Hella Town reveals the profound impact of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland’s built environment. Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its larger and more glamorous twin, Oakland has a fascinating history of its own. From serving as a major transportation hub to forging a dynamic manufacturing sector, by the mid-twentieth century Oakland had become the urban center of the East Bay. Hella Town focuses on how political deals, economic schemes, and technological innovations fueled this emergence but also seeded the city’s postwar struggles. Toward the turn of the millennium, as immigration from Latin America and East Asia increased, Oakland became one of the most diverse cities in the country. The city still grapples with the consequences of uneven class- and race-based development-amid-disruption. How do past decisions about where to locate highways or public transit, urban renewal districts or civic venues, parks or shopping centers, influence how Oaklanders live today? A history of Oakland’s buildings and landscapes, its booms and its busts, provides insight into its current conditions: an influx of new residents and businesses, skyrocketing housing costs, and a lingering chasm between the haves and have-nots.

Through an in-depth case study of the black professional middle class in Oakland, this book provides an analysis of the experiences of black professionals in the workplace, community, and local politics. Brown shows how overlapping dynamics of class formation and racial formation have produced historically powerful processes of what he terms "racialized class formation," resulting in a distinct (and internally differentiated) entity, not merely a subset of a larger professional middle class.

"This sophisticated account of a remarkable city's coalitions and conflicts over half a century is an outstanding contribution to urban history and political analysis. Clearly written and amply supplied with good stories, the book will interest students of urban history, social movements, and American political change."—Charles Tilly, author of Durable Inequality "An altogether exemplary book. Rhomberg uses a combination of traditional class analysis, an institutional perspective on urban politics, and social movement theory to fashion a rich and persuasive account of the history of urban political conflict in Oakland between 1920-1975. In combining these strands of theory and research, he has also given us a model for the kind of dynamic, historically grounded political sociology that has been sadly missing in recent years."—Doug McAdam, author of Freedom Summer "Race, class, and local politics are key components of America's social fabric. On the basis of his outstanding scholarly research, Rhomberg examines the complex web of their interaction by focusing on one of the most conflicted urban scenes: Oakland, California; and taking a historical perspective on the evolving pattern of power struggles. This book will become required reading for students of urban politics."—Manuel Castells, author of The Rise of the Network Society “No There There combines a sophisticated interpretation of political and sociological urban theory with rigorous historical research… An important and stimulating book.” –Joseph A. Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Western Historical Quarterly

In this extraordinary book, Kevin Starr–widely acknowledged as the premier historian of California, the scope of whose scholarship the Atlantic Monthly has called “breathtaking”–probes the possible collapse of the California dream in the years 1990—2003. In a series of compelling chapters, Coast of Dreams moves through a variety of topics that show the California of the last decade, when the state was sometimes stumbling, sometimes humbled, but, more often, flourishing with its usual panache. From gang violence in Los Angeles to the spectacular rise–and equally spectacular fall–of Silicon Valley, from the Northridge earthquake to the recall of Governor Gray Davis, Starr ranges over myriad facts, anecdotes, news stories, personal impressions, and analyses to explore a time of unprecedented upheaval in California. Coast of Dreams describes an exceptional diversity of people, cultures, and values; an economy that mirrors the economic state of the nation; a battlefield where industry and the necessities of infrastructure collide with the inherent demands of a unique and stunning natural environment. It explores California politics (including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election in the 2003 recall), the multifaceted business landscape, and controversial icons such as O. J. Simpson. “Historians of the future,” Starr writes, “will be able to see with more certainty whether or not the period 1990-2003 was not only the end of one California but the beginning of another”; in the meantime, he gives a picture of the place and time in a book at once sweeping and riveting in its details, deeply informed, engagingly personal, and altogether fascinating.