History of California in the 1930s, discussing topics that include the depression, Utpon Sinclair's campaign for governor, Harry Bridges and the San Francisco general strike, and the public and private relief programs for the more than one million emigrants from the dust bowl.

The left side of the continent : radicalism in nineteenth-century San Francisco -- Bulls and Wobblies : The IWW and the Criminal Syndicalism Act of 1929 -- Seeing red : strikes in the fields and canneries -- Bayonets on the Embarcadero : the San Francisco waterfront and general strike of 1934 -- EPIC intentions : the gubernatorial campaign of 1934 -- The empire strikes back : testing the fascist alternative -- Ham and eggs : the New Deal (almost) comes to California -- Give me shelter : soup kitchens, migrant camps, and other relief efforts -- Documenting the crisis : Annus Mirabilis 1939 -- Valley of decision : San Francisco and the Hetch Hetchy Project -- Angels, dams, and dynamos : metropolitan Los Angeles and the Colorado River Project -- Completing California : the therapy of public works -- Atlantis on the Pacific : the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939.