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Advance Praise for Golden Gate:

“With signature panache, Starr offers a history as streamlined and elegant as the great bridge itself.”—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear

“The loving and meticulous manner in which Kevin Starr has constructed this paean to one of the world's most admired architectural icons, is everything that we have come to expect from the creator of the California Dream series, and more. This book is the ideal companion to the bridge, magisterial in authority, intimate in detail and affectionate in tone: an entirely befitting classic.”—Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China and The Professor and the Madman

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Reviews/Media for Golden Gate:

“Kevin Starr seems particularly well equipped to write a biography of that famous orange bridge. The author of more than half a dozen histories of California, Mr. Starr has written frequently about the myths and metaphors that festoon the Golden State, and he seems to instinctively understand the place that the Golden Gate Bridge has come to occupy in the national imagination as a symbol of American enterprise and the gateway to the Pacific. Mr. Starr does an agile job of situating the tale within the larger context of San Francisco’s efforts to rebuild after the Great Earthquake of 1906 and the nation’s march from the Roaring Twenties into the slough of the Great Depression.”—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times. Read full review

"Starr delights as much in the details of history and on-going maintenance as he does in the contours of the bridge itself."—San Francisco Book Review. Read full review.

"Gracefully written. Starr's volume, showing how he and others appreciate the bridge in its multiple roles in engineering, transport, and artistry, is a loving tribute."—Commercial Dispatch. Read full review.

“Starr eloquently retraces this industrial achievement from planning and construction up to the present day with its $6-and-up tolls. He tells the story behind each of the bridge's masterminds -- the bankers, builders, egos and engineers -- and also devotes a whole chapter to a tragic side of the bridge's history as a frequent site of Bay area suicides.”—Washington Post. Read full review.

Feature on Kevin Starr and Golden Gate from the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Golden Gate at no. 2 on the San Francisco Chronicle’s nonfiction best sellers list! See list

In the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Recommended Reading” yesterday.

Golden Gate was also mentioned in an article the San Francisco Chronicle’s this morning

“A lively monograph about the planning, funding, construction, and aura surrounding the Bay Area’s Golden Gate Bridge.”—The New Republic. Read full review.

“An ecstatic meditation on the complicated drama of the Golden Gate Bridge and a chronicle of its history.”—Wall Street Journal. Read full review.

A terrific post by Kevin at Wonders & Marvels.

Listen to Kevin's interview on KQED’s “Forum".

Upcoming radio!

Kevin Starr will do a live half hour interview on KPFA’s Morning Show (San Francisco, CA) on July 7th at 8:30 a.m. PST

Kevin Starr will tape a 15 minute interview for WAMC’s “Roundtable” (Albany, NY NPR) also on July 7th.

“A fascinating read.”—Failure magazine. Read full review.

Kevin Starr will be live on KVON (Napa, CA) “Late Morning” on July 9.

Kevin will be live on the KPBS (San Diego NPR) show “These Days” on July 8th

He’ll tape an interview with KFOG-FM (San Francisco) on July 13th at 10 a.m. PST

And he’ll be on KALW’s “West Coast Live” on July 10th

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"A paean to an enduring symbol of California."—Los Angeles Times. Read Summer Reading list.

“Starr has focused his impressive talents on a book-length study of a single entity — the Golden Gate Bridge. In so doing, he demonstrates both that the bridge is deserving of such lavish treatment and that he himself is well worthy of his glorious subject. Others have done it before, but not with the unique combination of poetry and practicality that enliven "Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge." Starr's compact treatment (less than 200 pages) is part lyrical homage to an inspiring landmark and part encyclopedic account of the steps necessary to design, approve and construct one of the most ambitious public works projects ever undertaken.”—Contra Costa Times Read full review

“Such a broad perspective is but one of the many pleasures to be had reading Kevin Starr's engrossing new history, "Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge." [Starr] tells the rich story of the massive public works project in a tidy 200 pages. It makes for a wonderful and never sluggish overview - complete with fine reproductions of paintings and photographs - that nevertheless contains many enlightening details. A small wonder in its own right.”—San Francisco Chronicle Read full review.

