Books About San Francisco

General (spanning multiple periods)

The books about San Francisco listed below cover large historical time periods.

Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present. Yung, Judy, Gordon H. Chang  & Him Mark Lai, editors, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. 
This diverse and illuminating collection of primary documents (letters, speeches, testimonies, oral histories, personal memoirs, poems, essays, and folksongs) and stories by Chinese Americans, from their arrival during the California Gold Rush to the present, provide insight into immigration, work, family and social life, and the longstanding fight for equality and inclusion. (Google this book)

Chinese San Francisco 1850-1943: A Trans-Pacific Community. Yong Chen, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Chen explores the trans-Pacific links between the Chinese immigrants in San Francisco and their ancestral homeland in Guangdong province through Chinese and English language newspapers and magazines, personal diaries and papers, census manuscripts, and many contemporary writings of the period. (Google this book)

City By The Bay – San Francisco in Art and Literature. Chappell, Alexandra, Editor. San Francisco: CA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art & Universe Publishing, 2002.
“City by the Bay pairs works of art and literature that evoke the city’s spirit – from its frontier rowdiness and resilience in the face of catastrophe to its nourish glamour and European charm featuring photographs, paintings and graphic artworks drawn primarily from the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.” (Google this book)

Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Shah, Nayan  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. 
“Contagious Divides charts the dynamic transformation of representations of Chinese immigrants from medical menace in the nineteenth century to model citizen in the mid-twentieth century examining cultural politics of public health and Chinese immigration.” (Google this book)

Growing Up in Chinatown: The Life and Work of Edwar Lee. Moonbeam Tong Lee,Fong Brothers Printing, Inc., 1987.
Biography of Edwar Lee, the first American-born Chinese Methodist minister, starts off describing the social and political climate before his birth in 1902, his personal accomplishments and work in the Church up to the age of 85 when this book was written by his wife. (Google this book)

Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide. Rand Richards, Canada: Heritage House Publishers, 2007.
Each of the ten chapters historically chronicles a meaningful period of time between significant milestones (i.e. the goldrush of 1849 or the earthquake of 1906). (Google this book)

The Holy Family Sisters of San Francisco : a sketch of their first fifty years, 1872-1922.  D.J. Kavanagh, San Francisco California: Gilmartin Publishing,1922.
A comprehensive history of the formation and work of the Sisters of the Holy Family in San Francisco. (Google this book)

Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. Gray Brechin, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006.
Locates San Francisco within the historical context of America’s Manifest Destiny, its strategic significance to the United States as both a commercial and military port for geo-political expansion into the Pacific. (Google this book)

Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. Solnit, Rebecca  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010. 
“Infinite City features Rebecca Solnit as cultural and historical tour guide through the city she calls home."--Shelf Awareness Rebecca Solnit's reinvention of the traditional atlas, searches out the answer by examining the many layers of meaning in one place, the San Francisco Bay Area. (Google this book)

It Happened in San Francisco. Maxine Cass, Guilford, CT.  Morris Book Publishing, 2006.
Thirty stories recounting some of San Francisco’s most captivating moments from 1776 to 2004. (Google this book)

Murder by the Bay: Historical Homicide In and About the City of San Francisco. Charles F. Adams, Sanger, CA: Word Dancer Press, 2005.
Murders in San Francisco, from 1856 to the City Hall murders of 1978, that captivated both the city and the country. (Google this book)

Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture. James Brook, Chris Carlsson & Nancy J. Peters, San Francisco, CA: City Lights Publishers, 1998.
An anthology of lost, forgotten and obscured histories of San Francisco.  Stories of immigrants and minorities, sailors and waterfront workers, and poets, artists and neighborhood activists. (Google this book)

San Francisco Stories: Great Writers on the City.  John Miller, ed., San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1990. 
Well-known authors such as Amy Tan, Jack Kerouac and Anne Lamott offer reflective essays on San Francisco. (Google this book)

San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History. Mick Sinclair, Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004.
Part of the “Cities of Imagination” series, Sinclair provides an easy-to-read overview of the city’s geography, diverse cultures, and interesting histories. (Google this book)

San Francisco: From the Gold Rush to Cyberspace. Charles A. Fracchia & Thomas Stauffer, San Francisco, CA. San Francisco Chamber of Commerce & Marcoa Publishing Inc. 2000.
With more than 100 historical photographs, Stauffer pays tribute to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's commitment to the economic development of the city during the past 150 years and Fracchia tells of the people and the forces that have shaped the city since its founding as an outpost of the Spanish empire. (Google this book)

San Francisco: The Story of A City. John Bernard McGloin, S.J., San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1978.
An historical overview of San Francisco as compiled by a history professor at the University of San Francisco. (Google this book)

San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks. James R. Smith, Sanger, CA: Word Dancer Press, 2005. 
“With long-forgotten stories and evocative photographs, San Francisco's Lost Landmarks showcases the once-familiar sites that have faded into dim memories and hazy legends.” (Google this book)

The Unimpressible Race: A Century of Educational struggle by the Chinese in San Francisco. Victor Low, San Francisco, CA: East/West Publishing Company, Inc., 1982.
How Chinese Americans moved the Supreme Court and the U.S. government to recognize the basic right of children with limited language skills. (Google this book)

Visions of Reform: Congregation Emanu-el & the Jews of San Francisco 1849-1999. Rosenbaum, Fred  Berkeley, CA: Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2000. 
“The frenzy of the Gold Rush, the calamity of the 1906 earthquake and fire and the urban challenges of the present day are shown to be intertwined with the fate of the synagogue whose leading members have invariably been counted among the city’s most prominent citizens… revealing the response of a dynamic religious institution to an increasingly complex modern world.” (Google this book)

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