Books about Oakland, California

Books AbOUT Oakland, California grouped by genre and listed by publication date. Along with commercially published works primarily focused on aspects of Oakland, this list also includes some regional and state-wide titles with substantial coverage of Oakland; some booklets and commemorative volumes; some privately printed volumes; and some limited-issue government reports, though not systematically. This list does not include works of fiction set in Oakland (of which there are some) or sports-related titles (of which there are very many), with a few exceptions.

General histories and descriptions

• 1883 History of Alameda County, California, "including its geology, topography, soil and productions, together with a full and particular record of the Spanish Grants; the early history and settlement, compiled from the most authentic sources; the names of original Spanish and American pioneers; a full political history, comprising a tabular statement of officers of the County since its formation; separate histories of each of the townships, showing their advancement and ProgresS. Also incidents of pioneer life, the raising of the Bear Flag and biographical sketches of early and prominent citizens and representative men, and of its cities, towns, churches, schools, secret societies, etc." (Oakland: M. W. Wood; facsimile EDition issued 1969 by the Holmes Book Co., Oakland).

• 1897 Athens of the Pacific, George W. Calderwood (Oakland: G.T. Loofbourow).

• 1907 History of the State of California and Biographical Record of Oakland and Environs, Also Containing Biographies of Well-known Citizens of the Past and Present, in 2 vols., J. M. Guinn (Los Angeles: Historic Record, Co., 1907). "Few states of the Union have a more varied, a more interesting or a more instructive history than California, and few have done so little to preserve their history." This huge set gives a general history of California and scores of biographies (with formal portraits) of prominent citizens of Oakland and environs of that day. A one-volume facsimile edition appeared in 1997.

• 1911 Oakland California, Oakland Chamber of Commerce (San Francisco: Sunset Magazine Homeseekers' Bureau of Information). Promotional booklet published when the Panama Canal, Oakland's City Hall, the Hotel Oakland, and the Claremont Hotel were all under construction, while the age of sail and horses had not yet given way to the age of steam and gas; before there were any bridges on the Bay and before either World War; and when it was considered worthwhile to boast that Oakland is situated "on a magnificent harbor in what promises to be the center of the highest development of Anglo-Saxon civilization…"

• 1932 The Romance of Oakland: A Story of the Growth and Development of Oakland and Alameda County, Roy C.Beekman (Oakland: Landis & Kelsey).

• 1932 Oakland's Early History, Edson F. Adams (Oakland). A cheery, brief account by a descendant of one of the city's founding fathers. Includes striking excerpts from Mayor Horace Carpentier's April 29, 1854 address to the City Council, in which he advocates: free schools, peaceful relations with neighboring towns, 100% preservation of the native oaks, and the relocating of the State Capital to Oakland.

• 1942 Oakland, A History, G. A. Cummings and E. S. Pladwell (Oakland: Grant D. Miller). Includes the beautiful 1936 National Park Service historical map of the East Bay along with nice line drawings of historic scenes and personages.

• 1961 The Beginnings of Oakland, A. U. C., Peter Thomas Conmy (Oakland: Oakland Public Library). "A.U.C." = ad urbe condita, "from the founding of the city," a quote from Livy. A very handy and heavily-documented account of the city's early history, especially the unfolding legal status of land claims from the Peraltas on. Includes a concise summary of famous Oakland personages.

• 1982 Oakland, the Story of a City, Beth Bagwell (Novato: Presidio Press [maroon cover]; reprinted Oakland: Oakland Heritage Alliance, 1994 [green cover]; updated ed. planned to appear 2006). Still the warmest and most poetic telling of the Oakland story. Bagwell was the first president of the OHA. She left the Bay Area in 1984, moving to Paris, France, where she lived and worked for several years as a translator, resuming the use of her maiden name, Elizabeth Loverde. She then moved to London, where she remained until her death on May 14th, 2006.

• 2005 Oakland's Neighborhoods, Erika Mailman (Oakland: Mailman Press). A wide-ranging and personal collection of prose, poetry, and pictures from a large number of contributors.

• 2006 Oakland: Soul of the City Next Door (GrassRoutes Travel Guide), Serena Bartlett (Morrisville, NC: LuLu).

Corporate/Chamber of Commerce Productions (typically with profiles of sponsoring businesses printed as a final section):

• 1893 Oakland, its Environs and Advantages, a Description of the Most Attractive Suburban Town in America, "The Embowered Town," (San Francisco).

