Trees in Paradise
A California History
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $39.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin Scollin
-
By:
-
Jared Farmer
About this listen
From roots to canopy, a lush, verdant history of the making of California.
California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. It’s the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities. They imported the blue-green eucalypts whose tangy fragrance was thought to cure malaria. They built the lucrative "Orange Empire" on the sweet juice and thick skin of the Washington navel, an industrial fruit. They lined their streets with graceful palms to announce that they were not in the Midwest anymore. To the north the majestic coastal redwoods inspired awe and invited exploitation. A resource in the state, the durable heartwood of these timeless giants became infrastructure, transformed by the saw teeth of American enterprise. By 1900 timber firms owned the entire redwood forest; by 1950 they had clear-cut almost all of the old-growth trees.
In time California’s new landscape proved to be no paradise: The eucalypts in the Berkeley hills exploded in fire; the orange groves near Riverside froze on cold nights; Los Angeles’s palms harbored rats and dropped heavy fronds on the streets below. Disease, infestation, and development all spelled decline for these nonnative evergreens. In the north, however, a new forest of second-growth redwood took root, nurtured by protective laws and sustainable harvesting. Today there are more California redwoods than there were a century ago.
Rich in character and story, Trees in Paradise is a dazzling narrative that offers an insightful, new perspective on the history of the Golden State and the American West.
©2013 Jared Farmer (P)2013 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Dreamt Land
- Chasing Water and Dust Across California
- By: Mark Arax
- Narrated by: Mark Arax
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion.
-
-
Damn Near Perfect!
- By Charlie Morton on 12-08-19
By: Mark Arax
-
The King of California
- J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire
- By: Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions, and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields". The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s, drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world.
-
-
Interesting story of California Ag history
- By Jean on 08-11-14
By: Mark Arax, and others
-
California
- An American History
- By: John Mack Faragher
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. California's natural variety has always supported diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern states, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Beautifully crafted and elegantly written, Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, others mostly unknown.
-
-
This book is awful
- By Terry Van Loon on 08-25-22
-
California Burning
- The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid
- By: Katherine Blunt
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure.
-
-
Best book I've read this year.
- By Constance L. Gehrt on 10-21-23
By: Katherine Blunt
-
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
- The American West and Its Disappearing Water
- By: Marc Reisner
- Narrated by: Joe Spieler, Kate Udall
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants to transform the West.
-
-
Too much mouth noise in narration
- By AES on 07-23-19
By: Marc Reisner
-
Sprout Lands
- Tending the Endless Gift of Trees
- By: William Bryant Logan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls, and baskets. No place could prosper without its inhabitants knowing how to cut their trees so they would sprout again. This created the healthiest, most sustainable, and most diverse woodlands that we have ever known. In this journey from the English fens to Spain, Japan, and California, William Bryant Logan rediscovers what was once an everyday ecology.
-
-
Lovely stories
- By Secret santa on 04-28-23
-
The Dreamt Land
- Chasing Water and Dust Across California
- By: Mark Arax
- Narrated by: Mark Arax
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion.
-
-
Damn Near Perfect!
- By Charlie Morton on 12-08-19
By: Mark Arax
-
The King of California
- J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire
- By: Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions, and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields". The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s, drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world.
-
-
Interesting story of California Ag history
- By Jean on 08-11-14
By: Mark Arax, and others
-
California
- An American History
- By: John Mack Faragher
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. California's natural variety has always supported diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern states, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Beautifully crafted and elegantly written, Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, others mostly unknown.
-
-
This book is awful
- By Terry Van Loon on 08-25-22
-
California Burning
- The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid
- By: Katherine Blunt
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure.
-
-
Best book I've read this year.
- By Constance L. Gehrt on 10-21-23
By: Katherine Blunt
-
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
- The American West and Its Disappearing Water
- By: Marc Reisner
- Narrated by: Joe Spieler, Kate Udall
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants to transform the West.
