Articles: Journals, Periodicals and Newspapers
In addition to those listed below, Gray has also written numerous articles on the architecture, architects, and preservation issues of San Francisco for the Heritage Newsletter, on the buildings of Berkeley for the Berkeley Gazette and Daily Californian, and on Mono Lake for the Mono Lake Newsletter.
Gray’s Articles on the Web (links to other sites)
Two Views of the New Deal: The Pitfall of Low Expectations, San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2008
News Analysis: Public Relations (Again) Trumps Public Safety at UC Berkeley, The Berkeley Daily Planet, October 16, 2008
Excavating The Buried Civilization of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Newgeography.com, August 13, 2008
Forgotten Foundation: The New Deal for Bay Area Parks, Bay Nature, January-March 2008
New Deal Legacy Remains Visible and Vibrant in East Bay, The Berkeley Daily Planet, July 6, 2007
Full-text Articles
The Guttering Promise of Public Education, U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography Commencement, May 16, 2009
Hollywood as Propaganda Machine: Context for Gabriel Over the White House, Pacific Film Archive, April 15, 2009
Yoo’s Presence and the Faculty’s Silence, Berkeley Daily Planet, April 15, 2008
Building on Sand and Goo Again, 100 Years Later, Berkeley Daily Planet, November 23, 2007
An Evening on the Edge of the Western World, a talk given at Piedmont’s “Wildwood,” an estate designed by Bernard Maybeck for Frank C. Havens, March 3, 2007
Willa Baum Memorial, Remarks by Gray Brechin, Morrison Room, U.C. Berkeley, October 22, 2006
Changes at California Monthly Threaten Magazine’s Independence, Berkeley Daily Planet, February 4, 2005
Keeping the Faith, San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 2005
The Great Endarkenment, talk given to the International 9/11 Inquiry at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, March 26, 2004
Manifest Destiny At San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PDF), Aula2, 2001
Conserving The Race: Natural Aristocracies, Eugenics, and the U.S. Conservation Movement, Antipode, July 1996
Termites [the raiding of the Pribiloff seal herds], Upriver, Downriver, Fall 1993
Ruins and How They Get That Way, New York Times, August 11, 1991
Imprisoned By Dreams: Reagan, Focus, and Consumer Media, San Francisco Bay Guardian, December 28, 1989
USS MISSOURI: The Big Questions Remain, San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 12-19, 1987
Defying the Growth Gods, San Francisco Focus, October 1986
Built by FDR: How the WPA Changed the Lay of the Land, San Francisco, January 1990
San Francisco Is Sinking, or the Revenge of Mission Bay , San Francisco Focus, October 1985
Articles of Note
"High Head in the Deep Below," ,a paper co-presented with Noel Kirschenbaum on underground power production in the Comstock mines at the National Association of Mining Historians' Organization in Aberystwyth, to be published in forthcoming NAMHO Proceedings.
“The Broken Promised Land," Terrain, Summer 2002.
"Manifest Destiny at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition," Aula 2, 2001.
