A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth

“Weaving the many threads of Indigenous, environmental, maritime, political, and economic history, James Tejani shows how a local story became one of national and global proportions. With shifting perspectives and deep dives, Tejani excavates the unlikely nineteenth-century rise of the Port of Los Angeles as a crucial, though relatively unknown, chapter in America’s ascent to world power. Well researched and finely crafted, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth is a significant contribution to our understanding of the development of the nation as well as the West, and it will surely be of interest to scholars in multiple fields.” – Steven Hahn, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Illiberal America: A History“This remarkable book is a major contribution to the history of California and, more broadly, of the economic and political transformations unleashed during the Civil War era. It transcends the boundaries that too often separate subfields of history, bringing together national and international events and political, economic, and environmental processes. If you wish to understand not only the rise of the Port of Los Angeles, but the roots of American empire itself, this is the place to begin.” – Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, winner of the Pulitzer Prize“In a work reflecting both a deep dive into obscure archives and a masterful crafting of historical analysis and narrative, Tejani weaves a complex story of conquest, expansion, exploration, nature, technology, trade, and diplomacy, peopled by indigenous Native Americans, Spanish missionaries and ranchers, American soldiers, scientists, swindlers, labor radicals, capitalist empire builders, and civic reformers. The development of a few square miles of Southern California coastline, in Tejani’s telling, becomes the story of America’s Pacific destiny.” – Maurice Isserman, Professor of History at Hamilton College and author of Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering“James Tejani’s meticulously researched and brilliantly told book places one of the truly transformative enterprises of California’s development within the grand sweep of the state’s—and America’s—historical pageant. Specialists, students of history, and general readers alike will be fascinated by this sprawling narrative of how capitalists, political operators, and swindlers managed over the course of a century to turn a muddy bay on the Pacific shore into a behemoth of international commerce.” – Michael Hiltzik, author of Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America“By returning the attention of historians to infrastructure…Tejani opens our eyes to a new way of thinking about the trans-Mississippi West.” – Bancroft Prize jury”[An] enthralling debut…a beguiling history of Southern California, early industrial development, and U.S. empire.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)“A colorful study of the creation and development of the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere.” – Kirkus Reviews

James Tejani grew up on San Pedro Bay and earned his PhD from Columbia University. He has received fellowships from the Huntington Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is an associate professor of history at California State University.