In Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley, author Richard Schwartz seems to have leaned so far over the magic hole of history that he fell in and lived with the people he studied. The intimacy he has developed with men and women of nineteenth and early twentieth century Berkeley blurs the fact that these people and events are of another time. The seventeen stories Schwartz tells here remind us of an often-overlooked reality: that the face of humanity of the past is the same as our own. Although the world these wise and colorful characters inhabit is in so many ways different from ours, their spirit rings true to our modern sensibilities. Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley shows how deeply we share the emotions and motivations of our ancestors whether she be a Native American girl trapped as a Berkeley domestic, a Civil War veteran gossiping and reminiscing his way down Shattuck Avenue in a horse-drawn wagon, or an African American dairyman whose keen observations bring him riches in a community that embraced him as a town founder. Schwartz brings forth these long-forgotten people from their resting place, and does so with such skill as a storyteller that we can, for a time, straddle two worlds and sense their profound continuity.

The seventeen stories Schwartz tells here remond us of an often-overlooked reality: that the face of humanity of the past is the same as our own. Although the world of these colorful characters inhabit is in so many ways different from ours, their spirit rings true to our modern sensibilities, Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cuttthroats of Old Berkeley shows how deeply we share the emotions and motivations of our ancestors...whetehr she's a Native American girl trapped as a Berkeley domestic, a Civil War veteran gossiping and reminiscing his way down Shattuck Avenue in a horse-drawn wagon, or an African American dairyman whose keen observations and inventive skill bring him riches in a community that embraced him as a town founder. Schwartz brings forth these long-forgotten people from their resting place, and does so with such skill as a storyteller that we can, for a time, straddle two worlds and sense their profound continuity.

Earthquake Exodus, 1906 tells the story of the ten-week relief effort in the East Bay after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Within hours of the earthquake, the people of Berkeley began to organize a citizens' committee, knowing that terrified masses of stricken refuges would pour into their town within hours. By revisiting both their challenges--smallpox, fires, and keeping public order--and acts of grace, such as taking in the homeless, setting up temporary camps, and dispensing food, Richard Schwartz illuminates a nearly forgotten episode in Bay Area history. Containing many breathtaking photos and illustrations not seen for nearly one hundred years, this new visual history offers up singularly human details of one of the nation's most infamous disasters.

Mount Diablo, The Extraordinary Life and Landscapes of a California Treasure, is a first-of-its-kind collection of original fine art photographs and panoramic creations of one of California's premier landscape photographers, Stephen Joseph.

"Berkeley 1900" transformed a stack of molding 100-year old newspapers into an extraordinary award winning compilation of everyday life at the turn of the century. The fascinating news articles are organized into thirty chapters. Each chapter examines a particular aspect of everyday life as the reporters of the day saw it.

Degeneration is a book by Max Nordau which was published in two volumes. Within this work, he attacks what he believed to be degenerate art and comments on the effects of a range of social phenomena of the period, such as rapid urbanization and its perceived effects on the human body. Nordau believed degeneration should be diagnosed as a mental illness because those who were deviant were sick and required therapy.

Independent Publisher Book Awards 2018, Bronze Medal Winner - Biography As the Statue of Liberty stood unlit and unloved by American politicians in 1886, one of her saviors was creating a theatrical sensation at New York's Fourteenth Street Theatre. Actor M. B. Curtis, who had achieved overnight success in Sam'l of Posen, a groundbreaking play that transcended the common stereotypes of Jewish characters current at the time, was basking in public accolades at every curtain call when he came to Lady Liberty's aid. Curtis's rise to the top of his profession and his resulting fall from grace is a dramatic arc that rivals anything created for the stage. Actor, producer, real estate developer, promoter, hotelier, benefactor, and murder suspect, Curtis reached the highs of celebrity and fame as well as the lows offailure, illness, and a faltering career. The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty rescues his story from the dusty archives of forgotten history and reexamines an actor whose creativity and cultural influence still resonate today.