{"product_id":"the-heart-of-california-exploring-the-san-joaquin-valley-9781496218636","title":"The Heart of California: Exploring the San Joaquin Valley","description":"A vivid journey through California's vast rural interior, \u003ci\u003eThe Heart of California\u003c\/i\u003e weaves the story of historian Frank Latta's forgotten 1938 boat trip from Bakersfield to San Francisco with Aaron Gilbreath's trip retracing Latta's route by car during the 2014 drought. Latta embarked on his journey to publicize the need for dams and levees to improve flood control. Gilbreath made his own trip to profile Latta and the productive agricultural world that damming has created in the San Joaquin Valley, to describe the region's nearly lost indigenous culture and ecosystems, and to bring this complex yet largely ignored landscape to life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Valley is home to some of California's fastest growing cities and, by some estimates, produces 25 percent of America's food. The Valley feeds too many people, and is too unique, to be ignored. To understand California, you have to understand the Valley. Mixing travel writing, historical recreations, western history, natural history, and first-person reportage, \u003ci\u003eThe Heart of California\u003c\/i\u003e is a road-trip narrative about this fascinating region and its most important early documentarian. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bison Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781496218636\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 14.42h x 6.32w x 0.73d","brand":"Aaron Gilbreath","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38472136687797,"sku":"9781496218636","price":21.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_a58fce59-5397-4c10-98db-982544eec356.jpg?v=1612933905","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-heart-of-california-exploring-the-san-joaquin-valley-9781496218636","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}