Gray Brechin, Ph.D.

Historical Geographer & Author

Berkeley, California

Appearances

Selected Past appearances:

2013

May 13 A Monumental Act of Revenge: The Two Hearst Plans for U.C. Berkeley

Disney Family Museum, SF Presidio

April 13 Excavating the New Deal -- In Archives and in the Field

Keynote speaker for Society of California Archivists conference, Berkeley, CA

April 12 'The Greatest of These is Charity:' The Lost Ethical Language of New Deal Public Works

American Association of Geographers Convention, Los Angeles (A paper read by Rachel Brahinsky because of unexpected surgery)

2012

September 13 Rediscovering the New Deal — In Libraries and in the Field

Berkeley City Club

June 21A New Deal for Los Angeles: David Kipen and Gray Brechin in conversation

Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071

February 28 Time in the Palace: Bernard Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts in Context

Celebrating the 150th Year of Bay Area Architect Bernard Maybeck
Sponsored by the INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE & ART, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER

2011

October 28 Development of California and Australia Water Systems

Australian International Council on Monuments and Sites (AICOMOS), Melbourne, Australia

November 10 Development of California and Australia Water Systems

Australian International Council on Monuments and Sites (AICOMOS), Sydney, Australia

November 11 A Dazzling Range of Styles: The Public Architecture of the New Deal in the United States

Australian Institute of Architects, Sydney, Australia

September 15 Imperial San Francisco talk for Olympic Club Book Club

Private event

July 23 The California Living New Deal Project

Focusing on New Deal work in and around Long Beach.

July 16 New Deal bus tour of San Francisco for LaborFest

Start at Double Play Restaurant, 16th & Bryant Streets.

July 11 The Lost Ethical Language of New Deal Public Works

San Francisco State University

July 8 The California Living New Deal Project

Piedmont Gardens, Oakland

July 7 The Unremitting War on Labor and History: The Trial of Anton Refregier's Murals at Rincon Annex to the Censorship of the Maine Labor Murals Today

Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center Street, Berkeley

Apr 7 Standing in the Ruins of What We Built: New Deal Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression and Its Contraction Today

Conference: 1935: The Reality and the Promise. Hofstra Cultural Center, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

Feb 26 Overcoming Depression: The Need for a National New Deal Inventory

Guest lecture for docents of USS Potomac

Feb 22 Climbing Out of Depression: New Deal Contributions to San Francisco and the Bay Area

San Francisco History Association, St. Philip's Church, 725 Diamond Street, San Francisco.

Feb 18 Another World Was Possible: What Enlightened Government Can Do

The Mendocino Coast: An Eco-Communitarian Conference, at the Caspar Community Center, Caspar, California.

2010

Nov 8 Mining’s Toxic Legacy in the Sierra Nevada

Nevada City, California — Mr. Brechin will speak during the first-ever public conference on how to address the ongoing human health, environmental and cultural impacts of over a century of mining in the Sierra Nevada.

Oct 24 1935 and the Enduring New Deal: A Public Forum on the 75th Anniversary of the WPA and Rural Electrification Agency

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York — In honor of the 75th anniversary of the enactment of the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Rural Electrification Administration, the FDR Presidential Library and Museum and the Roosevelt Institute present “1935 and the Enduring New Deal,” a series of free public forums in the fall of 2010.

Read Gray’s speech online

Sept. 27 Forming the Modern City: Gold Rush, Beaux Arts, and the Panama Pacific Exposition

American Institute of Architects San Francisco — San Francisco is often described as an instant city because of its abrupt birth with the Gold Rush. But like other U.S. cities, its architecture and layout have reflected to international fashions over time. Geographer Gray Brechin will examine how it did so, what keeps it unique among world cities, and how the Panama-Pacific International Exposition served as the apotheosis of its leaders' dreams of dominating the Pacific Basin and surpassing New York City in the process.

Sep 18 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Interview

Gray Brechin is interviewed about his book, Imperial San Francisco: is San Francisco as bohemian as it seems?

July 24 Coit Tower Mural Walk

Dozens of artists were hired by the Civil Works Administration to decorate the public spaces and staircase of the new Coit Tower at the time of the San Francisco General Strike. Gray Brechin and Peter Driscoll will show how those artists left colorful vignettes of city and country life at that time as well as pushing the envelope of what was politically acceptable in publicly financed art.

July 22 Another World Was Possible: New Deal Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression, and Its Contraction Now

We have been living for 75 years on the long-term investment in the future made by the Roosevelt administration in times harder than ours. Berkeley City Auditorium, 2050 Center Street, Berkeley.

July 18 Laborfest Bay Boat Tour

 A three-hour narrated tour of labor on and around SF Bay, including work on the new Bay Bridge span.

July 17 New Deal Bus Tour

 Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith will give their annual day-long bus tour of New Deal sites in San Francisco.