* Peter Magnani’s review picked up in the San Jose Mercury News.

* here's a review in the Los Angeles Times.

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Upcoming/Recent Media:

* Kevin will be live on WBUR’s “On Point” on Friday, July 16 at 11 am. Show airs across the country.

* He’ll also be live on KGO-AM’s “John Rothmann Show” tomorrow evening (7/13/2010).

* Here’s his interview with Patt Morrison on KPCC (Los Angeles NPR).

* and here on KPBS (San Diego NPR).

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* Also, Kevin will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame on December 14! See info. More.

“Starr isn't seduced by the romantic or melancholic image of the fog-shrouded structure so much as committed to celebrate — with great acumen and an oft-oratorial voice that unites broad yet vital references in a turn of phrase — its greatness. His book is as well-ordered and constructed as its subject, with cleanly presented chapters outlining the bridge's relationship to subjects such as politics, money, and design, saving the more ambiguous — yet also perhaps richest? — areas of suicide and art for last.—San Francisco Bay Guardian Read full review

"By California’s foremost historian, a paean to perhaps “the most beautiful bridge ever built. San Francisco’s Golden Gate immediately took its place among the world’s greatest engineering and architectural feats. Its distinctive Art Deco towers, landscape-friendly International Orange and dramatic setting combined for a thrilling picture, perfectly symbolizing America’s Far West regional capital. The bridge had many godfathers, most prominently the city engineer who first called for its construction, the local chieftain who cleared the political path, the progressive banker who financed it and especially Joseph Strauss, the engineer/entrepreneur whose own design—“an upside-down rat trap,” said one opponent—gave way to the plan created by the brilliant team of consulting engineers, designers and architects he assembled. Starr (History/Univ. of Southern California; Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-63, 2009, etc.) discusses these and many other players, but don’t look here for the thorough detail or human drama captured so memorably in David McCullough’s The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge (1972). Instead, Starr sets a more delicate task, a jeweler’s assessment of the Brooklyn Bridge’s west coast rival. He neatly appraises the Golden Gate’s every facet, attempting to judge its qualities and to convey its essence, its singular “bridgeness.” The author tours the spectacular geography and recounts the history of its site, reflects on the bridge as an icon, reconstructs the vision that prompted its construction, details the political and financial obstacles overcome by its boosters, explains its design and follows the course of its building, remarks upon its central importance, functional and aesthetic, to the city, invokes the art it has inspired and muses upon the bridge’s dramatic allure for those contemplating suicide—all in remarkably few pages. If occasional passages feel hurried, few essentials feel left out, and Starr’s lyrical prose more than compensates for whatever’s missing in this appreciation of the “global icon” he so clearly loves.

In design and execution, every bit as worthy of the bridge it celebrates."—Kirkus Reviews. starred review

"Accurately illustrated, readable, and rewarding. Starr's stellar book encompasses politics, finances, design, art, photography, film, construction, history, bibliography, and even suicide, which occurs about every other week. Highly recommended.an exciting history of a grand architectural landmark."—Library Journal

"The Golden Gate Bridge, connecting the city of San Francisco to adjacent Marin County, was completed in 1937, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world. Starr, a former California state librarian who has written extensively on the state’s history, follows the bridge construction from inception to completion. The driving force behind the project was Joseph Strauss, an engineer with a strong aesthetic strain and a gift for promotion, especially self-promotion. He faced considerable opposition to the project from powerful forces, including the military and local business interests. His relentless manipulative and persuasive skills prevailed, assisted by the attraction of a massive public-works project during the depths of the Great Depression. The final result was both a structural and artistic triumph that for many became as important an American symbol as the Statue of Liberty on the opposite coast. This is an informative and easily digestible chronicle."—Booklist