Berkeley: A City in History

It told the history of the town I grew up in from the early days and was charming!!

Having spent some years in the 1970's in Berkeley with my family, it is very nice to learn about the historical evolution and changes of this city, which we love. We have visited Berkeley several times since then, and observed changes that have occurred since we lived there, and they are explained in the book. The book is very rich in details, and explains all the contradictions that formed Berkeley's history. They concern class, race, ideology, economics, war time, disasters, architecture, university policy etc..This is a book for every Berkeley aficionado!

I have been looking for information on the history of the City of Berkeley. Charles Wollenberg's 200 page book "Berkeley, A City in History" is the best book I could find. There are many books about the University (of course, and as there should be), and also several dealing with events in the city. Wollenberg's is the authoritative overview to date. Structural, yet never dry, neutral but with measured compassion, complete (so far), yet condensed. The book avoids disconnected anecdotes. It brings together historical developments, spanning from the beginnings to the present-times. Very readable for everyone interested in the history of the specific place named Berkeley, CA.

In a way, this is a small book, but it's a good one, about an interesting town, Berkeley, California. It's well written by an author with a life-time depth of knowledge and a fine, sympathetic sensibility.

Charles Wollenberg has put together a very readable, succinct, and accurate history of Berkeley. He describes a city that began as a collection of rural settlements and became a "world city" with the growth and evolution of the University of California at its center. Wollenberg describes the parade of characters as well as the geographic and economic factors that led to the joint development of the city and the university--a synergy that makes Berkeley so unique even within the diverse and quirky San Francisco Bay Area.

This is a very tiny little coffee table book. I lived there and was wondering (wishful thinking) how nice it would be to see picturesque, old pictures of the city, along with big, stunning contemporary full color ones, and hear the story of the city. But unfortunately is a tiny book, in many senses.

A great read! I've heard Professor Wollenberg in person and enjoy his presentation of history, especially the history of Berkeley.He does an outstanding job with this book. I read it myself, and was so enthusiastic about it, I gave it to a friend as a gift. She loved it also.Highly recommend it if you love history and Berkeley.

This book is fabulous. It has a perfect combination of small, personal anecdotes and sweeping information. So many juicy nuggets of information that I read it all again and wrote them all down to send to my friends.