• 1911 Greater Oakland, Evarts Blake (Oakland: Pacific Publishing Co.). Fully 455 pages of description, ads, photos, and a nice foldout map.

• 1925 Who Made Oakland?, Florence B. Crocker (Oakland: Dalton). "And a great voice from the Heavens said: `God made Oakland and all that is glorious herein.' Oakland is the choicest gift God ever gave to man.'" Includes the 1924 Bekins fold-out street map of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Piedmont.

• 1981 Oakland, Hub of the West, David Weber (Tulsa: Continental Heritage Press). Exceptionally well done: extensive, detailed historical essays with a striking selection of historical photographs.

• 1988 Alameda County, California, Ruth Hendricks Willard (Northridge: Windsor Publications).

• 1996 Oakland Welcomes the World, Mary Ellen Butler (Montgomery: Community Communications).

• 2000 The Spirit of Oakland: An Anthology, Abby Wasserman and Diane Curry (Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media). Includes essays by a collection of local authors; ambitious in scope, especially in attention to individual neighborhoods.

• 2002 Oakland: Portrait of Progress, Pam Baker (Montgomery: Community Communications).

• 2005 Imagine: A Pictorial Celebration Honoring the 100th Anniversary of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, (Oakland: Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce).

Specialized histories and descriptions

• 1885 Catalogue of the Oakland Free Public Library, Charles L. Miel (Oakland: Tribune Publishing Co.).

• 1906 How Oakland Aided Her Sister City, Harris Bishop (Oakland: Oakland Relief Committee). A souvenir album from the 1906 earthquake and fire, when Oakland's 60,000 residents took in 200,000 refugees from San Francisco.

• 1931 Fourscore Years: a History of Mills College, Rosalind A. Keep (Oakland: Mills College). Keep was the daughter of Professor Josiah Keep, teacher of astronomy and geology and close friend of President Susan Tolman Mills.

• 1934 Port of Oakland, ed. DeWitt Jones, George Ebey, Herbert Shears, Raymond Barry, and Charles F. Burns (Oakland: Oakland Board of Park Commissioners).

• 1946 U. S. Naval Hospital Oakland California, Louise Dowlen, Dorothy Thompson and Charles Haynes, (Oakland: Welfare and Recreation Department). A commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.

• 1955 A History of the Fred Finch Children's Home: Oldest Methodist Home for Children in California, 1891-1955, Reginald R. Stuart & Grace D. Stuart (Oakland: Fred Finch Children's Home).

• 1967 The Hospital Women Built for Children, Murray Morgan (Oakland: Children's Hospital Medical Center).

• 1967 Trees and Shrubs of Mills College, Baki Kasapligil (Oakland: Mills College). An exhaustive checklist with locator map.

• 1970 Its Name Was M.U.D., John Wesley Noble. The Story of the East Bay Municipal Water District.

• 1971 The Peraltas, Pearl Randolph Fibel (Oakland: Peralta Hospital). Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Spanish land grant of Rancho San Antonio to Don Luis Maria Peralta, which included all of what became Oakland (and much of the rest of the East Bay).

• 1974 Heinold's First and Last Chance: Jack London's Rendezvous, Otha Donner Wearin. "Built over a century ago [1880] from the remains of an old whaling ship and first used as a bunk house for the men working the oyster beds off the east shore of San Francisco Bay and located at the foot of Webster Street on the waterfront of Oakland, California, stands a small one-story shack of a building, unique in construction and famous for memories." And there is still stands.

• 1975 History of Oakland, California Post Office 1851-1975, Rod Mabe (Oakland: Oakland Post Office).

• 1977 Red Trains in the East Bay: The History of the Southern Pacific Transbay Train & Ferry System, (Interurban Specials 65), Robert Ford, (Glendale: Interurbans). "The SP never made a dime on its investment. But for three decades the red trains rolled and the ferries steamed, giving the customers one of the finest commutes anywhere."

• 1978 People Are for the Birds, Paul Covel (Oakland: Western Interpretive Press). On the birds of Lake Merritt, by a leading naturalist.

• 1979 Oakland 1979, City of Oakland Office of Community Development (Oakland: City of Oakland). Pictures and quotes from the flatland Community Development neighborhoods.

• 1984 A Vision Achieved: Fifty Years of East Bay Regional Park District, Mimi Stein.

• 1989 Three Weeks in October: Three Weeks in the Life of the Bay Area, the 1989 World Series, and the Loma Prieta Earthquake, Bill Mandel (San Francisco: Woodford Publishing).

