Saving San Francisco: Relief and Recovery after the 1906 Disaster


The 1906 earthquake took San Franciscans by surprise. The violent quake tore through America's ninth largest city, pulling apart buildings and ripping open gas lines for a terrifying sixty-five seconds. Over the next three days, firefighters and residents alike struggled to stop the raging fires that consumed the city. Despite their efforts, the 1906 disaster killed thousands and demolished over 500 blocks of businesses and homes, leaving hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans homeless.

Historian and former firefighter Andrea Rees Davies challenges the long-lived myth that the earthquake erased social differences as it leveled the city. New evidence from the relief camps exposes how preexisting social fissures influenced relief services and the reconstruction of San Francisco.

 

Andrea Rees Davies

Andrea Rees Davies, Ph.D. Stanford, is Director of Programs and Research at Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research. A former San Francisco firefighter, Davies graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and is author of numerous research studies at the Clayman Institute. Davies' new book, "Saving San Francisco," released in December 2011, is published by Temple University Press.