual rivaling of Bordeaux in the judgments of 1976 and 2006. Published in cooperation with the Napa Valley Wine Library, the book includes historic maps, charts of vineyard ownership, and vintages from the 1880s to present.

The rich history of Napa County spans from the first indigenous American Indians through the Spanish mission period; from the first pioneer white settlers and Gold Rush forty-niners, to the agricultural and viticulture gold rush, and into the tourist destination it is today. As soon as postcards came into being, the enterprising business and resort owners in Napa County began using them to advertise and promote Napa as a destination resort. It is through these windows into the past, sent across the country and the world by visitors and residents alike, that we get a glimpse into life in the Napa Valley during the last century.