Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin

by Gray Brechin

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. The book is now available as an audiobook, narrated by Gray Brechin.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cities, Urban Studies, Geography, Urbanism, Sociology

437 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth it for Bay Area residents to get to know the darker side of the growth of The City. Brechin gets to the roots of imperialism's influence on San Francisco: mining, water, nuclear. The book shows interplay and history of these industries in Berkeley, San Francisco, and the peninsula and how titans, moguls, and power brokers (literally) dominated the developmental growth of the area. Good when paired with "The Season of the Witch."

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent left-wing analysis of urban growth. Should be interesting for urban planners, Bay Area residents, and people interested in real estate.

I found it eye-opening how a beautiful place like San Francisco was/is so closely associated with things that I generally don't want to think about: nuclear weapons, imperialism and significant exploitation of a hinterland for water, the latter of which he links to Rome's vulnerability. I also found the thesis interesting that the largest and most sustainable San Francisco fortunes have long tended to be tied to real estate, rather than industries we tend to associate with the city. From the Gold Rush to the dot-com era to the housing boom, people have made the most money renting out to people and bubble industries that blow up in and around the city. The last epilogue chapter is interesting in that he bites the hand of the institution that feeds him, UC Berkeley, by explaining that the university's layout was tied to the ideology of colonizing Asia.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who think SF is that shining city by the Bay filled with liberal hipsters, think again. Grey Brechen brings this vastly wealthy metropolis' dark side out for all to witness. Simply put, Imperial San Francisco is my favorite book on California (sorry Mike Davis). Its Dick Walker meets Dashiell Hammett. I moved to the Bay Area 3 years ago, with my fancy Ivy League Ph.D. in hand, and realized that I knew nothing about the history of America's most important state. I read around alot, and this was not only the most exciting book about the Robber Barons, Imperialists and other ecocidal maniacs who made San Francisco the richest city in the US, but its the kind of work that you can see in action while walking down Market Street. And it ends with a history of UC Berkeley's founding, which is a fascinating story for anyone who works on any University Campus.

[James Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty great. True to the title, it explores how the ruling-class has squeezed every little bit of resources from the Bay, starting on the first day. ISF is unique in the depiction of the costs of the environment. However, very little space (if any) is given to social movements of working-class people who have tried to challenge elites. Otherwise an amazing book.

[Kevin]

Second Reading: I picked this book up with a different front cover not realizing I'd already read this in the context of some of my grad school research. This second reading was more thorough and centered on teaching San Francisco as part of a larger idea of cities in the United States after the Civil War.
The great thing about Imperial San Francisco is the ability to provide an alternate history of San Francisco from the bohemian, "Baghdad by the Bay narrative that dominates. While that history is interesting and important, it only goes so far in explaining modern San Francisco. Brechin's thesis of an imperial city helps to better understand the city's quick growth and continued importance. It also adds the important context needed to understand "tech bro" Modern San Francisco.

[Michael Howley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little florid in its prose sometimes but pretty solid work. Using mining as a lense for the history of the bay area really unlocks the "past is prologue" understanding of the power and political landscape that today's Silicon Valley set only inherited, not created.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is some marvelous research and writing about San Francisco's history in this book, which is only somewhat marred by the author's, journalist Gary Brechin's, conspiratorial and tendentious tone.

The book focuses on a few San Francisco fortunes and the corruption that gave rise to them. He shows how Bank of California head William Ralston and his stock jobber William Sharon made a killing in the Gold mines and then Virginia City silver rush in the 1860s, and then put their money into creating the first substantial San Fransisco suburbs of Burlingame and Hillsborough, while buying up the Spring Valley Water Company pipes to support them. Their water company soon had a monopoly on San Francisco itself. Yet Ralston's fall in a bank run in 1875 paved the way for the Spring Valley attorney, Sharon son-in-law, and, eventually, powerful U.S. Senator Francis Newlands to make his own way in mining, irrigation, and politics.

In another story, from 1883, Irving Murray Scott and his Potrero Union Iron Work company made a pile building patronage-supported steel ships for the U.S. navy, starting in 1883, while buoying up the danger of the Japanese menace. Michael De Young became editor of the Chronicle when his dad was murdered in defamation dispute, and then became one of the most scandalmongering editors in the country. He competed with other newspaper mavens of unsavory repute like William Randolph Hearst (for the Examiner) and sugar-baron Augustus Spreckels (for the Call). Later, the railroad tycoon's son and oil king William Crocker helped form the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, an early utility octopus today on the verge of bankruptcy.

Many of America's most infamous fortunes emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area, and it is not surprising to find that many of them had less than savory undercurrents, which Brechin overemphasizes. Still, it's a good story overall, told here with verve.

[Carrie Strine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very fascinating read. It is fairly skeptical of capitalism. The author has found a wealth of evidence that many of San Francisco’s modern flaws and culture are deeply rooted in its past. It was actually quite remarkable to understand how many of the attitudes and how much of the city’s modern day character is much the same as it was more than a century ago. That connection to modern times made it feel both fresh and relatable despite being in general a pretty dense read.

This book is not for someone looking for any ol’ history of San Francisco / the gold rush. If you enjoy a point of view and have a deep curiosity for details and lines of research that might be less often discussed—you’d enjoy this book.

[Kearstin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book promised much more than it delivered. Ultimately it became a story about wealthy people in SF as gleaned from the SF Chronicle. I had a clear sense that Brechin loved his research materials, but not a lot of confidence that he put it together in a compelling or accurate way. I'd say the highlight for me was learning about the water systems and the brutal mining techniques that were used on the sierras. There's some good material in there, but it is rather tedious on a whole. . .

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love that this book talks about big cities being imperial. they suck
in the resources around them and their elites seek control and the
poor are shunted by the side with no advocate.

great history of san francisco.

[Sophie]

i don't recommend reading any of this while tripping on LSD

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading all the other favorable reviews, I would add;Remember The Pyramid of Mining thesis; The Megamachine as historian Lewis Mumford described it; mechanization, metallurgy, militarism & Finance at the base & mining at the apex ,The author compared San Francisco with Rome to illustrate the the Pyramid concept, from the mining of copper to gold to oil to uranium, and how water was used in mining as a detriment to farmers downstream. Another example, how the skyscrapers in the financial district of San Francisco represented an inverted mine; using all the same technology & engineering used in mine shafts in the opposite direction. Another was Cable Cars, for going up & down the steep hills instead of mine tunnels.
Reading this sparked memories of stories my dad told me when I was a child, whenever we visited San Francisco & Berkeley.for example , I remember what the China Basin area looked like in the 60’s-80’s, we’d always take 6th st off-ramp off 101 whenever we’d go to Fisherman’s Wharf. Then when I started driving, I’d bring my friends to places I remembered my dad telling me about and shared my knowledge.
The 2nd section of the book felt with the people that shaped San Francisco. I was surprised that Adolph Sutro was not included https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_...
The last part of the book about energy was my favorite . My dad worked for P.G.&E. for 35 years, so I was familiar with the history & vacationing with family at numerous PSEA camps during the summer where the workers who built the dans and the powerhouses and penstocks used to live.. MacArthur Burney Falls State Park land was donated to the state by the macArthur family to keep it away from P.G.&E..
This section of the book helped me realize the reason behind Moffett Field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett... https://maps.apple.com/?ll=37.415000,...
, Mt Umunhum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_U... https://maps.apple.com/?ll=37.160502,... , even though they weren’t mentioned in the book, they are part of the surrounding area serving/protecting Lawrence Livermore Lab, Stanford & Cal. I remember seeing P3 Orions every day growing up . I have recommended this book to my in-laws Gen Z kids

[xen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marking "read" sometimes means only two or three chapters so bear with me.

Anyway there's a kind of annoying dehistoricizing touch to this book's style because while it documents the catastrophes of resource extraction it also has this compulsion to turn that into self-consciously "epic" or reverential rhetorical flourishes. And it seems to claim that U.S. empire embodies a pattern of concentration/expansion seen also in ancient Rome. Not all transhistoricity is bad and I don't care for a reflex distinction between antiquity and modernity but please don't aestheticize dispossession as "ruin" without more rigorous thinking about the ideology of ruins. That one of the book's centerpieces is effectively a biography of William Randolph Hearst suggests whose narratives it wants to recover.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is packed, page by page and paragraph by paragraph, with so many historical facts and details as to paint an incredibly vivid picture of the monstrous attitudes and actions that America has committed to racial minorities over the centuries.
Especially appreciable is California (and SF's) geographical position, allowing for a broad and inclusive racist demonization of Asian, Latino, Native, Oceanic and French people.
From the forced slavery of the indigenous inhabitants by Spanish and English missionaries, to the systemic pillaging of Mexican and Filipino lands and people - it makes me wonder if there is a time when America wasn't singling out some brown folks or another for special abuse.

It took me a year to read, it was so damn infuriating.

[Ben P · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who knew little of California's history before~1950, I really enjoyed Brechin's critical history of how San Francisco was built on the back of the Sierras' resource wealth (gold, water, and electricity) and of the military-industrial complex (the Philippine war and WWII).

Brechin's book provided a lot of insight into the city's many oligarchs whose names remain on museums and monuments but are otherwise forgotten (the de Youngs, Scotts, Hearsts). He also underscores how their families control considerable wealth and influence to this day, albeit less conspicuously.

An excerpt on the gold rush I found particularly interesting - "only five of [the Comstock lode's] hundreds of publicly traded mines paid more in dividends than they collected in assessments... the Lode actually cost five times what it added to the economy."

[Sam Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thing of rags and patches that just barely holds together. Brechin, an often brilliant writer, opens with a bravura section on how cities extend imperial tentacles into the contado, extracting wealth from resources to build ever greater monuments to imperial pride. But after an excellent section on nineteenth-century mining in California and Nevada, the book loses momentum. Few interesting connections are made, and the balance of the book is largely a catalogue of San Francisco’s richest power brokers and their follies. I was disappointed.

[Theresa Nardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you lived in SF, grew up in SF or simply live/love SF this book is required reading. It tells the fascinating tale of the city’s history devoid of any romance, varnish or cheerleading. And if you are not a far left liberal or socialist, you just might be reconsidering your politics after this book. This book is to SF what Upton Sinclair was to Chicago meat plants. It’s the dirty ugly underbelly of capitalism.

[Tiki Davidoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for any Bay Area/San Francisco resident!

The end, and tangents on some families - was a bit long winded and missing a central beat. However, the rest of the book (as a resident) was quite fascinating, and I could say, a must-read. The history of sourcing water, excavating mines, and taking down redwoods to support economic growth here was a very heavy price to pay and a history anyone should appreciate & know when living here.

[Nellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book about San Francisco imo. Gray shows the importance of the dynastic family to capitalism and the creation of the City.

[Jennifer M. Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for SF history buffs.

[Gray Brechin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now available as an audiobook! Visit https://imperialsanfrancisco.com for links, historical illustrations and more resources.

[Jack Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good! Brings so many concepts together. Living in San Francisco makes me feel like I know the city so much better

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book can be read merely at face value as being solely about San Francisco’s history and creation, in a general socio-political context it also simultaneously tells the story of the founding of western civilization itself. Essentially, in broad stroke terms the ideas put forth here can be applied worldwide to any of the great cities of the world. Consequently, this book should not just appeal to a small interest group but anyone interested in the greater scheme of things.

Overall, this is a staggering piece of research in its scope and intent. This is a work of true genius that not only teaches and instructs the reader but also entertains in a way that rarely a scholarly work such as this is apt to do. Granted, as a character, the city of San Francisco displays quite a few quirks and eccentricities that make it ripe for a case study that could be nothing less than entertaining. [Read “The Magnificent Rogues of San Francisco” by Charles F. Adams for a more lighthearted romp and further emphasis of this point. You can also read my review of this title here under “my books.”]

This book also is as frightening as any dystopian science fiction novel ever written but all the more so, as this no work of imaginative fiction but is all too real of a scenario that is still happening today. The central chapters of this book are found under the telling heading of, “The Thought Shapers” and deals with the enormous media empires that were built hand-in-hand alongside this great city. All of these shared the same goal in striving to shape the public consciousness towards the benefit and aims of those in power, themselves. Basically, this is Big Brother personified. One might roll ones eyes and cry out against this premise as merely being leftist liberal claptrap but the term “yellow journalism” and William Randolph Hearst were both born here in S.F. and are synonymous with one another, as well as also being irrefutable established facts that outright defy any such possible claims of a bias here.

In the end, you’ll never view this fabled city by the bay in quite the same way. Despite all of its charms and personality it is in essence something more along the lines of a monolithic parasite that uses the rest of the state as its accommodating and willing host that is somehow so huge as to be completely unseen, at least in this particular light. It took the immense talents of Mr. Brechin to reveal this to us in exacting detail.

Of course, this is more of my interpretation of the things and despite the fact that in no uncertain terms this is precisely what Mr. Brechin is trying to show. Only, I want to make it clear that this should not be seen to imply that he reviles or hates the subject of this book. On the contrary, he’s written a great many flattering articles and other books on this subject, dealing with various aspects of the city’s culture and history. Many of these can be found online in their entirety to those that may wish to pursue further reading by this author. These other writings balance his portrait given here in his book and show his abiding interest and respect, if not love, for this city.

Furthermore, I have to admit that my respect and admiration for Gray Brechin not only is extended to him for this wonderful book he wrote but also for actively following his muse. Instead of merely sitting back and watching the effect of his novel has had upon others, it would appear that the far-reaching impact of his own findings seem to have stirred in him his own brand of activism. This other aspect of him would appear to utilize his specific talents towards the aim of alleviating some of the ill effects that he masterfully portrayed in his novel. He now heads a project out of the Berkeley University of California that seeks to preserve and promote the history of FDR’s New Deal, specifically that dealing with the WPA.

In showing the enormously positive impact that these liberal policies had on our country, something that seems to be under severe attack these days, he is applying his skills in the best of his abilities while ensuring that the memory of these often vilified “socialist” programs are preserved both physically as well as in the public consciousness in their best possible light. In this way, he is actively trying to change the course of events that he illustrates so well in his book by making sure that the alternative to these is heard loud and clear and is neither forgotten by us nor shouted down by our contemporary “thought shapers” of today.

[Ken-ichi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got to this after asking for Bay Area equivalents to Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, and while this definitely belongs on the shelf of lefty jeremiads against capitalist California, it is not as concerned with ecology as Mike Davis's tome, not as useful for further research (terrible citations, often lacking even for direct quotes), and ultimately devoid of the love and respect for its subject that makes Davis's book a critique and not a screed. I guess Imperial San Francisco isn't really about a place at all. It's more about some of the more powerful people that have lived there since Anglo-American occupation. Brechin wants to tell you how corrupt SF's water barons were, but he's less interested in what happened to the ecosystems they drained, or even the impacts on the unnamed people and other organisms that depended on those flows.

Even knowing that, it's hard to buy his frame of the imperial city comparable to Rome. Mining and water were regional to national concerns that certainly involved some municipal shenanigans but were ultimately enabled and often enacted by the federal government, hand in glove with national to international corporations. Media and energy development and conglomeration were even less concentrated in cities, the press trending toward our current global media sphere and nuclear weapons and energy even more nationalized or globalized.

That said, I'm not going to say no to some hot historical goss about how truly terrible everyone everything in SF is named after was, most of it too good to fact check. Brechin claims that when a preacher and mayoral candidate made fun of (SF Chronicle magnate) Charles de Young's mom, de Young hopped in a cab and shot him in front of his church. The guy lived, became mayor, and then his son shot de Young in the throat, more successfully than de Young's effort as de Young croaked. A jury decided shooting de Young in the throat was a pretty reasonable thing to do to someone that heinous and the guy walked. Do these details have anything to do with SF's imperial ambitions? Of course not!

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, OK, I get the point: elites manipulate the physical world for their own enrichment and then disguise their machinations by comprimising the media. So what else is new?
One complaint that has already been voiced about this book is that it is not reall "about" San Francisco at all, but rather makes a point about all cities. That complaint is true in that author's theoretical underpinings for his argument extend to examples outside of San Francisco. Really though, what else would the author do?

Personally, I found authors attempt to relate San Francisco to Rome and other cities to be interesting and relevant.

Another complaint voiced in these reviews is authors tone. That tone has been described as "shrill". I would have to concur with that complaint. I found the tone of this book to be distracting. I would venture to guess that anyone, ANYONE who reads this book is likely amenable to his "Cities suck" thesis. To belabor the point in the manner that author does is just beating a dead horse.

In defense of author, he doesn't present himself as a true "academic" but as a sort of journalist/academic cross-trainer. I found that perspective refreshing. Author is impassioned about the subject of book in a way that makes you put up with the occasional hectoring and shrillness.

One fundamental problem I had with the substance, rather then the style of the book: Author repeatedly discusses various civic improvement schemes as plots to "increase real estate values". Query: Is that really such a nefarious scheme? If you look at California today, property ownership is hardly the exclusive province of the elite. In this way, I think the book unwittingly lends supports to an alternative, and contradictory hypotheses: That the actions that economic elites take in their own self interest ultimately benefit those outside their own social class.

So, that's something to think about.

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Brechin does amazing work here on so many levels it's difficult to know where to begin. In one way, this book functions like a locally focused 'People's History', creating an infuriating narrative of staggering corruption & exploitation by San Francisco's elites, first of California's landscape and people, then, as the city's power & wealth accumulate, exporting this exploitation to distant shores.

In it's deep examination of 'The Pyramid of Mining', Brechin braves largely new ground & is effective in demonstrating that all imperial cities are founded originally in extracting resource wealth from the Earth, which creates an immediate gain for the mine owners & defers the costs, environmental & otherwise, to poor people of current & future generations.
There's a Curtis Mayfield lyric which I feel dovetails nicely with that theme: "Where is the Mayor to make all things fair?/He lives outside our polluted air."

Incidentally, the ultimate symbol of that accumulated mining power? The skyscraper. I was surprised to learn that skyscrapers were originally concieved & designed as upside-down mine shafts, from frame & structure to elevators & ventilation. The first were direct statements of mining power, a literal demonstration of how deep & wide their owners had been able to reach into the earth to rip riches out of it.

Finally, and most significantly, Imperial SF is probably the most informative book ever written on the basic relationship of a city to the countryside that surrounds it. Brechin is utterly effective in proving that by it's very nature, the city exploits it's immediately surrounding countryside. The larger & more wealthy that city, the farther that exploitation must spread. At the largest level then, the Imperial Cities (Ancient Rome, London, San Francisco just to name a few) are those that are able to export that exploitation to foreign lands, reaping profits for the few that are paid, as always, by someone else's children.

[Josh Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5 stars)
A history of late 19th and early 20th century San Francisco that is much more. Brechin uses the example of San Francisco's growth to critique capitalism in general, expose the intimate connection between war and urban growth, and illustrate the environmental degradation that is the often unaccounted cost of wealth accumulation. Brechin's prose is polemical and free-ranging, pausing for asides on Ancient Rome, 15th century miner and metallurgist Georg Agricola, and most of all, his mentor Lewis Mumford's idea of the "pyramid of mining." It is this idea of the "megamachine" that governs human societies and our relationship to the earth that runs through Imperial San Francisco. While each chapter is almost a standalone article, focusing on a different elite family and/or aspect of California economy and culture, the real protagonist (antagonist?) of Brechin's book is Capital, unstoppably gobbling up new lands, peoples, and resources. This concept is so broad, however, that each chapter can seem a bit disjointed from the others (though perhaps it would have been better if I had read it in a single day as most of its academic readership no doubt did, rather than over two months). Nevertheless, a very interesting and provocative read that has made me rethink not only San Francisco, but the extractive base of capital, and how it perpetuates itself.

[Friscomama · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a five star for me, but your mileage might vary. It's a history of San Francisco up to the end of World War II, and a study of "urban power and earthly ruin". The publishers description is pretty accurate.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .in short, the period was so far like the present period . . . Oops, that's Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities . They were erecting more and taller buildings, needing new energy sources, needing more water from out of town, greed, and mischief. So, yeah, it is like the present period.
The ruling families are featured in various stories about mines, railroads, power plants, politics, newspapers, museums, and the creation of Stanford, and the University of California in Berkeley. Attention must be paid to avoid having to go back and figure out who someone was. There are a lot of people involved. That's easier in the e-book, but it does break the flow.
Images of source material; photos, maps, documents, and newspapers appear throughout the book and are useful.

[Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book 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 inventing theories that are somewhere between conspiracies and Grand Theories of History. Despite this unfortunate tendency, 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. Definitely recommended reading for someone trying to get a grasp on the early history of SF, albeit to be taken with a side order of salt.

[Ajk · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a really good read on how San Francisco is an imperial city, created to manufacture wealth out of the US' Pacific reach and the mining industry of the American West. Starting with 49ers and ending with the Atomic bomb, it's a really interesting read on how San Francisco -- despite its hippies & revolutionaries image -- is as much a city of capital and industry as any.

I think I would've enjoyed it more had it not been my first San Francisco book read. Brechin kind of assumes his reader knows a lot of things that I certainly didn't, and I also wish that the book went a bit farther past WW2 into how San Francisco became the aforementioned hippies & revolutionaries city it's known as today. It was a really good book, but I know I need to read more about SF. Not sure if that's a fault of the book or a compliment towards it.