and other interesting and hilarious facts about how Berkeley changed the world
Why is Berkeley famous worldwide? Because of its inventiveness, its liberal attitudes, and its artists and writers. Did you know that public radio, California cuisine, the lie detector, the atomic bomb, free speech, the hot tub, and yuppies were all invented in this all-American city? In It Came From Berkeley: How Berkeley Changed the World (Gibbs Smith, Hardcover, $24.99, October 2008), Dave Weinstein shows us how all these fun facts about Berkeley changed the world.
J. Stitt Wilson, Berkeley’s first Socialist mayor, once said, “Any kind of a day in Berkeley seems sweeter than the best day anywhere else.” In It Came From Berkeley, author Dave Weinstein goes about showing us just that. He tells the story of this unique city from the beginning-the 1840s-to present day by focusing on the events and people that made Berkeley into the famous-and infamous-place it continues to be. More than any other general history book about Berkeley, It Came From Berkeley brings the history of the town and the university to life with anecdotes that are amusing, surprising, sometimes shocking, and often touching.
Dave Weinstein, a native of Long Island, New York, received his undergraduate degree in art history at Columbia University in 1973 and studied journalism at UC Berkeley. He has lived in the Bay Area for 30 years, and spent 20 years as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers. Dave has written two books, Signature Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the text for the photo book Berkeley Rocks. He writes for the magazine CA Modern, and for four years has been writing a popular series of architect profiles for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Founded in 1969, Gibbs Smith specializes in beautifully illustrated lifestyle books covering topics such as interior design, architecture, cooking, children’s, home, green/sustainable and many more. Additional titles about Berkeley from Gibbs Smith include Berkeley Bohemia: Artists and Visionaries of the Early 20th Century by Ed Henry, Shelley Rideout and Katie Wadelland Picturing Berkeley: A Postcard History by Burl Willes.
