Herbert Asbury, New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1933.  Barbary Coast is Herbert Asbury's classic chronicle of the birth of San Francisco - a violent explosion from which the infant city emerged full-grown and raging wild.

Robert W. Righter, Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.  The Battle over Hetch Hetchy, America’s most controversial dam and the birth of modern environmentalism. Presented in the past as a fight between conservationists and big business, and follows the story from the completion of the dam in 1934 to the 1998 movement to restore Hetch Hetchy.  (Google it!)

Bernice Scharlach, San Francisco, CA: Scottwall Associates, 1995.  The story of the legendary artist model who married sugar baron Adolph Spreckels and gave San Francisco the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  (Google it!)

William a. Bullough, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, Ltd. 1979.   Out of the chaos of urban transformation and political obsolescence emerged a unique American Phenomenon, that of the city boss and his machine during the late 1800’s.  This book tells the story of how San Francisco went from a teeming boomtown to a thriving modern metropolis under the leadership of self-made municipal statesman Chris Buckley, the Blind Boss, and other arrogant autocrats.  (Google it!)

Oscar Lewis and Carroll D. Hall, New York, NY:  Borzoi Books published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1945.  The story of the world famous Palace Hotel in San Francisco, built in 1875 and destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906. Built at the time when Nevada's fabulously rich silver mines were pouring millions of dollars into San Francisco, it typified the color and grandiose extravagances of the whole bonanza period.  (Google it!)

Walton Bean, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1952. The story of the union labor party, big business, and the graft prosecution of the late 1800s.  (Google it!)

Milton S. Gould, La Jolla, CA: The Copley Press, Inc., 1985.  “A rowdy tale of scandal and power politics in early San Francisco; the history of some daring and adventurous men and women who came to California in the Gold Rush.”  (Google it!) 

George R. Stewart, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1964. An account of The Hundred Days when certain citizens undertook the suppression of the criminal activities of the Sydney ducks.  (Google it!)

Helen Holdredge, New York, NY: Meredith Press, 1967.  Lillie Hitchcock Coit, witty and irrepressible, embodied the spirit of the city during her lifetime.  This book tells the remarkable life story of Firebelle Lillie and how she became fodder for the newspaper gossip columns across the country.  (Google it!) 

John A. Martini, Kailua, HI: , Pacific Monograph, 1990. “Simply Great…For the first time, the fascinating story of the U.S. Army’s nearly 90 years on Alcatraz comes to life-coastal guns, Civil War and San Francisco, army family life on an island, and tales of the military prison.  John Martini describes the Rock in a lively manner and gives us an exciting history, well-illustrated with rare 19th-century photographs.” Erwin N. Thompson, Historian.  (Google it!) 

Neill C. Wilson, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1962. This is not about the bridge but the discovery and naming of the Golden Gate - the ships that passed through and the land surrounding the “Gate”.   (Google it!) 

Norman E. Tutorow, Menlo Park, CA:  Pacific Coast Publishers,  1971.  This is the first biography of Leland Stanford which details his whole life story, from putting to rest myths about his early career in Wisconsin and California, to his brief flourishes for the Presidency.  The author discusses Stanford’s seldom-mentioned presidency of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company, his break with Collis P. Huntington, and his interest in spiritualism.  (Google it!) 

Kevin J. Mullen, Reno, NV:  University of Nevada Press, 1989.  In this fascinating new study, Kevin Mullen, a retired San Francisco police officer, provides a fresh historical interpretation of the era as he concludes that the legends of raging violent crime in early San Francisco are overblown, and that the institutions of justice were perhaps not as black as previously painted.  This is the first study of the establishment and development of San Francisco’s courts, police, and jails from the American conquest in 1846 through 1852.  (Google it!) 

Barbara Berglund, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007. Focusing on the role of cultural frontiers in the urban west, Berglund offers a new take on western history that explores the role of market-driven cultural institutions, providing snapshots of the micro-workings of power on five key cultural frontiers.  (Google it!) 

Richard G. Kelly, Nancy Y. Oliver, OK Associates, 2000.  The only book ever written about the Second San Francisco Mint! Discover intimate details about this mint never before shared, see its history come alive. Stories include: Where is the missing cornerstone and its valuable contents?, Did someone try to tunnel under the mint?, How did this massive building move two feet to the south?, What is the real story behind the rare 1894-S dime?, What happened to the $30,000 stolen in 1901?, Why did mint workers draw their guns on a helpless newspaper reporter? Find out all this and more in this intriguing book.  (Google it!) 

Philip J. Ethington, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. University of The author interprets American politics from 1850 to 1900 on the assumption that social-group identities of race, class, ethnicity, and gender were politically constructed in the public sphere in the process of political mobilization and journalistic discourse. (Google it!) 

George D. Lyman, USA:  Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937. This is a book about the life of William Chapman Ralston and how he shaped the city of San Francisco from the mid 1800’s until his death after the bank he ran failed in 1875.  This is also the story of how beloved he was by the people of San Francisco.  Many of the people referred to in this story, were personally known to the author, George D. Lyman, and were friends and business acquaintances of his father.  (Google it!) 

Louis John Stellman, Fairfield, CA: James Stevenson Publisher, 1996. The colorful life story of the man who played a central role in the organizing of the historic “vigilance committees” which sought to restore order in crime-terrorized San Francisco. (Google it!) 

William F. Heintz, Woodside, CA: Gilbert Richards Publications, 1975. San Francisco’s Mayors is a union of fact and fun, a romping reportage of the foibles of a small village projected into an adulthood without the benefit of a youth.  It is a story of strong contrast-finery and filth, mink and mire, prudery and prostitution; a community groping, sometimes ludicrously, for character, for “class.”  Throughout the antic years from 1850 to 1880 runs the story of the succeeding mayors-good, bad or indifferent is left for the reader to decide.   (Google it!) 

Franklin Walker, USA: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1939.  In this book you can read about the literary history of San Francisco from 1848 to 1875.  Included are the authors Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and Joaquin Miller, as well as over 40 other authors.  Read how the personality and interests of each author was reflected in their journalism and how the time and place influenced each writer during this time period.  (Google it!) 

Peter Browning, Lafayette, CA: Great West Books, 1998.  This is the written and visual record of the discovery and exploration of San Francisco Bay, and the founding and settlement of Yerba Buena- which became San Francisco.  Included are many historic maps, charts, and illustrations, and reproductions of the first two surveys of the town of Yerba Buena.   (Google it!) 

Judy Yung, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. Documents the “unbinding” of Chinese women from the turn-of-the-century to the end of WWII.  (Google it!) 

George Martin, Oxford, England: University of California Press, Ltd. 1993.  How the madness for opera took root and grew, how the audience’s behavior slowly improved on drunkenness and brawling, and how and why Verdi emerged as the city’s favorite composer – these are the themes of this enlightening and entertaining story. (Google it!)

J. S. Holliday, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1981. A classic eye-witness account, i.e. from gold-digger William Swain’s personal diary, of America’s westward expansion. (Google it!)