• 1990 Oakland Ballet: The First 25 Years, William Huck (San Francisco: San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum). Sadly, there were not to be a second 25 years--the Ballet closed up shop for good in 2006.

• 1991 Can Physicians Manage the Quality and Costs of Health Care? The Story of the Permanente Medical Group, John G. Smillie (New York: McGraw-Hill).

• 1991 The Bay Area at War: How We Reacted to the Persian Gulf Crisis, edited by Eric Newton and Roger Rapoport (Oakland: Oakland Tribune and Berkeley: Heyday Books).

• 1992 Oakland's Christmas Pageant, 1919 - 1987, ed. Aileen Moffitt. A full history of the Pageant and the amazing 68-year tenure of Miss Louise Jorgensen, the "Spirit of Christmas."

• 1992 Fire In the Hills: A Collective Remembrance, ed. Patricia Adler, (Berkeley). Remember the 25 lives, 3,354 homes, and 456 apartments we lost?

• 1992 Comerades of Lov II, George Peter Vasille (New York: Vantage Press). A private reminiscence of a Soviet ship's stay in Oakland during WW II.

• 1992 An Ensign to the Nations: History of the Oakland Stake, Evelyn Candland (Oakland: Oakland California Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).

• 1993 The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay During World War II, Marilynn S. Johnson (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press). A social and political history of Oakland and the East Bay as it was transformed by wartime industry and the influx of domestic migrants.

• 1993 Guide to East Bay Creeks, Christopher M. Richard, ed. (Oakland: The Oakland Museum). Creek hydrology & geology; guided tours of selected creeks; conservation issues, and a fabulous map of past and present waterways; plus a good summary of the discovery and ongoing controversy over the naming of the Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss also known as Salmo iridia, first identified in a creek in the Oakland hills. Try this online watershed locator.

• 1994 The Story of Moore Dry Dock Company, James R Moore (Sausalito: Windgate Press). Illustrated history of the Oakland-based shipyard.

• 1994 Operation Pet Rescue: Animal Survivors of the Oakland, California Firestorm, Gregory N. Zompolis (Exeter, NH: J. N. Townsend).

• 1997 Real Heat: Gender and Race in the Urban Fire Service, Carol Chetkovich (New Brunswick: Rutgers). Reflections and analysis of the Oakland Fire Department class of 1-91; from the author's dissertation.

• 1998 The Oakland Roadster Show: 50 Years of Hot Rods and Customs, Andy Southard and Dain Gingerelli (Osceola WI: MBI). The granddaddy of roadster shows.

• 1999 Fire in Oakland, California: Billion-Dollar Blaze, Carmen Bredeson (Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers).

• 2000 Pacific Gateway: An Illustrated History of the Port of Oakland, Woodruff Minor (Oakland: Port of Oakland). Excellent photos, maps, and documentation of Oakland's Port and Airport. Produced as an impact-mitigation measure for the demolition of the Grove Street Pier transit shed.

• 2000 Fight or Be Slaves: The History of the Oakland-East Bay Labor Movement, Albert Vetere Lannon (University Press of America). The title is a quote from C. L. Dellums, Oakland's vice president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

• 2000 A Parochial and Institutional History of the Diocese of Oakland, 1962-1972 and Two Centuries of Background, Peter Thomas Conmy (Saint Francis Historical Society).

• 2001 We are the Church: A History of the Diocese of Oakland, Jeffrey M. Burns and Mary Carmen Batiza (Strasbourg, France: Éditions du Signe). A history of the Roman Catholic Community of Oakland and surrounds.

• 2003 Keep the Ball Rolling: A Pictorial History of Claremont Country Club, 1903-2003, J. Parry Wagener (Donning Co. Pub.).

• 2003 The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego, Roger W. Lotchin (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press).

• 2004 Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman, Zac Unger (New York: Penguin).

• 2004 Old School, Terrence Green (Philadelphia: Xlibris). Life and work at the Oakland Police Department in the 1960's and '70s.

• 2006 Temescal Legacies: Narratives of Change from a North Oakland Neighborhood, Jeff Norman (Oakland: Shared Ground).

Minority communities

• 1973 This Far By Faith: A Study of Historical Backgrounds and the First Fifty Years of the Allen Temple Baptist Church, J. Alfred Smith (Oakland: Color Art Press).

• 1976 Free to Choose: The Jews of Oakland, Fred Rosenbaum (Berkeley: The Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum).

