“A gritty corrective to our rosy memories…enthralling, news-driven history...smart and briskly paced tale... I found it hard to put down Season of the Witch." —San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] sprawling, ambitious history… Talbot’s energetic, highly entertaining storytelling conveys the exhilaration of ’60s counterculture as well as the gathering ugliness that would mark the city in the ’70s.” —Boston Globe

"Talbot's book is a gritty, poetic Valentine to the city by the bay as it emerged as a fantasia of ethnic, cultural, sexual, intellectual and social liberation. Talbot doesn't back off from having literary flowers in his hair recounting some of the halcyon days of the summer of love, but he also chronicles the city's many problems with a heavy dose of hardboiled reporter noir. " —Huffington Post

“Exhaustive research yields penetrating character studies…Talbot incisively relates the atmosphere of service in the Haight…In a surprising ending, Talbot convincingly suggests that imperfect new mayor Dianne Feinstein resurrected the city’s heart as it rallied around the 49ers. In exhilarating fashion, Talbot clears the rainbow mist and brings San Francisco into sharp focus.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An ambitious, labor-of-love illumination of a city’s soul, celebrating the uniqueness of San Francisco without minimizing the price paid for the city’s free-spiritedness… the author encompasses the city’s essence… Talbot loves his city deeply and knows it well, making the pieces of the puzzle fit together, letting the reader understand…Talbot takes the reader much deeper than cliché, exploring a San Francisco that tourists never discover.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Fascinating...[the] absorbing, breakneck story of how the City by the Bay fought off its demons in the 1970s and '80s and emerged with enlightened values intact." —Portland Oregonian

"Excellent...Talbot's account of the rise of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple religious movement is absolutely masterful, allowing the reader to see just how and why this unstable preacher achieved such prominence. Talbot not only gives us a nuanced account of the city that he clearly loves, but he also gives us a cultural history of late-20th-century America."—Milwaukee Shepard-Express

"Talbot's new book delves to impressive depths in tracing the city's transformation from parochial backwater to countercultural beacon… the Salon founder deftly sketches portraits of hippies, politicos, and rights activists who forged our 'San Francisco values' and in the process rescues some old icons from obscurity… a compulsively entertaining page-turner… A useful lesson for our Occupied times: Change is hard, but it's possible." —San Francisco Magazine

"A fresh, fun, vigorous look at a strange American city David Talbot knows well and loves with irony." —Oliver Stone

“[A] sprawling, lurid, dishy, and electric history… Talbot musters magnificent details from new interviews and old news reports. … Talbot's chapter on the Zebra killings is genuinely harrowing, as are his accounts of Altamont, the SLA, and miscellaneous madness in a Haight flooded with junk-addicted veterans… always finding fresh anecdotes to savor even in familiar stories… this wild, thrilling, deeply reported book is a choice guide to all of those San Franciscos — cities nobody yet has managed to reconcile in a coherent whole, so kudos to Talbot for matching subject to form.” —San Francisco Weekly

“As a phenomenally intuitive journalist, editor, and culture critic, David Talbot has not only channeled the Zeitgeist but helped make it.”—Camille Paglia, best-selling author and culture critic

“David Talbot is a great story-teller. He writes like an angel and has a reporter’s passion for the truth. Describing people I knew, I can say that Talbot has perfect pitch, but he has also introduced me to others, as thrilling as sin. He got it all just right and gets closer to describing the lusty, languorous, glamorous, and sometimes lethal Saint named Francisco than anyone I know. The book overflows with gifts. I’m in awe of it.” —Peter Coyote, author of Sleeping Where I Fall

"In this wonderful book, David Talbot tells the stories deep in San Francisco’s loric landscape, from its cultural greatness to the slides into madness. Talbot explores its volcanic originality with awe and respect. An unforgettable history." —Tom Hayden, author of The Long Sixties

“Talbot presents gripping accounts of both crime sprees and football showdowns. Even people who were there might take away something new, and for others, the book offers a comprehensive introduction to the era.” —Booklist