July 15 Mechanics’ Institute Building Centennial Celebration

A day-long series of evnts celebrating one of the last remaining Mechanics’ Institutes, still going strong in San Francisco. Gray Brechin will moderate a panel discussion on the rebuilding of the city after the 1906 fire at 6 PM. Visit www.milibrary.org for schedule of events.

July 10 Opening Reception: Art and Labor

As part of July’s LaborFest, Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith will talk about New Deal art projects in Northern California at a new exhibition of labor art. Expressions Art Gallery, 2035 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley

Apr 13 Against the Grain: KPFA-FM Radio Interview

Gray Brechin contrasts the New Deal’s energetic commitment to education with current efforts to eviscerate public education. And Ross Eisenbrey describes how unpaid interns are used and abused in the private sector.

Apr 9 New Deal Contributions to Public Education

Oregon State University, Corvallis.

Apr 8 Imperial San Francisco

Eugene, Oregon: Lane Community College, Lane County Museum, and University of Oregon.

Apr 7 New Deal Contributions to Public Education

Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.

Apr 6 San Francisco & Empire

Portland State University, Oregon.

Mar 9 Against the Grain: KPFA-FM Radio Interview

Gray Brechin contrasts the government's extraordinary commitment to education during the New Deal with current efforts to eviscerate public education.

2009

Oct 24 Moderating panel: Urban Cultural Landscapes Boomed and Busted

California Council for the Promotion of History conference, Monterey, California

Oct 24 Introduction to San Francisco

American Academy of Ophthalmologists (not open to the public)

Sep 29 California’s Living New Deal

“Soul of a People” conference, San Jose State University, California

Sep 16 Sowing vs. Eating Our Seed Corn: The Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression Compared to the Schwarzenegger/Yudof Trajectory Today

McCone Hall, U.C. Berkeley Campus. All units of California’s once model public education system are undergoing an unprecedented contraction in response to the most severe recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. California’s Living New Deal Project has discovered that during the latter crisis, however, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal did precisely the opposite, expanding public education in all of its manifestations from schools to libraries, museums, and teaching hospitals. That expansion did much to end the Depression and has benefitted unwitting generations for over seventy years. What has changed?

Aug 9 California’s Living New Deal

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Berkeley, California

July 19 California’s Living New Deal

American Association of State Colleges and Universities conference, La Jolla, California

July 12 New Deal Bus Tour for LaborFest with Harvey Smith

More info: LaborFest 2009 Schedule

July 7 Jobs for Artists! Building Momentum for a New Deal for the Arts in the 21st Century

Audre Lorde Room, Women's Building, San Francisco. Cosponsored by the CCSF Department of Labor and Community Studies Program and the Center for Political Education.

In the 1930s, the "New Deal" Works Progress Administration created jobs for tens of thousands of artists and writers, including authors such as John Cheever, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, radio journalist Studs Terkel, and painters like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Rockwell Kent. In the 1970s, the CETA program funded artist-organizers who helped create the Cultural Centers that now exist in San Francisco's neighborhoods. Today a new movement is emerging to promote a 21st century New Deal for the arts. Jobs for Artists! will feature a panel discussion on the rich legacy of federal jobs programs for artists and writers, and build support for a larger effort timed with the 75th anniversary of the WPA in 2010. Featuring WPA historian Gray Brechin, cultural journalist Jeff Chang, and Arlene Goldbard, organizer of a May 2009 White House briefing on federal arts funding. With short readings and original performances by local poets honoring the great work of WPA-sponsored artists and writers.

About the speakers:

July 2 The History of Public Funding and the Arts — The Legacy of the New Deal

Gray Brechin moderating. California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco

Jun 20 Day-long Symposium on World’s Fairs

Sponsored by Historic Seattle

Apr 23 PM San Francisco and the New Deal

San Francisco Natural History Group. Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco

Apr 2 Historic Causes and Responses to Homelessness in America

Panel discussion. California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco

Apr 1 From Riches to Rags: Hollywood and the New Deal

Series begins. Gray Brechin will narrate Gabriel Over the White House (1933) Apr 15. Pacific Film Archives, Hearst Annex, U.C. Berkeley

Mar 21 California’s Living New Deal Project

Friends of the Eastern California Museum Annual Meeting.
Owens Valley High School Mulit-Purpose Room, Independence, California

Mar 16 Will We Miss the Chronicle?

Panel discussion. Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, U.C. Berkeley

Mar 4 Urban Parasitism: The Case of Imperial San Francisco’s Impact on the Pacific Basin

U.C. Davis Geography Group Distinguished Speakers Series on The History of California's Landscapes

2008

Oct 21 The Indispensable New Deal

Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Oct 16 Reviving the New Deal: A Time When Government Helped the People

A conference at San Francisco City College.

Sep 24 Progress Report on the California Living New Deal Project

California History Dinner, Institute for Research on Labor & Employment

July 29 WPA-PWA Bus Tour With Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith

Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of historic sites built by New Deal labor. You will learn about the major contribution workers made during the Depression era in San Francisco. The tour is sponsored by LaborFest.