• 1977 The Reemergence of an Inner City: The Pivot of Chinese Settlement in the East Bay Region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Willard T. Chow (San Francisco: R & E Research Associates). A revision of the author's 1974 U.C. Berkeley thesis.

• 1978 The Ohlone Way: Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area, Malcom Margolin, illus. by Michael Harney (Berkeley: Heyday Books; 25th Anniversary Ed. with a new Afterword, 2002). Quite regional in scope, but too important in subject matter and in the recent history of Native American studies to not include here.

• 1983 Effective Urban Church Ministry: Based on Case Study of Allen Temple Baptist Church, G. Willis Bennett (Nashville: Broadman Press).

• 1992 The Unsung Heart Of Black America: A Middle-class Church At Midcentury, Dona L. Irvin (Columbia, MO: Univ. Of Missouri Press). Portraits of 40 members of Downs Memorial United Methodist Church quietly making a difference in their community.

• 2000 Hometown Chinatown: History of Oakland's Chinese Community'', L. Eva Armentrout Ma (New York: Garland Publishing). A greatly expanded version ofThe Chinese of Oakland: Unsung Builders'' by Eve Armentrout Ma and Jeong Huei Ma, ed. Forrest Gok and the Oakland Chinese History Research Committee, 1982.

• 2002 Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community, Community History Project, Intertribal Friendship House, Oakland, Susan Lobo ed. (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press).

• 2003 Soul on Bikes: The East Bay Dragons MC and Black Biker Set, Tobie Gene Levingston, with Keith and Kent Zimmerman (St. Paul, MN: Motorbikes International Publishing). The history of the Oakland-based African-American Motorcycle Club.

There are also very many books on the Black Panthers, here are a few (see also the "Personages" group below):

• 1993 Rage, Gilbert Moore, (New York: Carroll & Graf). An account of the 1968 [...] trial of Huey P. Newton.

• 1997 Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale (Baltimore: Black Classic Press).

• 1998 The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, Charles E. Jones (Baltimore: Black Classic Press).

• 2002 Black Panthers, 1968, Pirkle Jones and Ruth Marion Baruch (Los Angeles: Greybull Press). Limited edition boxed set of photographs.

• 2002 The Black Panthers Speak, ed. Philip S. Foner (Da Capo Press, reprint of 2nd ed.). A collection of original material from the mid-1960s movement in Oakland.

• 2006 Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making And Unmaking of the Black Panther Party, Curtis J. Austin (U. of Arkansas Press). A study of the rise and fall of the Panthers, focusing on its internal debates over strategy.

Personages

• 1917 About "The Hights" at Oakland, California, Juanita Miller (Oakland: Chas. P. MacLafferty).

• 1931 My Own Story'', John L. Davie (Oakland: Post-Enquirer Publishing). Autobiography of the long-serving former mayor; revised by Jack Herzberg and reissued 1988 asHis Honor, The Buckaroo'' (Reno: Publisher Jack Herzberg).

• 1937 Everybody's Autobiography, Gertrude Stein (New York: Random House). There, in a passage in ch. 4, she laments returning to her childhood home in Oakland and finding it gone. That's all that's there.

• 1938 Dr. Samuel Merritt, His Life and Achievements, Henning Koford (Oakland).

• 1953 The Story of Cyrus and Susan Mills, Elias Olan James (Stanford: Stanford University Press). The founders of Mills College.

• 1967 Some Random Reminiscences of an Antiquarian Bookseller, Harold C. Holmes (Oakland: Holmes Book Co.).

• 1972 Celebrities At Your Doorstep, Leonard, H. Verbarg, (n.p.: Alameda County Historical Society). A compilation of newspaper columns profiling Oakland and East Bay personalities.

• 1964 Alex Dunsmuir's Dilemma, James Audain (Victoria, B.C.: Sunnyland Publishing). The dilemma: love vs. an inherited coal fortune. Love won but then death came knocking. Audain is the great-nephew of Dunsmuir.

• 1973 Ina Coolbrith, Librarian and Laureate of California, Josephine DeWitt Rhodehamel and Raymund Francis Wood, (Provo: BYU Press). How a niece of Joseph Smith's became Oakland's first librarian and California's first Poet Laureate.

• 1982 Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith, George Herbert Hildebrand (San Diego: Howell-North Books). The story of "Borax" Smith, of Oakland's Realty Syndicate, Key Route, and Arbor Villa (his expansive mansion) fame.

• 1990 Six Gold Stars Vol. 1: Thirty Years of Fighting Sin & High Crime with Oakland's Favorite Cop, Jean Mackellar, ed. (Berkeley: Glen Press).

