Customer Reviews

Berkeley 1900, Daily Life at the Turn of the Century

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Richard Schwartz paints a picture of Berkeley in words that transports you back in time. Interesting and lively, the stories show life around the turn of the 20th century. Even for people who don't live in the Berkeley area, the characters and pictures are fascinating. A must-read for anyone who wants a sense of how life really was around 1900.

Just a few words to tell you how much I enjoyed "Berkeley 1900." I saw
pictures about a past I never knew existed. It gave me an appreciation of
Berkeley I never thought I would have. Prior to seeing the book, I thought
Berkeley was just a bunch of pinkos.
jake

When I picked this book up, I expected to spend a few minutes just browsing it. Six hours later, I was totally transported into the world of 1900. This is a truly unique and phenomenal book. Anyone interested in the turn of the century....... This is your free ticked there. I should also add that, these are the stories of everyday people and that is what made it so fascinating and enjoyable for me.

Mr. Schwartz has done a thorough and exemplary job of illustrating the world of Berkeley at the turn of a new century. You don't even need to be a history buff to enjoy this information packed and wonderfully detailed book. This book sits in the middle of my coffee table, and almost everyone who visits picks it up and comments on what a unique choice it is. The pictures, historical details, and stories will truly take you back in time. Mr. Schwartz really makes the era come alive through his book. Kudos for a job well done! This is a highly recommended read!

This book really gave me a different perspective on Berkeley, the geography and the people. The way the information was delivered brought the book to life and added depth. It is not in any way a "typical" history book. The vignettes about the people made the time period approachable and real. A must read for anyone who has ever been to or lived in Berkeley.

This compilation of hundreds of newspaper articles shows a small town at a point in its evolution. Berkeley, California is now a well known city throughout the USA, but it started out from humble beginnings. Each article reveals something different about its people, its society and movements and norms of the day.

I expecially enjoyed items such as these:

Chapter 18. Saloons and the Temparance Movement. "Scientists. . .reported that daily indulgence in beer would result in a mental state akin to criminal insanity. . ." Fascinating stuff.

Then dive into Chapter 19. Milk, the Problem. In a creamery's advertisement one can learn "Absolutely pure country milk and cream from healthy cows and fed in a well-ventilated and sanitary barn -- fed on only the best food obtainable."

Just slices of 100 year old life in Berkeley. . .

Some historians avoid the controversal events of history. Richard Schwartz's book paints a realistic view of of life in Berkeley, California at the turn of the century.

From articles condemning dairymen for not giving their milk cows the tuberculin test, to stories about organizations forming to discriminate against Asians in the city, Schwartz tells it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

A great portion of the book is devoted to "human interest" articles. There are stories that deal with fires, ferries, and the conflicts between horses and the new automobiles.

Richard's book is filled with interesting articles, artwork, newspaper ads, and photo's. It makes a great coffee table book, one that can be picked up anytime for a few minutes of exceptional reading.

"If Berkeley had the good sense of the Japanese to recognize outstanding citizens as national treasures, Richard Schwartz would get my vote. Professionally a building contractor, Schwartz somehow finds time to explore Berkeley's past via its newspapers, archives, and maps. He has returned from that forgeign land to self-publish gracefully written and handsome books filled with period illustrations of his discoveries. Those books not only reveal to us a place we thought we knew but are testimony to Schwartz's deep love for his adopted town. I am grateful for his generousity in sharing his wealth."

Dr. Gray Brechin, Historical Geographer, University of California, Berkeley


3/31/10, California Historian, Published by the Conference of California Historical Societies, Vol. 56, Number 2, Spring 2010, page 21
Mary-Ellen Jones, Archivist, UC Berkeley Bancroft Library, retired

"In recent years, a complete interpretation of our past has come to be defined less in terms of famous people and momentous happenings and more through an examination of the lives of ordinary people and everyday events.
In his 10th anniversary edition of Berkeley 1900, Richard Schwartz displays once again a pure gift for taking this interpretation to new heights. from a stack of moldy and discarded Berkeley Daily Gazette newspapers, he has discovered unmined snippets of history to tell his story. He has rediscovered people and events long lost in the cracks of time.
Each page of Berkeley 1900 is filled with charming, amusing, factual, poignant and always revealing articles showing how life was, how it has changed and how it remains the same. An example of how life was: When was the last time you drank a glass of Baldwin's Celery Soda, guarenteed to cure sick and nervous headaches seasickness and mental fatigue.
A choice example of how some things never change: An article under the catchy headline "Dandy Dresser Decamps" tells about one James Graham who dissappeared from Berkeley last week, leaving a 17-year old wife and a long list of creditors.
My all-time favorite article that Schwartz has rescued from obscurity is the following:

Dog Arrested for stealing Doughnuts

Policeman Barff today arrested a foxhound on a charge of petit larceny. The dog was a hound pup which was caught stealing doughnuts from the Capital lunch counter on University near Shattuck and was taken by the officer to the police station. Later it was learned that the dog belonged to Gladstone Morris, residing at 2229 vine Street, and when notified of the trouble into which the dog had gotten himself, Morris agreed to pay for the doughnuts if the dog were turned loose. The dog was permitted to go home.


