CANCELED 9th Ave: Eric Porter

Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 7:00pm

Cover of Eric Porter's A People's History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport. The cover is a photo of a Pan Am flight, low over the freeway. From the airplane down, the photo is black and white, but the sky about the plane is bright blue with fluffy clouds.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED
Join us on Thursday, February 9 at 7pm PT when Eric Porter joins us to celebrate his book, A People's History of SFO, at 9th Ave!

Join us in-person, or watch online.
Livestream link available soon, watch this space!

Praise for A People's History of SFO
"With A People's History of SFO, Porter delivers a rich and dynamic history of the San Francisco Bay Area and an inclusive account of airports as agents of empire and modernity."—Eric Avila, author of The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City

"An innovative, wide-ranging study of the San Francisco International Airport, A People's History of SFO illuminates not only the history of the Bay Area, but the complicated international flow of travel, migration, and imperial relationships that connect the region to a world far beyond its borders. Attuned to everything from how SFO transformed the salt marsh and tidelands on which it was built, to its history as a site of immigration, activism, labor struggles, government-funded infrastructure development, corporate air commerce, and public art, Porter's book suggests we cannot begin to fully understand the networked character of modern life without learning more about airports."—Mia Bay, author of Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance
 

About A People's History of SFO
An illuminating profile of the San Francisco Bay Area, and its regional and global influence, as seen from the focal point of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

A People's History of SFO uses the history of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to tell a multifaceted story of development, encounter, and power in the surrounding region from the eighteenth century to the present. In lively, engaging stories, Eric Porter reveals SFO's unique role in the San Francisco Bay Area's growth as a globally connected hub of commerce, technology innovation, and political, economic, and social influence.

Starting with the very land SFO was built on, A People's History of SFO sees the airport as a microcosm of the forces at work in the Bay Area—from its colonial history and early role in trade, mining, and agriculture to the economic growth, social sanctuary, and environmental transformations of the twentieth century. In ways both material and symbolic, small human acts have overlapped with evolving systems of power to create this bustling metropolis. A People's History of SFO ends by addressing the climate crisis, as sea levels rise and threaten SFO itself on the edge of San Francisco Bay.

About Eric Porter
Eric Porter is Professor of History, History of Consciousness, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz, where he is also affiliated with the Music and Latin American and Latina/o Studies departments. He received a BA in History from UC Berkeley and a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan. He previously taught in the American Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz as well as at the University of New Mexico and the University of Nevada, Reno. His research and teaching interests include Black cultural and intellectual history, US cultural history, jazz and improvisation studies, urban studies, and comparative ethnic studies. Among his previous books are two University of California Press publications: What Is This Thing Called Jazz? African American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists (2002), winner of an American Book Award, and, with the photographer Lewis Watts, New Orleans Suite: Music and Culture in Transition (2013).

A People's History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport By Eric Porter Cover Image
$29.95
ISBN: 9780520380035
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: University of California Press - January 3rd, 2023

An illuminating profile of the San Francisco Bay Area, and its regional and global influence, as seen from the focal point of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

A People's History of SFO uses the history of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to tell a multifaceted story of development, encounter, and power in the surrounding region from the eighteenth ce


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