-
-
Too much mouth noise in narration
- By AES on 07-23-19
By: Marc Reisner
-
Sprout Lands
- Tending the Endless Gift of Trees
- By: William Bryant Logan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once, farmers knew how to make a living hedge and fed their flocks on tree-branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts, and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls, and baskets. No place could prosper without its inhabitants knowing how to cut their trees so they would sprout again. This created the healthiest, most sustainable, and most diverse woodlands that we have ever known. In this journey from the English fens to Spain, Japan, and California, William Bryant Logan rediscovers what was once an everyday ecology.
-
-
Lovely stories
- By Secret santa on 04-28-23
-
We Are the Land
- A History of Native California
- By: Damon B. Akins, William J. Bauer Jr.
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before there was such a thing as "California," there were the People and the Land. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, this book recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood—paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
-
-
Incredible
- By TNJ on 12-10-23
By: Damon B. Akins, and others
-
The Ohlone Way
- Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area
- By: Malcolm Margolin
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most groundbreaking and highly acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. Recently included in the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top 100 Western Non-Fiction” list, The Ohlone Way has been described by critic Pat Holt as a “mini-classic”.
-
-
Will be rereading this book for years
- By Nat Taggart on 06-21-22
By: Malcolm Margolin
-
Finding the Mother Tree
- Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
- By: Suzanne Simard
- Narrated by: Suzanne Simard
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.
-
-
Couldn't finish, will try the hard copy
- By primrose on 07-22-21
By: Suzanne Simard
-
The High Sierra
- A Love Story
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a changed man, awed by a landscape that made him feel as if he were simultaneously strolling through an art museum and scrambling on a jungle gym like an energized child. He has returned to the mountains throughout his life—more than a hundred trips—and has gathered a vast store of knowledge about them. The High Sierra is his lavish celebration of this exceptional place.
-
-
Disappointed in the judgmental tone
- By Amazon Customer on 08-18-22
-
How to Hide an Empire
- A History of the Greater United States
- By: Daniel Immerwahr
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are familiar with maps that outline all 50 states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire", exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories - the islands, atolls, and archipelagos - this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, author Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light.
-
-
How to beat a straw man to death
- By Susan on 01-25-20
By: Daniel Immerwahr
-
Sand Talk
- How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
- By: Tyson Yunkaporta
- Narrated by: Tyson Yunkaporta
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability - and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently?
-
-
um...
- By Michael D. Phillips on 01-12-21
By: Tyson Yunkaporta
-
Two Years Before the Mast
- By: Richard Henry Dana
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Henry Dana, a law student turned sailor for health reasons, sailed in 1834 aboard the brig Pilgrim on a voyage from Boston around Cape Horn to California. Drawing from his journals, Two Years Before the Mast gives a vivid and detailed account, shrewdly observed and beautifully described, of a common sailor's wretched treatment at sea, and of a way of life virtually unknown at that time.
-
-
The Uncommon Common Sailor in the Age of Sail
- By Jefferson on 05-24-13
-
The Nature of Oaks
- The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
-
-
Inspirational
- By Kaysi12 on 07-22-22
-
Crucible of War
- The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766
- By: Fred Anderson
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War - long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution - takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain's empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution. Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration.
-
-
A Detailed History
- By Daniel on 07-15-18
By: Fred Anderson
-
The Ghost Forest
- Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods
- By: Greg King
- Narrated by: Galen Osier
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping historical memoir, journalist and famed redwood activist Greg King examines how investors and a growing U.S. economy drove the timber industry to cut down all but 4 percent of the original two-million-acre redwood ecosystem. King first examined redwood logging in the 1980s—as an award-winning reporter. What he found in the woods convinced him to leap the line of neutrality and become an activist dedicated to saving the very last ancient redwood groves remaining in private hands.
-
-
How the world’s most magnificent forest was destroyed!
- By John on 09-06-23
By: Greg King
-
History of California
- A Captivating Guide to the History of the Golden State, Starting from When Native Americans Dominated Through European Exploration to the Present
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California’s transformation into the most populous state in America and the home of some of the country’s richest citizens spread amongst Silicon Valley and Hollywood, was certainly no accident. California has always been one of the most diverse and multicultural states in the United States, way before it was a state at all, and even before the arrival of the Europeans.
