Seattle Reading Recommendations over Pizza
I asked a group of local historians "What are the ten books you would recommend I read about Seattle?" Here are the answers I received.
In fairness, this request was sprung on them. These are their off the cuff responses, which are often more interesting. My Richard White suggestions and my current favorites take up the rear.
Crudely categorized by me. Many suggestions defy such simple categorizations.
Settlers and Indigenous Contact
When Seattle Was a Village. Sophie Frye Bass
Pig-Tail Days in Old Seattle. Sophie Frye Bass
The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native Americans. Richard Kluger
Sons of the Profits; There’s No Business LIke Grow Business, Seattle 1851-1901. Bill Spidel
Pioneer Days on Puget Sound. Arthur A. Denny
Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound: The Tragedy of Leschi. Ezra Meeker
Blazing the Way. Emily Inez Denny
Four Wagons West. Roberta Frye Watt
Built Environment
Seattle Waterfront: An Illustrated History. Paul Dorpat
Seattle’s Working Waterfront. Donald E. Magden
Transit: the Story of Public Transportation in the Puget Sound Region. Jim Kershner
Public Works in Seattle, 1875-1975. Myra Phelps
Waterway: The Story of Settle’s Locks and Ship Canal. David Williams and Jennifer Ott
Building Washington. Paul Dorpat
Northwest Gateway: The Story of the Port of Seattle. Archie Binns
Seattle by Trolly. Warren. Wing
Plan for Seattle. Municipal Plan, 1912. Virgil Bogue
Northwest Rail Pictorial. Vols. 1-3. Warren Wing
[video] Railroad History video. Warren Wing
Seattle’s Streetcar Era: An Illustrated History, 1884-1941. Mike Bergman
West Side Story. West Seattle Herald Staff
Passport to Ballard. Ballard News Tribune
Marginalized Communities and Social Change
Seattle from the Margins: Exclusion, Erasure, and the Making of a Pacific Coast City. Megan Osaka
No-No Boy. John Okada
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Jamie Ford
Seattle Prohibition Bootleggers, Run Runners, and Graft in the Queen City. Brad Holden
Seattle’s International District: The Making of a Pan-Asian American Community. Doug Chin
Monumental Seattle: The Stories Behind the City’s Statues, Memorials, and Markers. Robert Spalding
Murder and Mayhem in Seattle. Teresa Nordheim
Seattle in the Great Depression. Bruce Ramsey
Raise Hell and Sell Newspapers. Sharon Boswell and Lorraine McConaghy
I Change Worlds: The Remaking of an American. Anna Louis Strong.
Standing on the Crack: Legacy of Five Jewish Families from Seattle’s Vibrant Gilded Age. Karen Trieger
You Can’t Win. Jack Black.
Four White Horses and a Brass Band: True Confessions from the World of Medicine Shows, Pitchmen, Chumps, Suckers, Fixers, and Shills. Violet McNeil
Distant Replay! Washington’s Jewish Sports Heroes. Steven Sadis
General History and Dominant Narratives
Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle. Murray Morgan
Seattle: Past and Present. Roger Sales
Seattle. Nard Jones.
Washington 89.
Americanism Versus Bolshevism: The Mayor of Seattle’s Personal Account of Battling Militant Communism and Revolution in 1918 and 1919. Ole Hanson
Totem Tales Of Old Seattle: Legends And Anecdotes. Gordon Newell, Don Sherwood, Carleton Fitchett
Our Washington. WA State 4th Grade Curriculum
Bertha Knight Landes of Seattle: Big-City Mayor. Sandra Haarsager
Politics of Wilderness
Of Men and Mountains. William O. Douglas
My Favorites from Historian Richard White
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Richard White
Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington. Richard White
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. Richard White
The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. Richard White
My (Currently) Favorite Authors and Books
Richard White
Carlos Schwantes
William Cronon
David Williams
Col Thrush
Paul Dorpat
Wayne Suttles
Port of and City of Seattle - government publications
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Richard White
Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington. Richard White
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. Richard White
Native Seattle. Col Thrush.
Chief Seattle and the Town that Took His Name. Bruerge
Nature’s Metropolis. William Cronon
Coast Salish Essays. Wayne Suttles
Where the City Meets the Sound. Ott
Too High, Too Steep. David Williams
Rising Tides and Tailwinds. Oldham & Blecha
New Lands, New Lives. Rasmussen
Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound. David Williams
Seattle Waterfront: An Illustrated History. Paul Dorpat
Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement. Paul Sutter
Dave Beck and the Transportation Revolution in the Pacific Northwest, 1917-41. Dembo
Railroad Signatures Across the Pacific Northwest. Carlos Schwantes.