When disasters hit, help can come from the most unlikely places. In September of 1918 the deadly influenza epidemic struck the San Francisco Bay Area. Cities and individuals met the crisis in ways which are unpleasantly familiar to us at the moment: closing...
One hundred years ago today, the United States entered The Great War, World War I, which had begun in Europe in 1914. Years of American neutrality and pleas for peace began to crumble as 1917 opened. President Wilson, despite declaring that the U.S. would never enter...
Today is the 188th birthday of Levi Strauss, the man who gave blue jeans to the world. A good reason to take a moment to remember the famed San Francisco merchant and generous philanthropist whose causes ranged from orphanages to scholarships at the University of...
Anyone who studies or writes about California history will tell you that people, stories, facts, and weirdness will often intersect. Take, for example, my research about the doctors who worked at the Arequipa tuberculosis sanatorium, the topic of my next book. A few...
I’ve been pondering something for the last few days: why the heck did I start a history blog in the midst of some of the most unsettled current events since the Watergate era? There are historians out there providing context, really great context, for what is... 