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Infinite City

A San Francisco Atlas
4.25 goodreads logo

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( 1,270 ratings, 155 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Infinite City by Rebecca Solnit is a groundbreaking reinvention of the traditional atlas, focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area. Through twenty-two vibrant colour maps and thematic essays, Solnit explores the city's rich layers of meaningβ€”from its cultural landmarks and butterfly habitats to its political and social landscapes. The book connects historical figures like Eadweard Muybridge and Alfred Hitchcock, tracing narratives across a seven-by-seven mile urban grid. Contributors including cartographers, artists, and writers enrich this imaginative journey, inviting readers to discover the hidden depths of any city they cherish.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This beautifully crafted book will appeal to readers fascinated by history, geography, urban studies, and cultural narratives, especially those with an interest in San Francisco or innovative cartography. Art lovers and anyone intrigued by the layers of meaning that define a place will find this atlas compelling.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

What makes a place? This title searches out the answer by examining the many layers of meaning in one place, the San Francisco Bay Area. It explores the area thematically - connecting, for example, Eadweard Muybridge's foundation of motion-picture technology with Alfred Hitchcock's filming of "Vertigo".

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

What makes a place? Infinite City, Rebecca Solnit's brilliant reinvention of the traditional atlas, searches out the answer by examining the many layers of meaning in one place, the San Francisco Bay Area.

Aided by artists, writers, cartographers, and twenty-two gorgeous colour maps, each of which illuminates the city and its surroundings as experienced by different inhabitants, Solnit takes us on a tour that will forever change the way we think about place.

She explores the area thematicallyβ€”connecting, for example, Eadweard Muybridge's foundation of motion-picture technology with Alfred Hitchcock's filming of Vertigo. Across an urban grid of just seven by seven miles, she finds seemingly unlimited landmarks and treasuresβ€”butterfly habitats, queer sites, murders, World War II shipyards, blues clubs, Zen Buddhist centres.

She roams the political terrain, both progressive and conservative, and details the cultural geographies of the Mission District, the culture wars of the Fillmore, the South of Market world being devoured by redevelopment, and much, much more.

Breathtakingly original, this atlas of the imagination invites us to search out the layers of San Francisco that carry meaning for usβ€”or to discover our own infinite city, be it Cleveland, Toulouse, or Shanghai.

Contributors:

Cartographers: Ben Pease and Shizue Seigel

Designer: Lia Tjandra

Artists: Sandow Birk, Mona Caron, Jaime Cortez, Hugh D'Andrade, Robert Dawson, Paz de la Calzada, Jim Herrington, Ira Nowinski, Alison Pebworth, Michael Rauner, Gent Sturgeon, Sunaura Taylor

Writers and researchers: Summer Brenner, Adriana Camarena, Chris Carlsson, Lisa Conrad, Guillermo GΓ³mez-PeΓ±a, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Paul La Farge, Genine Lentine, Stella Lochman, Aaron Shurin, Heather Smith, Richard Walker

Additional cartography: Darin Jensen; Robin Grossinger and Ruth Askevold, San Francisco Estuary Institute.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as "joyous" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "breathtakingly original" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Infinite City is celebrated for its inventive approach and rich visual design. Critics highlight its affectionate and thought-provoking exploration of San Francisco, with Bookloons.com noting it as "a collection anyone who loves San Francisco will enjoy." Reviewers also commend its stunning maps and intriguing mapmaking style.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520262508

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 November 2010

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 178.0mm

Height: 305.0mm

Weight: 590g

Pages: 168

About the Author

Rebecca Solnit is the best-selling author of many books, including River of Shadows, for which she won the National Book Critics Circle Award, A Paradise Built in Hell, Savage Dreams (UC Press), and Storming the Gates of Paradise (UC Press).

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