No There There: Race, Class, and Political Community in Oakland

"This sophisticated account of a remarkable city's coalitions and conflicts over half a century is an outstanding contribution to urban history and political analysis. Clearly written and amply supplied with good stories, the book will interest students of urban history, social movements, and American political change."--Charles Tilly, author of Durable Inequality

"An altogether exemplary book. Rhomberg uses a combination of traditional class analysis, an institutional perspective on urban politics, and social movement theory to fashion a rich and persuasive account of the history of urban political conflict in Oakland between 1920-1975. In combining these strands of theory and research, he has also given us a model for the kind of dynamic, historically grounded political sociology that has been sadly missing in recent years."--Doug McAdam, author of Freedom Summer

"Race, class, and local politics are key components of America's social fabric. On the basis of his outstanding scholarly research, Rhomberg examines the complex web of their interaction by focusing on one of the most conflicted urban scenes: Oakland, California; and taking a historical perspective on the evolving pattern of power struggles. This book will become required reading for students of urban politics."--Manuel Castells, author of The Rise of the Network Society

"No There There combines a sophisticated interpretation of political and sociological urban theory with rigorous historical research. . . An important and stimulating book." -Joseph A. Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Western Historical Quarterly

Challenged by Ku Klux Klan action in the '20s, labor protests culminating in a general strike in the '40s, and the rise of the civil rights and black power struggles of the '60s, Oakland, California, seems to encapsulate in one city the broad and varied sweep of urban social movements in twentieth-century America. Taking Oakland as a case study of urban politics and society in the United States, Chris Rhomberg examines the city's successive episodes of popular insurgency for what they can tell us about critical discontinuities in the American experience of urban political community.

Chris Rhomberg is Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

List of Maps

Preface and Acknowledgments

1. No There There: Social Movements and Urban Political Community

2. Corporate Power and Ethnic Patronage: Machine Politics in Oakland

3. The Making of a White Middle Class: The Ku Klux Klan and Urban Reform

4. Economic Crisis and Class Hegemony: The Rule of Downtown

5. Working-Class Collective Agency: The General Strike and Labor Insurgency

6. Reconstituting the Urban Regime: Redevelopment and the Central City

7. Bureaucratic Insulation and Racial Conflict: The Challenge of Black Power

8. From Social Movements to Social Change: Oakland and Twentieth-Century Urban America

Methodological Appendix: Telling Stories about Actors and Events

Notes

Bibliography

Index