Charles Wollenberg

Interesting, breezy history of Berkeley. Though it seems pretty comprehensive, and touches all the bases, I found it to be pretty dry. But a quick read.

I bought this book on a sort of whim. I just moved to Berkeley from Austin for a brief three month stint here. Despite the short time I'm going to be here, I saw this book and thought it might be nice to get some history of the place.

Wollenberg does a really good job of keeping it interesting. I'm not a big history reader but I found this fascinating. That said, I think he could have a written a lot more on the subject. Many times I found myself thinking "That's nice, but I want to know show more more!". All in all, though, it was a superb introduction to Berkeley and the Bay Area in general. show less

California history