Welcome to Litsy!

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? 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 How Berkeley Became Berkeley, 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 that it continues to be. More than any other general book about Berkeley, How Berkeley Became 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 then studied journalism at UC Berkeley. He has lived in the Bay Area for thirty years, and spent twenty 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 a 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.