""Imperial San Francisco" provides a myth-shattering interpretation of the hidden costs that the growth of San Francisco has exacted on its surrounding regions, presenting along the way a revolutionary new theory of urban development".--"Palo Alto Daily News". 86 photos.

Reporting from the front lines of gentrification in San Francisco, Rebecca Solnit and Susan Schwartzenberg sound a warning bell to all urban residents. Wealth is just as capable of ravaging cities as poverty.

In this intriguing book, Gray Brechin, a historical geographer who received his Ph.D. in Geography from UC-Berkeley, provides a myth-shattering interpretation of the hidden costs that the growth of San Francisco has exacted on its surrounding regions. Along the way he presents a revolutionary new theory of urban development. Written in a lively, accessible style, the narrative is filled with vivid characters, engrossing stories & a rich variety of illustrations. Brechin advances a new way of understanding urban history as he traces the links among environment, economy, & technology that led ultimately to the atom bomb & the nuclear arms race. The book is filled with interesting nuggets of history discovered by Brechin inside the UC archives.

First published in 1999, this celebrated history of San Francisco traces the exploitation of both local and distant regions by prominent families—the Hearsts, de Youngs, Spreckelses, and others—who gained power through mining, ranching, water and energy, transportation, real estate, weapons, and the mass media. The story uncovered by Gray Brechin is one of greed and ambition on an epic scale. Brechin arrives at a new way of understanding urban history as he traces the connections between environment, economy, and technology and discovers links that led, ultimately, to the creation of the atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race. In a new preface, Brechin considers the vulnerability of cities in the post-9/11 twenty-first century.

When health officials in San Francisco discovered bubonic plague in their city’s Chinatown in 1900, they responded with intrusive, controlling, and arbitrary measures that touched off a sociocultural conflict still relevant today. Guenter B. Risse’s history of an epidemic is the first to incorporate the voices of those living in Chinatown at the time, including the desperately ill Wong Chut King, believed to be the first person infected. Lasting until 1904, the plague in San Francisco's Chinatown reignited racial prejudices, renewed efforts to remove the Chinese from their district, and created new tensions among local, state, and federal public health officials quarreling over the presence of the deadly disease. Risse's rich, nuanced narrative of the event draws from a variety of sources, including Chinese-language reports and accounts. He addresses the ecology of Chinatown, the approaches taken by Chinese and Western medical practitioners, and the effects of quarantine plans on Chinatown and its residents. Risse explains how plague threatened California’s agricultural economy and San Francisco’s leading commercial role with Asia, discusses why it brought on a wave of fear mongering that drove perceptions and intervention efforts, and describes how Chinese residents organized and successfully opposed government quarantines and evacuation plans in federal court. By probing public health interventions in the setting of one of the most visible ethnic communities in United States history, Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown offers insight into the clash of Eastern and Western cultures in a time of medical emergency.

The Empire of Earth, spanning more than a thousand solar systems, is threatened by a conspiracy from within. Now, with more than three-quarters of the Galaxy ready to fall into enemy hands, the Empire is forced to call on its top-secret weapon: the renowned Circus of the Galaxy featuring the d'Alembert family, a clan of circus performers with uncanny abilities. But even these super agents may not be in time to save the Empire. The Imperial Stars is the first book in the "Family D'Alembert" series.

""Imperial San Francisco" provides a myth-shattering interpretation of the hidden costs that the growth of San Francisco has exacted on its surrounding regions, presenting along the way a revolutionary new theory of urban development".--"Palo Alto Daily News". 86 photos.

This collection primarily consists of drafts of and research materials for Gray Brechin's book Imperial San Francisco: urban power, earthly ruin, which was first published in 1999. Research materials include photocopied newspaper clippings, articles, photographs used as illustrations, and index cards. There is a small amount of correspondence related to, and book reviews of, Imperial San Francisco; graphics from Jack Stauffacher Printing; and materials related to other writing projects. These include a paper Brechin wrote for a UC Berkeley history class, Creating Reality: The San Francisco Chronicle as Empire's Trumpet; an article for an anthology on Ishi; and his collaboration with Robert Dawson, Farewell promised land: waking from the California Dream.