In this expanded 10th anniversary edition of Berkeley 1900, Richard Schwartz has succeeded once again in producing both accurate history and a good read.
Buy the book. It's a winner."

Reviewed by Mary-Ellen Jones
The Bancroft Libray, Retired


SCHWARTZ'S BERKELEY 1900 CELEBRATES 10TH BIRTHDAY, BY KEN BULLOCK, BERKELEY DAILY PLANET 10/22/09

Richard Schwartz's montage of century-old newspaper stories from the Berkeley Daily Gazette, Berkeley 1900: Daily Life at the Turn of the Century, with a great wealth of pictures from a variety of sources, has been reprinted in a 10th anniversary edition of more than 300 pages, featuring hundreds of new photos (and six pages of acknowledgments), available from Schwartz's RSB Books, as well as local bookstores.

Schwartz, who is originally from Philadelphia and moved to Berkeley after he got out of college in 1973, recalled the "happenstance" way in which the book came about. Author of a single previous book, The Circle of Stones, about a mysterious stone circle in Stampede Valley in the Sierra Nevada, Schwartz began visiting the Berkeley Historical Society, "riveted" by the film of a turn-of-the-century streetcar.

"Later, as I perused the society's collection of photographs of old Berkeley, I saw fields where there were entire neighborhoods," he said. "The university was rolling grassland crossed by the willows of Strawberry Creek. Through these pictures, I experienced the past of my adopted home."

On an early visit to the Society, Schwartz heard that a "foot-and-a-half worth of century-old newspapers that had been donated" were in poor condition from mold and were to be "put in the dumpster." Schwartz reacted. "I jumped up! I couldn't imagine them thrown away." Taking them home, where he thought he'd store them, "instead I put them on my dining room table. They were in bound volumes. I opened one up--and was lost in it for three days, mesmerized."

Putting yellow Post-Its on pages that struck his eye, Schwartz then started photocopying stories to share with friends, ending up with "30 piles on the living room floor, stories about kids, about animals, crime, medicine, about what they did for fun ... I came in one day and it hit me how I'd share this: 30 piles on the floor, 30 chapters in a book. I couldn't imagine the town not knowing these stories ... about people just like you and I, living a hundred years ago ... they show you what everyday life was--and their unconscious value system, just as newspapers do today. Though it's hard for us `modern people' to believe that stuff was written the way it was, with tongue-in-cheek jokes in news stories ... in one article about a bank being robbed, the reporter notes that the bank president `held a meeting with himself'! On one hand, it's a totally different world; on the other, exactly the same. There's no resolving that; I don't try."

When Berkeley 1900 was first published, Schwartz said, "the response was totally unexpected. The whole first print run of 2,000 books sold out in three weeks. One night a friend and I stood outside Pegasus Bookstore on Solano Avenue, watching one person after another buying it, just laughing in disbelief. It was fun placing it in pet stores, movie theaters, hardware stores, places you don't usually see books. It was 10 months on the local bestseller list; the Chronicle picked it as Holiday Book of the Year."

Schwartz ruminated on the themes that spring from the old stories and photos.

"You can see the battle of a rural place with farms and animals becoming urban, urban needs budding drop by drop in these articles, about a cow drinking paint, or a horse hit by a train," he said. "You realize how death was right over their shoulders back then: a young couple takes the train to Santa Cruz for the weekend; by the time they're back, two of their children have died of diphtheria. People were more on their own back then, except for neighbors. Everybody seemed to belong to fraternal organizations. After the Earthquake, they didn't wait for government money; they banded together, did it on their own--and when the relief effort worked, disbanded it."

Schwartz spoke of recurring details he found poignant: "many people, especially immigrants, carried notes around with them, in their back pockets, so if they died, they wouldn't be buried in the wrong place ... and you realize this place was loaded with animals. An article tells how a bear was spotted in 1905 near the reservoir up by Spruce Street--and in a pioneer family album, I found a picture of a bear on a chain, on Spruce Street. The same bear?

"Because of the book, pioneer families have contacted me and offered to share albums. And I've been collecting on my own since the first edition came out. I have a kind of radar, when I see a new image: this image goes with that article. Or whoever calls me with an image, I'll find an article to match."

Schwartz cited a few stories that amused him. A building contractor himself, he was taken by a news story about a contractor of a century ago, "reporting a bundle of rope stolen from the back of his wagon--and at the end of the article, it says two detectives were assigned to the case!" Or acerbic pieces, like one about "a famous Berkeley quintessential weirdo, with an overactive imagination, who told everybody he was a government scout, getting married ... kernels of eccentric Berkeley, even back then!"

Commenting on the images, Schwartz said, "The photographs show us what our imaginations aren't good enough to realize ... what we take for granted is really all so new. I've become so moved by these people who found their way into the newspapers, of their everyday heroism--so proud of them, I've felt an obligation to share this with the community. It's less a book than a kind of neighborhood sharing. There's something grounding about it."