Gray Brechin

Interesting, but not really about San Francisco: If you're looking for a book on the history of San Francisco, this is not it. For the first 65 pages or so (out of 330 before footnotes), San Francisco is barely mentioned. Instead, the author talks about Rome, Washington DC, the Mexican-American war, the Spanish-American war, UC Berkeley, the mining-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, and other related-but-not-directly-related items. There's a good chapter on San Francisco newspaper history and politics, and the UC Berkeley history is interesting but not directly relevant. The book's origin as a PhD thesis kind of shows. Unlike the book jacket, I did not find it to be "potboiler urban history" or "written in a lively, accessible style." It advances a new way of looking at urban development history - the history of a city's growth as it (negatively) impacts the surrounding environment. It's interesting for that, but not if you want a book focused on San Francisco history.… (mere)