"Cherny excels at showing how San Francisco's diverse inhabitants shaped the city's history. Readers will appreciate the dry humor that appears from time to time like morning fog at Ocean Beach on a chilly day in July. The book is a very readable survey based on the author's forty-plus years of scholarship." —William Issel, author of <i>Church and State in the City: Catholics and Politics in Twentieth-Century San Francisco</i> <br /> <br /> "With its canny selection and emphasis, Cherny's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of San Francisco. His control over the material is admirable, and his discussion is deft and enlightening." —Peter Richardson, author of <i>No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead</i>