• 1990 Jack London and His Daughters, Joan London (Berkeley: Heyday Books).

• 1994 The Calvin Simmons Story, Rina Evelyn Wolfe (Berkeley: Muse Wood Press).

• 1998 One Step From the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland, Gayle B. Montgomery and James W. Johnson (Berkeley: Univ. of Calif.). All about our former Senate Majority Leader, newspaper publisher, failed gubernatorial and presidential aspirant, and--in the end--dismal [...].

• 1999 Jack London: A Life, Alex Kershaw (New York: St. Martin's Griffin).

• 1999 Prophet of the Parks: The Story of William Penn Mott, Mary Ellen Butler (Ashburn, VA: The National Recreation and Park Association). The story of Oakland's former parks superintendent who went on to manage the East Bay Regional Park District, direct the California Parks and Recreation Department, and eventually direct the National Park Service.

• 2000 Lying Down With the Lions: A Public Life from the Streets of Oakland to the Halls of Power, Ronald Dellums and H. Lee Halterman (Boston: Beacon Press). The story of Dellums' 27 years as Congressman for California's 9th District, before entering the halls of power back on the streets of Oakland.

• 2000 Miner, Preacher, Doctor, Teacher: Stories of an Odyssey from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Ketchikan, Alaska, to a Pioneering Medical Career in Oakland, California, Frederic M. Loomis, compiled by Lee Sims (Walnut Creek: Hardscratch Press). Loomis was Sims' grandfather.

• 2001 Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America, William Wong (Philadelphia: Temple).

• 2003 The Dragon and the Tiger, Vol. 1: The Birth of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, the Oakland Years, Greglon Lee and Sid Campbell (Berkeley: Frog, Ltd.). Did you know that Bruce Lee lived in Oakland and developed much of his early technique in houses in the Grand Lake and Maxwell Park neighborhoods? Vol. 2'' appeared in 2005, and thenRemembering the Master: Bruce Lee, James Yimm Lee and the Creation of Jeet Kune Do'' in 2006.

• 2004 On the Jericho Road: A Memoir of Racial Justice, Social Action and Prophetic Ministry, J. Alfred Smith Sr. with Harry Louis Williams II (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press). Smith's life and work, especially his long and fruitful tenure at the Allen Temple Baptist Church (1971 - 2007).

• 2004 The Jerry Brown Reader, ed. Erik Bucy (Berkeley: Berkeley Hills Books). Includes speeches, essays, interviews, and media profiles up through his residence and mayoral tenure in Oakland.

• 2005 The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First Graders to College, Oral Lee Brown, with Caille Millner (New York: Doubleday).

• 2006 Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford, Jessica Mitford, ed. Peter Y. Sussman (New York: Knopf). Our naturalized muckraking journalist, best known for her exposé of the funeral industry, The American Way of Death, lived in Oakland up to her own death in 1996.

There are many books by and about people associated with the Black Panthers (for example, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, etc.), such as:

• 1976 Angela Davis: An Autobiography, (New York: Bantam).

• 1978 A Lonely Rage: the Autobiography Of Bobby Seale, Bobby Seale (New York: Times Books).

• 1995 The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America, Hugh Pearson (Perseus Publishing).

• 1998 The Angela Y. Davis Reader, ed. Joy James (Blackwell Pub.).

And books by and about the Hell's Angels motorcycle club (founded in 1948 in San Bernadino and brought to Oakland in 1957 by Ralph "Sonny" Barger) such as:

• 1967 Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, Hunter S. Thompson (New York: Random House).

• 1978 A Wayward Angel: The Fully Story of the Hell's Angels by the Former Vice-President of the Oakland Chapter, George Wethern and Vincent Colnett (New York: Richard Marek Publishers).

• 2001 Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman, and Ralph "Sonny" Barger (San Francisco: Harper Perennial).

Sociological studies and reflections

• 1974 Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience, Glen H. Elder (Chicago: U. of Chicago Press; 25th Anniversary Edition with an additional chapter, 1998, Boulder: Westview Press). A longitudinal study of 167 individuals born in Oakland in 1920-21.

• 1979 Bump City: Winners and Losers in Oakland, John Krich, with photographs by Dorothea Lange (Berkeley: City Miner Books).

• 1981 The Serious Business of Growing Up: A Study of Children's Lives Outside School, Elliott A. Medrich (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press).

