Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin

Imperial San Francisco is the epic saga of how all great cities parasitize their hinterlands for the sake of those elites who own and run them by using the mass media at their command to shape the thought of those who unwittingly serve their interests. Using San Francisco as an example of how cities employ remote control technology to exploit water, energy, natural resources, and labor from an expansive imperium, it takes the reader from ancient Rome to the University of California’s role in the creation of nuclear weaponry and its first use. First published in 1999, it has become a classic in the field of urban studies.