Season of the Witch
Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A riveting history of San Francisco’s transformation—from the Summer of Love to the AIDS crisis—told through the lives, struggles, and triumphs that defined an era.
From the founder of Salon comes a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller that captures one of America’s most extraordinary cities at its most volatile and visionary.
In Season of the Witch, David Talbot chronicles the cultural and political evolution of San Francisco from the late 1960s through the early 1980s—a period of upheaval, idealism, and rebirth. Against the backdrop of protests, assassinations, and radical change, the city emerges as a microcosm of the nation’s own growing pains.
Through a sweeping narrative rich with unforgettable figures—Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, Bill Walsh, Dianne Feinstein, and more—Talbot reveals how San Francisco transformed from a haven for dreamers and outcasts into a symbol of modern American progress. From the psychedelic haze of Haight-Ashbury to the violence of Jonestown and the hope of the gay rights movement, this is the story of a city that lost its innocence and found its soul.
Both gripping and deeply human, Season of the Witch is a masterwork of narrative history—an essential chronicle of rebellion, tragedy, and triumph that reshaped the City by the Bay.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Late 1960s San Francisco faced an identity crisis: conservative Irish values clashed with the breed of homegrown liberalism that had begun to spread nationwide. Covering 15 fraught years (1967 1982), journalist Talbot (Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years) reveals a community so hell-bent on inclusion that it inadvertently embraced evil. Exhaustive research yields penetrating character studies: the Summer of Love unfolds as Janis Joplin rose in her feathery boa; Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl narrowly escaped drug-related arrest; and a sparkle-dusted transvestite named Hibiscus revived drag shows. Talbot incisively relates the atmosphere of service in the Haight, populated with intrepid lawyers who defended revolutionaries, open-minded physicians who treated local drug addicts, and liberal clergymen who embraced teen runaways. With the homecoming of Vietnam veterans and an influx of amphetamines, however, the music scene fades as the city faces an outbreak of violence. Into a revolution "launched with the grandest intentions" slips Charles Manson, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the bomb-wielding New World Liberation Front, and Jim Jones's Flavor Aid carnage. In a surprising ending, Talbot convincingly suggests that imperfect new mayor Dianne Feinstein resurrected the city's heart as it rallied around the 49ers. In exhilarating fashion, Talbot clears the rainbow mist and brings San Francisco into sharp focus.
