Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter

Abstract

Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport. By Eric Porter. (Oakland, University of California Press, 2023. 304 pp.) Janet Bednarek Janet Bednarek University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (2023) 92 (2): 309–310. https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2023.92.2.309 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Janet Bednarek; Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter. Pacific Historical Review 1 May 2023; 92 (2): 309–310. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2023.92.2.309 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search Eric Porter’s A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport is quite different from most any other airport history one might read. And that is good. Over the last few decades, several airport historical studies, including those by Max Hirsh and Anke Ortlepp, have moved beyond focuses on airplanes and airlines to explore topics such as race, class, gender, and the environment. Porter’s work not only highlights these subjects but views the airport through the lenses of power and the colonial history of the Bay Area. Starting his history with the indigenous peoples and concluding with the airport’s impact on the environment in the twenty-first century Bay Area, Porter offers a history of the San Francisco airport deeply rooted in place and the iterative history of the Bay Area and its largest air transportation facility. Taking both a chronological and topical approach to the... You do not currently have access to this content.