The Railroad Age, The Depression, World War II, The Atomic Age, The Sixties--these periods shaped and were in turn shaped by Berkeley, California--a city that has had a remarkable influence given its modest size. This concise book, the only up-to-date history of Berkeley, is a rich chronicle connecting the people, trends, and events that made the city to much larger themes in history. From the native builders of shellmounds to the blue-collar residents of Ocean View, the rise of the University of California, the World War II shipyards, and today's demographics and politics, it's all here in...

With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters' camps and Hoovervilles of California. Here he found once strong, independent farmers so reduced in dignity, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been cast down to a kind of subhumanity. He contrasts their misery with the hope offered by government resettlement camps, where self-help communities were restoring dignity and indeed saving lives. The Harvest Gypsies gives us an eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration and provides the factual...