EBY Q&A: The earth-shattering history of a small East Bay town

07/10/19 • 38 min

One of the Bay Area’s first business booms was the rapid growth of explosives manufacturing following the Gold Rush. The power of nitroglycerine and later dynamite enabled industrial-scale mining, continent-spanning railroads, and a total reshaping of California’s landscape. For many decades, the small Contra Costa town Hercules produced millions of tons of explosive chemicals that were used to move mountains, build cities, and wage wars. This episode features an interview with Stephen Lawton, a longtime resident of Hercules who co-authored a book all about his town’s earth-shattering history. If you enjoy the episode, please support East Bay Yesterday: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday For more info about the Hercules history, including a link to Stephen Lawton’s book “Hercules”: http://herculeshistory.org/

Previous Episode

EBY Q&A: Taking South Asian history to the streets

How can history be used to challenge hate crimes? For the past 7 years, Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee have been exploring questions like this through their Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tours. This episode covers some of the tour’s highlights and discusses the unpredictable nature of turning public streets into a classroom. Listen now to hear about the first South Asian LGBTQ publication, an influential anti-colonial movement, housing discrimination battles, and what Barnali and Anirvan think about Asians now outnumbering white people in Alameda County. To see photos and links related to this story, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/eby-qa-2/ If you enjoy the episode, please support East Bay Yesterday: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday For more info about the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour: http://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/

Next Episode

Deep in Canyon, part 3: “A community of choice”

The previous episodes in this miniseries covered the early history of Canyon and this town’s fight for survival during the height of the hippie era. The conclusion of this trilogy explores this unusual little village’s trajectory since then. How did Canyon manage to transition out of the wild and experimental 1960s, while still holding onto many of the values that drew so many idealists out here? Listen now to find out. Bonus: Stay tuned after the credits to hear a cautionary tale about what *not* to do while tripping on psychedelics near an electric fence. If you enjoy the episode, please support East Bay Yesterday: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday