Description

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San Francisco is an iconic and symbolic city. But only when you look beyond the picture-postcards of the Golden Gate Bridge and the quaint cable cars do you realise that the city's most interesting stories are not the Summer of Love, the Beats or even the latest gold rush in Silicon Valley.

Hidden San Francisco is a guidebook like no other. Structured around the four major themes of ecology, labour, transit and dissent, Chris Carlsson peels back the layers of San Francisco's history to reveal a storied past: behind old walls and gleaming glass facades lurk former industries, secret music and poetry venues, forgotten terrorist bombings, and much more. Carlsson delves into the Bay Area’s long prehistory as well, examining the region's geography and the lives of its inhabitants before the 1849 Gold Rush changed everything, setting in motion the clash between capital and labour that shaped the modern city.

From the perspective of the students and secretaries, longshoremen and waitresses, Hidden San Francisco uncovers dozens of overlooked, forgotten and buried histories that pulse through the streets and hills even today, inviting the reader to see themselves in the middle of the ongoing, everyday process of making history together.

About the Author

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Chris Carlsson is a writer, San Francisco historian, tour guide, photographer, and occasional college professor. He conducts award-winning bicycle and walking tours of San Francisco history every year, and he is co-founder and co-director of Shaping San Francisco.

Praise For…

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San Francisco is long overdue for a history like this! Smart, accessible, and an outgrowth of decades of history by and for the people, this is a book that everyone who has left a piece of their heart in the city needs to read. Its vibrant stories of the

The history of San Francisco I've been waiting for. It not only reorients our conceptions of the past, it gives us walking tour itineraries so we can viscerally experience how we are participants in the region's remaking.' Sean Burns, author of 'Archie Green: The Making of a Working Class Hero'

Brings erudition, curiosity and passionate progressivism to a remarkably wide range of subjects - from the city's profaned natural glories, to little-known episodes in its labor history, to a Homeric list of people, organizations and movements that have t

Every city needs and deserves a Chris Carlsson. San Francisco is fortunate to have him and 'Shaping San Francisco,' not just because history from below is worth remembering, but more importantly because it is full of possibilities we should never forget f

Few people know the streets of San Francisco as well as Chris Carlsson. Sadly, gentrification is fast ripping the heart out of a city that generations of artists, immigrants, and working-class radicals have made into a unique and wondrous place. This book