• 1989 Two to Four from 9 to 5: The Adventures of a Daycare Provider, Joan Roemer as told to Barbara Austin (Grand Rapids: Harper Perennial). Seventy-two vignettes of life in a home-based Oakland day care.

• 1995 Drive-By, Gary Rivlin (New York: Henry Holt). A reporter's-eye account of the people, events, and setting that led up to one mid-`90s drive-by gang shooting.

• 1997 The Last Resort: Scenes from a Transient Hotel, Aggie Max (San Francisco: Chronicle Books).

• 2001 Unmarried Parents, Fragile Families: New Evidence from Oakland, Maureen Rosamond Waller (Public Policy Institute of California).

• 2003 American Babylon: Race, Power, and the Struggle for the Postwar City in California, Robert O. Self, Susan Erik Lape, and Gary Gerstle (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

• 2003 Homegirls in the Public Sphere, Marie "Keta" Miranda (Univ. of Texas Press). An ethnographic study of Chicana gang members in the Fruitvale community of Oakland, contrasting public and private perceptions.

• 2003 Safe Harbor: Refugee Stories from Oakland, Gary Turchin.

• 2001 Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America, William Wong (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press). A collection of essays by the former Oakland Tribune columnist.

• 2004 Blues City: A Walk in Oakland, Ishmael Reed (New York: Crown).

• 2004 No There There: Race, Class, and the Struggle for Political Community in Oakland, Chris Rhomberg and Roger Nichols (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press).

Government, education, and politics

• 1968 Oakland's Not for Burning, Amory Bradford (New York: McKay). Mr. Bradford came from Washington in 1965 to keep Oakland from burning as Watts had. Does his big jobs program get the credit (see Implementation, below)?

• 1971 Making Schools Work; Strategies for Changing Education, Marcus Foster (Philadelphia: Westerminster Press).

• 1998 Bay Cities and Water Politics: The Battle for Resources in Boston and Oakland, Sarah S. Elkind (Univ. of Kansas Press). A comparison of 19th-century waterfront development on two different coasts.

• 1999 Some Buildings Just Can't Dance, R. S. Olson, R. A. Olson, and V. T. Gawronski (JAI Press). Examines Oakland's public policy responses to buildings damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

• 2002 Hard Lessons: The Promise of an Inner-City Charter School, Jonathan Schorr (New York: Ballantine).

• 2006 Oakland, California: Towards a Sustainable City, Moses Durst (Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse).

Books from the Oakland Project at U.C. Berkeley, directed by Aaron Wildavsky (all are Berkeley: University of California Press unless otherwise noted):

• 1971 The Politics of City Revenue, Arnold J. Meltsner. A very detailed analysis of pre-Proposition 13 Oakland finances.

• 1972 Power Structure and Urban Policy: Who Rules in Oakland?, Edward C. Hayes (New York: McGraw-Hill). "[T]he city's medium and large businessmen have reaped the major and continuing benefits of local policy, while the nonrich have reaped a harvest of more crowded housing, forced removal, relatively higher taxes, and minimum public services....This study has shown the extent to which a very small set of persons and interests can find real expression in the current political organs of a city."

• 1973 Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington are Dashed in Oakland: Or Why It's Amazing That Federal Programs Work at All, This Being the Saga of the Economic Development Administration As Told by Two Sympathetic Observers Who Seek to Build Morals on Ruined Hopes, Aaron. B. Wildavsky and Jeffrey L. Pressman, (expanded 2nd ed., 1979; 3rd ed., 1984). Examines how Mr. Bradford's Federal Economic Development Administration efforts actually fared.

• 1975 Urban Outcomes: Schools, Streets and Libraries, Frank S. Levy, Arnold Meltsner, and Aaron Wildavsky.

• 1975 Federal Programs & City Politics : The Dynamics of the Aid Process in Oakland, Jeffrey L. Pressman.

• 1978 Personnel Policy in the City: The Politics of Jobs in Oakland, California, Frank J. Thompson.

• 1978 Marcus Foster and the Oakland Public Schools: Leadership in an Urban Bureaucracy, Jesse J. McCorry.

• 1986 Municipal Coping Strategies: As Soon as the Dust Settles, Jay D. Starling (Beverly Hills: Sage). A study of municipal decision-making.

Schoolbooks and children's books

• 1924 The Story of Rancho San Antonio: A Brief History of the East San Francisco Bay District From the Time the Shell Mounds Were Forming to the Present, Daisy Williamson De Veer (Oakland: Claremont Press). De Veer was the Curator of Education at the Oakland Museum.