July 15 The New Deal in San Francisco’s Sunset District

West Portal Branch Library (WPA-built), 160 Lenox Way, San Francisco

Jun 27 Lessons of the Living New Deal Project for New York City

New York Society for Ethical Culture, New York City

Jun 21 The California Living New Deal Project

Keynote at annual Roosevelt Reading Festival, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY

Jun 12 The New Deal in San Francisco

Koret Auditorium, Main Library, San Francisco

Jun 9 Adolph Sutro’s Tunnel to the Comstock Lode

Luncheon address for American Tunneling Association convention, Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco

May 14 Bus tour of New Deal sites in East Bay and San Francisco

Oakland Museum History Guild, CA

Apr 11 What the New Deal Has to Teach Us

California Federation of Teachers convention, Oakland Marriott Hotel, CA

Feb 29 War, Nuclear Power, and the Environment: Past and Future

In discussion with Norman Solomon and Mark Dowie, The Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station, CA

Feb 25 The Living New Deal Project

With tour of PWA-built campus between talks. Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA

Feb 10 Last of the Gilded Age Fairs: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition

The Flagler Museum, West Palm Beach, Florida | View this lecture online (audio with slides)

2007

Dec 13 The Living New Deal in the East Bay

Oakland Heritage Alliance lecture series, Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, CA

Nov 2 In conversation with Dr. Christopher Breiseth on the relevance of the New Deal today

Dr. Breiseth is the President and CEO of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Ceremonial Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, New York City

Nov 1 In conversation with Professors Neil Smith and David Harvey on the Living New Deal

Graduate Center, City University of New York

Oct 31 The Living New Deal Project

Lecture for Professor Harvey Molotch class at New York University, New York City

Oct 30 The Living New Deal Project

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Lecture for Professor Andy Lamas class, “Community and Economic Development”

Oct 29 The Living New Deal Project: Excavating the Public Landscape of the Great Depression

University Seminar On The City, Faculty House, Columbia University, NYC

Oct 25 The Living New Deal Project, with Harvey Smith

Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA

Oct 26 The Living New Deal Project Three Years On

California Council for the Promotion of History Annual Meeting, Embassy Suites, Arcadia, CA

May 31 The Living New Deal

Alameda History Museum, Alameda, CA

May 23 Against the Grain

Acclaimed analyst and author Chalmers Johnson talks with Gray Brechin about Johnson's new book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.

Apr 28 The Living New Deal

Keynote address, California Studies Conference, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, CA

Apr 9 Living With Nature: The Hillside Club's Role in the Design of Berkeley

Berkeley Public Library Main Branch

Mar 20 The Living New Deal

College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley

Mar 14 The Living New Deal

University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada

Mar 7 Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

A conversation with Chalmers Johnson about his new book of that title, King Middle School Auditorium, Berkeley, CA

Mar 3 On the Edge of the Western World

Fundraising event for Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association at "Wildwood" in Piedmont, CA, the Maybeck-designed Frank C. Havens estate

Feb 6 The Living New Deal Project

Keynote address, CalTrans Cultural Workers Conference, Asilomar, CA

2006

Nov 5 The Road to Serendip: Adventures as a Bancroft Library Fellow

Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA

Oct 22 Memorial address for Willa Baum

Doe Library Morrison Room, U.C. Berkeley, CA

Oct 17 The Living New Deal Project

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

Sep 16 Megafollies

Alameda Forum, Alameda, CA

Aug 16 The Diaspora of Fortunes and Technology from Nevada City

Keynote address, 150th Birthday of the National Hotel, Nevada City, CA

Jun 10 Excavating the Public Landscape of the New Deal in Marin

Point Reyes Dance Palace Fundraising Event, The Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station, CA

May 8 Excavating the Public Landscape of the New Deal in Berkeley

Vista College and Berkeley Public Library talk, Main Branch, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Apr 19 The City, The Mine, The Battlefield: Toward an Explanation for Urban Imperialism

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Mar 29 The New Deal Contribution to California’s Infrastructure

Society for Industrial Archaeology monthly meeting, Spenger’s Fish Grotto, Berkeley, CA

Mar 18 Excavating the Public Landscape: The New Deal Legacy Project

Keynote address, Sonoma County Historical Society Annual Banquet, Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club, Santa Rosa, CA

Mar 10 Learning from 1906, and from the New Deal

Hurricane Katrina/Environmental Justice Symposium, Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley, CA

Jan 24 New Deal Public Works as an Extension of the Arts & Crafts Movement

The Gamble House, Pasadena, CA

2005

Sep 14 Discussion of New Deal Legacy Project

Landscape Architecture Dept., College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley, CA

Sep 11 The Value of Preservation

For the Folger Estate Stable Project, Fleishaker Estate "Green Gables", Woodside, CA

Sep 7 Mapping the Invisible Landscape: The New Deal Legacy Project

Geography Department Tea, U.C. Berkeley, CA

Selected Talks

Other Engagements