Napa: The Story of an American Eden
by James Conaway
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Book Summary Information
Author: James ConawayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-24
ISBN: 0618257985
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of Napa: The Story of an American Eden
Book Review: Not terrific history; really quite boring
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a professional historian. I research, teach, and read lots of California history. While Conaway's facts may be accurate, this is not good history. He does provide a list of sources in the back of the book, to his credit, but there's no context for the story he tells. This a story of the corporatization of Napa Valley, a development that was part of a much larger movement underway throughout the nation at the same time it was taking place in the wine country. It is also the story of the individual wineries and key persons of the time, such as the Mondavi, de la Tour, Neibaum and other noteable families. Yet, there's no sense of their relative importance to the story--or more important--what story the author is telling. That was my greatest frustration with the book: it's purpose isn't clear until the very end. People come into the book without the reader having any sense of their significance to the story. And there are lots of folks in this book. There's a helpful list at the front of the book that allows the reader to attach some individuals to particular wineries and the eras of the Valley's history, but it's not entirely complete. For instance, Barbara Winiarksi's not there, although her husband is listed. Important public officials are also absent as is one of the books most intriguing characters, Rafael Rodriguez. An index at the back helps remind the reader how they came into the Valley. A map at the front aids the reader in locating various geographical features of the Valley, towns, and wineries.
The best portion of the book is the final section, called "The Tragedy," where Conaway describes the political tussle between the fruit growers and the vintners over development, the conflict that resulted in what you find in Napa today, including the strange Wine Train, the plethora of wineries that offer cooking classes, sell souvenirs, and generally engage in lots of activities not directly related to the making and selling of wine. The struggle involved attempts to create a legal definition of a Napa wine in order to both insure the well-being of the growers and preserve the Valley mainly for agricultural purposes in the face of vintners' activities unrelated to the production and selling of wine. Growers believed that those activities not only took up valuable land, but brought in tourists--both of which had a negative impact on the agricultural preserve created in the late '60s to maintain the health and well-being of the people and primary industry there. Many of the characters involved in that fight are introduced earlier in the book, but because there are so many people in the book and due to the lack of foreshadowing the character's importance to the story, it's difficult to remember how individuals such as Reverdy Johnson came into the Valley in the first place.
I learned a great deal about the history of the Valley and the people who made it. Yet an introduction laying out the book's goal would have been most welcome. Furthermore, this seems a story that focuses on insignificant details and does so without the larger context of which this story is a part. Corporatization of various segments of agriculture is an important development in California and the nation's history. Conaway reveals the role individuals and local officials played in that history. But what developments beyond Napa helped play a role in the general trend toward corporatization? What was going on in in Sacramento, Washington, and Wall Street? Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman's book, The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire, is a model of how writers can weave together local, state, and national developments.
If you're a Napa addict, you may or may not be interested in this book. It's lots of people, lots of details, without a sense of why they are important, other than for their wine, their names--until you get to the end. And if you are a Napa addict, you may not like the outcome since it is something of an indictment of all that draws so many to the Valley today: the souvenirs, the cooking classes, the restaurants, and the Wine Train. If one of my students had written something like this, with so many details, but no sense of the argument being made, I'd give them a C. I'd also advise them to expand their reading beyond the history of wine, beyond fairly dated works of state history. California history has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past fifteen years, but that is not reflected in the author's list of resources--other than one of Kevin Starr's volumes.
Summary of Napa: The Story of an American Eden
James Conaway's remarkable bestseller delves into the heart of California's lush and verdant Napa Valley, also known as America's Eden. Long the source of succulent grapes and singular wines, this region is also the setting for the remarkable true saga of the personalities behind the winemaking empires. This is the story of Gallos and Mondavis, of fortunes made and lost, of dynasties and destinies. In this delightful, full-bodied social history, James Conaway charts the rise of a new aristocracy and, in so doing, chronicles the collective ripening of the American dream. More than a wine book, Napa is a must-read for anyone interested in our country's obsession with money, land, power, and prestige.
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