"Power Elites: How UC Berkeley — and Stanford — were founded of, by and for the ruling classes." San Francisco Examiner Magazine, January 30, 2000
"How Paradise Lost" [from Farewell, Promised Land], Mother Jones, November/December, 1996
"Conserving the Race: Natural Aristocracies, Eugenics, and the U.S. Conservation Movement," Antipode, July, 1996
"The Destruction of Knowledge in the Age of Information," The Ampersand [Quarterly of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts], Spring/Summer, 1996
"Unfinished Business: Bernard Maybeck's Phoebe Hearst Memorial for Cal," California Monthly, November, 1993
Review of Guide to Eastbay Creeks," Museum of California Magazine, Fall, 1993
"Ashes to Ashes: Bernard Maybeck's Fireproof Houses," San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 1991
Interview with three Bay activists, Bay On Trial, Spring, 1991
"Florence Boynton's Temple of the Wings, SF, April, 1991
"The Cabins at Echo Lake," Countryside, May, 1991
"Prayers From the Past: Early Synagogues of San Francisco," SF, November, 1990
"Good Earth: The Terra Cotta Creations of Gladding, McBean, SF, October, 1990
"Henry Doelger Builds the Sunset," SF, June, 1990
"Architectural Treasures of Alameda," SF, May, 1990
"San Francisco's Unbuilt Megafollies," SF, May, 1990
"Phoebe Hearst's Plan for U.C.," SF, April, 1990
"New Deal Landscapes," SF, January, 1990
"Public Monuments of San Francisco," SF, November, 1989
"St. Francis Wood," SF, September, 1989
"Curse of the Downtown Stadium," Bay Guardian, August 23, 1989
"Hetch Hetchy's Temples of Water, SF, July, 1989
"Petaluma Palimpsest," SF, June, 1989
"The Stones of Colma," SF, May, 1989
"North Beach of the Senses," Focus, February, 1989
"Mercury's Lasting Legacy," Peninsula, May, 1988
"The Lost Creeks," Peninsula, March, 1988
"Restoring Streams in California's Cities," Headwaters, March-April, 1988
"Frank Lloyd Wright in Northern California," Northern California Home and Garden, November, 1987
"Aces Wild," California Monthly, November, 1987
"Public Gardens of the Bay Area," Focus, July, 1987
"Sermon on the Mountain" [Mt. San Bruno], Focus, May, 1987
"Public Art Restoration," Focus, March, 1987
"The Global Garden," Focus, March, 1987
"A Span for All Seasons," Focus, January, 1987
"Let's Build A Library!" Focus, December, 1986
"Choreographer of Space" [Larry Halprin], Focus, August, 1986
"New Wave Organ" [Frank Oppenheimer], Focus, July, 1986
"Monadnock Renewed," Focus, May, 1986
"Forgotten Father" [Charlie Starbuck], Focus, April, 1986
"Body Politics" [San Francisco cemetery removal]. Focus, March, 1986
"Freeway Follies," Focus, January, 1986
"State of Grace," Focus, December, 1985
"Space Saver" [Frederick Law Olmsted in California, Focus, November, 1985
"The Wrong Stuff" [Philip Johnson critique], and "Revenge of Mission Bay," Focus, October, 1985
"A Matter of Trust," [Tim Such and the public trust doctrine], Focus, September, 1985
"The Fort Mason Renaissance," Focus, August, 1985
"A Case for Books," Focus, June, 1985
"San Francisco: History of A Dynamo," Christian Science Monitor, May 29, 1985
"Crippled Creek Champs" [urban stream restoration], Focus, April, 1985
"Kingdom of the Dolphins," Focus, March, 1985
"A Tale of Three Cities" [San Francisco, New York, and Venice compared], and "Earthly Delights" [David Attenborough], Focus, February, 1985
"Praising the Preservationists," Focus, January, 1985
"Sulla Collina: Una Casa di Irvin Goldstine," Abitare, December, 1985
"Toward A City Worthy of Its Name," Focus, December, 1984 [First of the series called Cityscapes.]
"Down the Drain" [Kesterson poisoning], Focus, August, 1984
"Sick Transit," Focus, July, 1984
"Living the Dream in Berkeley," California Monthly, March-April, 1984
"Hold on to Herbst," San Francisco, March, 1984
"Progress in San Francisco: It Could Have Been Worse," San Francisco, October, 1983
"South of Market: The Irrelevance of Urban Planning," San Francisco, July, 1983
"Fair Extraordinaire," California Monthly, December, 1982
Book review of Building the Dream by Gwen Wright, California Monthly, May, 1982
"1360 Montgomery," Metro, September, 1982
"San Francisco Bay: Progress and Threat," Defenders of Wildlife, August, 1980
"Mono Lake," Sierra Club Yodeler, February, 1979
"Mono Lake," Defenders of Wildlife, August, 1980
"Attic Treasures" [Outdoor theaters and pageants in California], California Monthly, December, 1978
"A Little Place in the Country" [Victorian estates on The Peninsula], California Monthly, October, 1978
"Epitaph for a Dying Lake," California Living, October 1, 1978
"Classical Dreams, Concrete Realities" [Mediocritizing the Berkeley campus], California Monthly, March, 1978
"History of the Aeolian Harp," Folk Harp Journal, March, 1977