• 1930 Oakland: A Story for Children, Regina Kennt, et al. (Oakland: Oakland Board of Education).

• 1959 Land of the Oaks, James Harlow (Oakland: Board of Education). "A study of the history and government of Oakland and Alameda County, prepared for use in the Oakland Public Schools as a partial fulfillment of the California state law requiring the teaching of state and local government."

• 1968 Heritage of Oakland, Oakland Public Schools. Not as detailed as Land of the Oaks, but very nicely designed and illustrated.

• 1969 Oakland, the Mellow City, Hoover Jr. Hi. School (Oakland: Junior League of Oakland). Oakland's past and then-present, depicted in student drawing and poems.

• 1972 Mark Will Ward: A Black Family in the City, Bob & Lynne Fitch, ed. Paul J. Deegan (Mankato, Minnesota: Amecus St.). Black family life in North Oakland, through the eyes of a schoolboy.

• 1974 Dr. Marcus A. Foster: A Man for All People, Dorothy Hallum (Hayward: Alameda County School Dept.).

• 1983 Oakland A to Z, or Tripping Around Oakland, a Coloring Book Guide to Exploring the City of Oakland, June Naboisek, illustrations by Nancy Gorrell (Berkeley: Pandora Press).

Buildings, parks, and architecture

• 1934(?) Oakland Parks and Playgrounds, ed. DeWitt Jones, George Ebey, Herbert Shears, Raymond Barry, and Charles F. Burns (Oakland: Oakland Parks and Recreation Department)

• 1964 The Improvement Era: Oakland Temple issue, Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. Magazine-format depiction of the Oakland Temple and an article by Harold W. Burton, its chief architect.

• 1970 The Ultimate Victorians of the Continental Side of San Francisco Bay, Elinor Richey (Berkeley: Howell-North Books).

• 1971 East of These Golden Shores: Architecture of the Earlier Days in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, David Bohn (Junior League of Oakland and Scrimshaw Press).

• 1979 The Buildings of Oakland, Robert Bernhardi, (Oakland: Forest Hill Press).

• 1979 East Bay Heritage: A Potpourri of Living History, Mark A. Wilson (San Francisco: A California Living Book). A full guide to East Bay architectural history from 1800 to 1950, with narrated walking tours (eight of Oakland).

• 1978 Rehab Right: How to Rehabilitate Your Oakland House without Sacrificing Architectural Assets, Helaine Kaplan Prentice and Blair Prentice (Oakland: City of Oakland Planning Department). Three editions were published by City of Oakland, followed by this 1987 revision, Rehab Right: How to Realize the Full Value of Your Old House (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press).

• 1981 The Oakland Paramount, Susannah Harris Stone (Oakland: Oakland Paramount Theatre; reprinted 2002). Before & behind the scenes looks at an art deco gem, opened in 1931 and reopened in 1973.

• 1987 Architecture and Urban Design in Oakland: an Annotated Bibliography, Robert Dobruskin (Berkeley: University-Oakland Metropolitan Forum).

• 1989 The Oakland Museum: A Gift of Architecture, Warren Radford, Kevin Roche, Dan Kiley, Geraldine Knight Scott and Allan Temko (Oakland: Oakland Museum Association).

• 1996 Through These Doors: Discovering Oakland at Preservation Park, Helaine Kaplan Prentice, Andrew Brubaker and Betty Marvin, (Oakland: Oakland Redevelopment Agency). As lovingly researched and beautifully designed, as Preservation Park itself.

• 2001 The Peraltas and Their Houses, J. N. Bowman (Oakland: Alameda County Historical Society). A reprint of a 1951 article in the California Historical Society Quarterly. Includes nicely done line drawings and placement maps.

Photographic essays and art books

• 1972 Oakland's Image, Lois Rather (Oakland: The Rather Press). Limited edition art book.

• 1976 Oakland: A Mediterranean City, Roger Urban. Oakland's climate--the mildest in the nation, and shared with only central Chile, southwestern Australia, the South African Cape, and the Mediterranean basin itself--shapes its natural and man-made setting in beautiful ways. If only the Gondolas had been plying Lake Merritt at the time.

• 1991 Voyage, Paula Blasier, photographs by Terrence McCarthy (n.p.: Bramalea Pacific). The saga of creating Richard Deutsch's massive garden sculpture at 1111 Broadway out of two 16-ton ship propellers.

• 1993 Bay Area Blues, Lee Hildebrand and Michelle Vignes (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks). From Eli Mile High to Cozy Den, from Bob Geddins to Sonny Rhodes to Beverly Stovall (on the cover), this book lovingly documents the Oakland Blues scene in the early `80s.

