Following in the best tradition of famed California historian Kenneth Star, The San Francisco Nexus in World War II by Philip E. Meza takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic tour of the city by the Bay at a crucial moment in world history. From the pioneering work in splitting the atom on the campus of UC Berkeley to the jazz filled streets of the Fillmore district, Meza's work connects the threads of war, prejudice, science, and the personal dramas of figures ranging from J. Robert Oppenheimer to a young John F. Kennedy in a gripping historical narrative of the San Francisco Bay Area and its connection to a larger world at the dawn of the atomic age.

Sean Malloy, University of California, Merced

Philip E. Meza’s beautifully written The San Francisco Nexus in World War II takes a complex story and transforms it into a compelling narrative. Meza also makes a number of important contributions to several areas of scholarly inquiry: the history of science, the development of the atomic bomb, the history of the San Francisco Bay Area during World War II, California history, and even the history of the University of California at Berkeley.

Christopher D. O'Sullivan, University of San Francisco