Main entry:

Brechin, Gray A.

Title & Author:

Imperial San Francisco : urban power, earthly ruin / Gray Brechin.

Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 1999.

Description:

xxvi, 402 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Series:

California studies in critical human geography ; 3

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-388) and index.
Preface: The Urban Maelstrom -- Introduction: New Romes for a New World -- Foundations of Dominion -- The Pyramid of Mining -- Mythologizing Mining -- The Invisible Pyramid -- California's Classical Precedent -- The Renaissance of Mining -- The Age of Discovery, Conquest, and Fugger -- De Re Metallica -- The James Marshall Myth -- A Promised Land Plundered -- Working the Frisco 'Change -- Ralston, His Ring, and the Comstock Lode -- The Sierra Nevada Flayed -- Halting Hydraulicking -- Mining Engineers as Heralds of Empire -- Deferred Costs -- Specious Denials -- Enduring Attitudes -- Transfer Technology -- Financial Districts as Inverted Minescapes -- Water Mains and Bloodlines -- Revealing Power -- A Shrine to Water -- Roman Aqueducts -- The Spring Valley Monopoly -- San Francisco Reclaims San Mateo County -- Hermann Schussler -- William Hammond Hall and the Thirst of Golden Gate Park -- Ralston's Last Gambit -- Sharon Rises on Ralston's Fall -- Francis Griffith Newlands -- Building Burlingame -- Phantom Capital -- The Greening of San Mateo County -- Phelan Discovers a Reservoir Site -- Enhancing Real Estate Values -- Los Angeles Lurches Ahead -- San Francisco Stalls -- None Other Than Hetch Hetchy -- Michael M. O'Shaughnessy -- A Debatable Masterpiece -- Hail, the Chief! -- The Thought Shapers -- The Scott Brothers: Arms and the Overland Monthly -- Commemorating the Soldiers of an Unnamed War -- San Francisco Bay as Pacific Launchpad -- The Union Iron Works -- The Overland Monthly -- Spanish-American War.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"For more than a century before the current enthusiasm for Pacific Rim trade, San Francisco's leaders strove to make the ocean their lake. In Imperial San Francisco, urban geographer Gray Brechin provides a visionary and myth-shattering reinterpretation not only of the city by the Golden Gate but of the process of urbanization itself, a saga that extends from the rise of ancient Rome to the founding of Washington to the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima." "Brechin maintains that "imperial" cities use advanced remote control technology to pull toward their centers the resources and energy of far-flung "empires" in order to raise the value of real estate. This process, founded on the extractive practice and ethos of mining, permits a few individuals and families to attain immense wealth and power at the expense of the city's hinterland and of succeeding generations."--BOOK JACKET.

Resources:
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0520215680 (alk. paper)
9780520215689 (alk. paper)
0520229029
9780520229020

Subject:

San Francisco Calif.
Elite (Social sciences) California San Francisco Bay Area History.
Nature Effect of human beings on California San Francisco Bay Area History.
Nature Effect of human beings on Pacific Area History.
Human ecology California San Francisco Bay Area History.
Land use California San Francisco Bay Area History.
Élite (Sciences sociales) Californie San Francisco, Région de la baie de Histoire.
Êtres humains Influence sur la nature Californie San Francisco, Région de la baie de Histoire.
Êtres humains Influence sur la nature Pacifique, Région du Histoire.
Utilisation du sol Californie San Francisco, Région de la baie de Histoire.
Ecology
Elite (Social sciences)
Human ecology
Land use
Nature Effect of human beings on
Humanökologie
Stadtentwicklung
Sozialgeschichte
Regionalentwicklung
Élite (sciences sociales) États-Unis Californie (États-Unis)
Écologie humaine États-Unis San Francisco (Calif.)
Environnement États-Unis Californie (États-Unis)
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) Biography.
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) Environmental conditions.
Pacific Area Environmental conditions.
San Francisco (Calif.) History.
San Francisco (Calif.) Social aspects.
San Francisco (Calif.) Environmental aspects.
Pacifique, Région du Conditions environnementales.
San Francisco, Région de la baie de (Calif.) Biographies.
San Francisco, Région de la baie de (Calif.) Conditions environnementales.
California San Francisco Bay Area
Pacific Area
San Francisco Bay Region
San Francisco, Calif.
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
San Francisco (Calif.)
San Francisco Bay (Region)

Form/genre:

collective biographies.
Biographies
History

Added entries:

California studies in critical human geography ; 3.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 203404
Call No.: F869.S353 A225 1999
Status: Available