Reviews for Pupil Transportation and the Law

The average rating for Pupil Transportation and the Law based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-17 00:00:00 Joyce Schanel This is a detailed study tracing the deterioration of culture of Native Americans in California from 1850s to the end of the 19th century; that is, from the time the area was ceded by Mexico to the US through the first half-century of American control. The author has researched the development of law in the new territory and the circumstances of the judicial system, including the injustices, in how it dealt with complaints that involved Indians. The prejudices of Anglo society with respect to non-whites, specifically Indians, were written into the laws of the newly-acquired territory. The conclusions the author draw are dismal: The Indians had already been exploited the prior 70 years under the Spanish, by means of the presidio-rancho system. Then, with the influx of Anglo-Americans, their demand for land initially to exploit with respect to prospecting (the Gold Rush, the 49-ers) was intense and didn't recognize the land ownership of the tribes, because the tribes didn't "improve" farm or develop the land, and were thus seen as only "living upon" the land. Because their land that was unimproved/undeveloped, they were seen as having only a limited right/ownership of the land. Northern California filled with prospectors and in the absence of an organized judiciary, "Miner's Laws" were developed in these areas that had filled up almost instantly with those seeking their fortune. When the gold didn't pan out, or gold found at placers dried up, instead of returning home, the migrants often stayed on in California and began to fan out from Northern California to the southern counties. These areas around Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego were originally "cow counties" from the time of the Spanish but the optimal growing conditions and fertile soil induced many of the new-comers to convert the land to agriculture from pasturage. This conversion of large portions of S. California from pasture to agriculture, and the removal of plants the Indians had subsisted on reduced the areas where the Indians had previously practiced their subsistence hunting/gathering. The Indians lost their lands in the courts through a variety of means - confusing land title regulations, their inability to speak English, and many other ways to cast doubt on their titles and eventually separate them from their ancestral lands. The indians were eventually told they needed to move onto reservations, but then, when even that land was desired by the Anglos, the reservation lands were declared as being part of the public domain and once again the Indians were forced to leave. Their numbers meanwhile plummeted because of a disastrous smallpox epidemic in the 1860s; as the numbers of Americans grew, even their initial role as "cheap" labor (continuing the role they had played under the Spanish/Mexicans) ended - and they were eventually reduced to a marginal status, subsisting or starving on the edges of cities. They were removed from their lands and their cultures were destroyed; were also numerous extra-judicial killings; at one time, it was common to see the countryside littered with the bodies of dead Indians. Wages were often paid in aguardiente - to keep the addled Indians in perpetual slavery. The Americans made it impossible for the Indians to continue to live as they had for centuries; it was clear that any contact with the Anglos was invariably disastrous. Once again, reservations were set up so that the Indians would not be in contact with Americans; today, the hope is the Indians will be able to reconstitute their cultures, and live again a peaceful existence, as they once had lived since time immemorial, as hunter-gatherers, on their communal lands.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-13 00:00:00 Wanda Brown Life's too short to read books you're not enjoying, and thus I've given up on this just over halfway through. I'm interested in the history of witchcraft and specifically during the early Stuart period in England and across Europe. But Ruickbie's book clocks in at just over 200 pages long, a framework within which he attempts to track the history and study of witchcraft from ancient Greece to the 21st century. Unfortunately, given his minute foundations, the constant stream of names and dates starts to feel like a barrage, draining any creativity or engagement right out of large parts of the book, for me anyway.