-
-
Solid overview of the long history of this state
- By username on 07-04-21
-
Up and Down California in 1860-1864
- The Journal of William H. Brewer
- By: William Henry Brewer
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1860 William Brewer, a young Yale-educated teacher of the natural sciences and a recent widower, eagerly accepted an offer from Josiah Whitney to assist in the first geological survey of the state of California. Brewer was not a geologist, but his training in agriculture and botany made him an invaluable member of the team. He traveled more than 14,000 miles in the four years he spent in California and spent much of his leisure time writing lively, detailed letters to his brother back East.
-
-
A voyage to a Lost California
- By Susie on 04-29-13
What listeners say about Trees in Paradise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sejal
- 05-30-14
Wonderful natural and socioeconomic history
Would you listen to Trees in Paradise again? Why?
The book is jam packed with amazing content and history that it is a must to listen again and again for thorough enjoyment.
Any additional comments?
The organization and foundation of the book are thoughtfully appropriate. Farmer presents a perfect balance in storytelling between the natural history of trees and it's socioeconomic one-ness with the vastness of the great state of California.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew Ballard
- 07-25-18
Fantastically researched
Amazing book, a California history described in tremendous detail through the trees that define the landscape. Truly a singular book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R Zap
- 12-05-24
Highly recommended
This is a very interesting story, I learned a lot about a subject I’m very curious about. I originally purchased this to read about redwoods and I was not disappointed. I found the other 3 sections, eucalyptus, palms and citrus were just as interesting.
Highly recommend as it touches a lot on California history as well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin W. Ford
- 03-14-19
Really well researched and enjoyable to read
I absolutely loved this book. It should be so much more well known then it is, but I guess it's kind of a niche product. I've also read the Hidden Lives of Trees book which has gained so much press, and I have to say this one is much better in my opinion.
Incredibly well researched but easily approachable and interesting. It never comes off as too dry or academic. Will give you a great sense of the ways that trees have influenced both California and the larger society.
Hope to read more by this author in the future
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Jose Mendoza
- 07-10-22
One of the greatest books written about California
This was absolutely one of the greatest histories of California that I have ever read. I really loved the detail that the author went into describing how California's tree culture has affected its present. being one who lives in one of these discussed environments it is wonderful to have a better understanding of how my surroundings came to be. he gives me more of an appreciation for the land I live in but understanding that much of it has come here with a false pretense. yes there was initially some Grand gold discovered and I mean that in many ways but like so many things in this state none of it has lasted long and we are here to figure out what is going to be the next "gold rush" in the great CA. I really appreciated the political background that this book talked about because these are things I see everyday they are sad truths but they are still truths of the reality of the state. I wish everything was as seemingly perfect as they often are in advertisements about the region and the climate and the like. however it has taken muscle to create those wonderful trees that are to be enjoyed or whose fruit are to be enjoyed. I really appreciated learning about them and it will be actually personally pushing me more to research deeper into the subject. Fantastic, highly, highly recommended book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ellie
- 08-27-22
Excellent book! Very impressed
Well-researched, easy listen, and really interesting.. Topics /4 chapters were clearly defined and laid out . Surprising and interesting how much of California’s trees are non-indigenous and how much humans changed the environment in such a short time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mike Lewis
- 04-16-18
I loved this book!
This book was fantastic for anyone who is curious about California's history. I live in Riverside, a major player in the citrus industry discussed in this book. While I personally loved the citrus aspect, all four of the tree's history in the state were fascinating. I never knew tree's had such an impact on California's success. I hope to re-read this book again soon as it was smartly written, well organized and full of stories of how these trees impacted those who lived among them.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael M.
- 08-02-22
lovely audiobook
Wonderful construct to learn about the history of California! Very well researched! I'd highly recommend to any tree or history buff
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Behnke
- 07-22-23
Five stars for California's four trees
First saw this book in a bookstore in California. Flipped to the second part on eucalyptus, read the first couple pages and let out a gut laugh. Knew I had to get the audiobook, listened while driving through California visiting its trees. Interesting history on four trees that define California: Redwood, Eucalyptus, Citrus, and Palm. The author has a good sense of humor that the narrator brought through. Paradise is always good for a few laughs.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!