• 1995 Oakland Rhapsody, Richard Nagler and Ishmael Reed (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books). Bits of the Oakland's past and present in striking juxtapositions of people and settings.

• 1996 Ink, Paper, Metal, Wood: Painters and Sculptors at Crown Point Press, Kathan Brown (San Francisco: Chronicle Books). Fine art printing from the Oakland's premier art press, including work by William Brice, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Eric Fischl, Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Ed Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud.

• 1997 Going Out in Style: The Architecture of Eternity, Douglas Keister (New York: Facts on File). Surveys American cemeteries generally but features very many examples from Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery (including the pictures on the front cover and the title page).

• 1999 Contact Sheet 101: South to West Oakland, Lewis Watts (n.p.: Light Work Visual Studios). More juxtapositions, this time of images of the deep South and of West Oakland.

• 2001 Our World: The Children of Oakland, Marianne Thomas, (Oakland: Harbor House). A shining portrait of our young neighbors from 34 different racial/ethnic groups. On the cover: quadlingual Bakary Milon, from Gambia. Harbor House is an evangelical Christian ministry in Oakland.

• 2001 Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett, Garry Knox Bennett, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, and Arthur Coleman Danto (American Craft Museum).

• 2003 Oakland, A Photographic Journey, Bill Caldwell (Oakland: Momentum Publications). A loving, extensive, and worthy photographic sesquicentennial tribute to Oakland. Features many old and new views of Oakland in juxtaposition. More at www.oaklandphotojourney.com.

• 2004 East Bay Then and Now, Dennis Evanosky and Eric J. Kos (San Diego: Thunder Bay Press).

• [2007] 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change, Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, photography by TaSin Sabir (Oakland: Oakland Museum of California). Documentation and exhibit catalog of this 2005-2007 arts & social change project, exploring how the experience of learning and creating art together can strengthen families and communities.

Volumes in the "Images of America" series by Arcadia Publishing (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina):

• 2004 Oakland's Chinatown, William Wong.

• 2004 Oakland Hills, Erika Mailman. Good coverage of not only the Hills but the "Slopes" as well.

• 2005 Oakland Fire Department, Geoffrey Hunter.

• 2005 Oakland (Postcard History Series), Annalee Allen.

• 2005 The Bay Bridge, Paul C. Trimble and John C. Alioto Jr.

• 2006 Theaters of Oakland, Jack Tillmany and Jennifer Dowling.

• 2006 Selections from the Oakland Tribune, Annalee Allen.

• 2007 Ferries of San Francisco Bay, Paul C. Trimble and William Knorp.

• 2007 Black Artists in Oakland, Jerry Thompson and Duane Deterville. A history and celebration of African American music, dance, visual arts, and literature in Oakland.

• 2007 Oakland Police Department, Phil McArdle.

• 2007 The Key System: San Francisco and the Eastshore Empire, Walter Rice and Emiliano Echeverria.

• 2007 The Pullman Porters and West Oakland, Thomas Tramble and Wilma Tramble.

Travel Guides

• Oakland: The Soul of the city Next Door, Serena Bartlett (Urban Eco-conscious travel, published by GrassRoutes Travel, about Oakland Ca.)

Books about other Oaklands

• Oakland County: Making it Work, Trout Pomeroy (about Oakland County, Michigan).

• Oakland: The Early Years, Eve Bacon (about Oakland, Florida).

• Historic Oakland Cemetery, Tevi Taliaferro (about Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia).

• 150 Years of Oakland, John A. Grant (about Oakland, Maryland).

• Oakland, Walter C. Kidney (about Oakland, Pennsylvania).

• There are also manuals, brochures, and catalogs for the "Oakland" automobile manufactured 1907 - 1909 by the Oakland Motor Car Company in Michigan; and then 1909 - 1931 by the Oakland Motors Division of General Motors.

See also

• Oakland, California
• East Bay

External links

• The Oakland History Room at the Oakland Main Library; holdings include these items now available at the University of California's Online Archive of California

• A collection of historic images of Oakland: www.oaklandhistory.com

• Oakland Heritage Alliance, dedicated to preserving Oakland's architectural history and heritage; its website has a large collection of images of antique postcards of Oakland

• The Oakland Museum of California's online exhibit of 7,000 objects from Oakland's history

• The Bancroft Library at U. C. Berkeley (open to the public)

• A basic timeline of Oakland's history