Imperial San Francisco

Description:

This book has lots of great stories and background about how the San Francisco power brokers of the late 19th century interrelated with the city, the state, and the rest of the country, including some great background on the history of water and mining in the region. Recommended reading for someone trying to get a grasp on the early history of SF. (Should be taken with a side order of salt- it opens with a slightly bizarre conspiracy theory about the role of mining in history, and keeps going with a lot of implied “the rich are trying to keep us down” without much evidence. Not that the folks he’s chronicling are particularly nice folks, but that’s easy enough to prove without going off the deep end about it.)

subjects: Nature,  Land use,  Effect of human beings on,  Elite (Social sciences),  Environmental conditions,  Human ecology,  Biography,  History,  Nature, effect of human beings on,  Land use, california,  San francisco bay area (calif.), history,  Pacific area,  Social aspects,  Environmental aspects,  Ecology,  Élite (sciences sociales),  Écologie humaine,  Environnement,  Humanökologie,  Stadtentwicklung,  Sozialgeschichte,  Regionalentwicklung,  San Francisco

Places: California,  San Francisco Bay Area,  San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.),  Pacific Area,  San Francisco (Calif.)