Gary Kamiya

49 chapters, one for every square mile in the city (though they aren't organized that way), more or less built around the experience of walking around the city. I found it a very enjoyable history of the city, especially since it wasn't told chronologically. But tying everything to actual locations made it all very absorbing, and easy to take at small gulps, though I did read about half of it in one evening. I'd call it a San Francisco classic, and the bibliography is great too.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, though it was a little slow to get going and sometimes the pacing sagged a little bit. But the final chapters picked it up nicely and especially when Kamiya tied the stories together and put them into perspective. In short it tells the story of three operations run by SEO (Special Operations Executive) run by Britian in WWII to disrupt Nazi operations; basically spy operations. The three stories (a woman radio operator in Nazi occupied France, a spy runner in show more France, and some saboteurs in Norway) are told well. The format, "pulp history" includes lots of illustrations, both photos and paintings, but not enough maps for my taste. show less

I lived in San Francisco between 1980 and 1996, and in the East Bay for 14 years before that, so I think I have a good grasp of The City and its history. This beautifully illustrated book, however, delves into neighbourhoods and historical incidents that I knew nothing about. Of course there are a lot of places and artifacts and events here that I *do* know and that I have my own stories about, but there are far more stories here that were new to me. I won’t go into specifics, since people show more who live or used to live in SF will have their own memories and those who have not lived there are likely to have no idea at all about its history (other than the Gold Rush, the 1906 Earthquake, perhaps the 1989 Big Enough One). For either group of people, however, this is a very well-written and, as stated above, beautifully illustrated short volume to read and cherish; recommended. show less

For a native San Franciscan such as myself, pure delight. Gary Kamiya wanders through the City starting about 12,000 years ago when mastodons and sabre tooths were scrimmaging on the sand dunes, on through the native Americans and the Spanish Presidio, the Californio ranchos and the Sidney Ducks, blue collar WWII San Francisco, Beatnik San Francisco, Hippie San Francisco, the Castro during the AIDS epidemic, the earthquakes ('08 and '89) -- just a delight of a read in all its immensity.