Earthquake Exodus, 1906 - Softcover

Earthquake Exodus, 1906 tells the story of the ten-week relief effort in the East Bay after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Within hours of the earthquake, the people of Berkeley began to organize a citizens' committee, knowing that terrified masses of stricken refuges would pour into their town within hours. By revisiting both their challenges—smallpox, fires, and keeping public order—and acts of grace, such as taking in the homeless, setting up temporary camps, and dispensing food, Richard Schwartz illuminates a nearly forgotten episode in Bay Area history. Containing many breathtaking photos and illustrations not seen for nearly one hundred years, this new visual history offers up singularly human details of one of the nation's most infamous disasters.

Earthquake Exodus, 1906 unveils a history of the refugees of San Francisco who fled to Berkeley and the ten-week relief effort that followed. In its day these events were monumental but were forgotten within a generation. Historian Richard Schwartz has plumbed the depths of these events and offers up stories, details and subtleties of the relief period like a feast. One of the most notable facets that comes out of his research is how no one waited for the government to take over, organize or support the efforts. This book will serve us very well. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (from a Certificate of Honor entrusted to Richard Schwartz to present to Mayor Tom Bates on April 18, 2006) "...I am pleased to recognize and honor the selfless contributions of the people of the City of Berkeley on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Great Earthquake of 1906. The Relief and assistance the Berkeley community gave to San Franciscans after the earthquake was invaluable to the reconstruction of our City. Thank you!" Dr. Gray Brechin, Geographer and author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin."...On April 17, 1906, the university town had twenty-six thousand residents. A year later, it had grown by half again to thirty-eight thousand, largely due to the influx of homeless refugees fleeing the afflicted city. Schwartz explains how Berkeleyans generously responded by setting up temporary camps, dispensing food, listing jobs, and even taking in the homeless. He details the measures taken to ensure public order and health as city and university officials struggled to deal with thousands of disoriented, impoverished, and sometimes dangerous strangers, many separated from their loved ones&emdash;everyday details long forgotten but worth study by those who wish to better prepare for the next great shake." Earthquake Exodus, 1906 is listed as a resource book on the UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library website- "The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Digital Collection." "A beautiful gem... and I know what goes into making a book." Malcolm Margolin, Heyday Books "Superb..." Phil Wood, owner Ten Speed Press "There will be many books this year to mark the 100th anniversary... EARTHQUAKE EXODUS, 1906 is one of the best and perhaps the most unique...His account is often vivid in detail and even thrilling...Schwartz provides in astonishing detail...thus making the book amazingly useful for today's reader or researcher. EARTHQUAKE EXODUS, 1906 will certainly be one of the basic works in the history of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake and fire...Bravo Richard Schwartz!" Harlan Kessel, Alameda County Historical Society "...more important than the amazing visual feast Schwartz provides us with the stories he retrieved from the "dust bin of history." ...we are so enriched by Schwartz having saved them....and are inevitably drawn to comparing it to our own response to the Katrina disaster, we are sobered and wish to read more to glean the simple secrets of their success.This book is a gift to the citizens of 2006 of the Bay Area and beyond, just as the citizens of 1906 gave their gift to the refugees...Schwartz has done it again and we suggest you partake in reclaiming this monumental and thoroughly forgotten Bay Area history.Earthquake Exodus, 1906, Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees is a work of art and masterful history telling. We guarantee you will feel proud, good and better prepared after reading it." Nilda Rego, Moraga Historical Society "An amazing new book... literally brought to life again the people whose stories capture their moment... a remarkable job of research and it takes one who has done it, to know how truly remarkable it is." Burl Willis, author, historian, winner of the Governor's History Book Award Earthquake Exodus, 1906, celebrates a largely unknown chapter from the aftermath of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Containing many breathtaking photos and illustrations never before published or unseen in nearly 100 years, this new visual history is breathtaking. Berkeley Voice columnist Martin Snapp writes, "even more compelling than the photos are the hundreds of stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things." In the story of the relief effort, instigated within hours of the earthquake, the ordinary and extraordinary people of Berkeley began to organize a committee, knowing that terrified masses of stricken refugees would be pouring into their town within hours. As author Schwartz says, "They didn't wait for government. They didn't wait for money. They didn't wait for instructions." DID YOU KNOW · that many people fled to the Berkeley hills the first night of the quake and a number of women died there giving birth? · that Asian refugees were segregated in their own camps and sections of town and that even the embassy of China inspected their plight and did not complain? · smallpox erupted in Berkeley during the relief effort? ·industrial West Berkeley, filled with a working class immigrant population, actually caught fire after the earthquake? "Schwartz explains how Berkeleyans generously responded by setting up temporary camps, dispensing food, listing jobs, and even taking in the homeless. He details the measures taken to ensure public order and health as city and university officials struggled to deal with thousands of disoriented, impoverished, and sometimes dangerous strangers, many separated from their loved ones&emdash; everyday details long forgotten but worth study by those who wish to better prepare for the next great shake." Dr. Gray Brechin, author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. (Dr. Brechin wrote the forward to Schwartz's book).