"Talkin' Yankees" interview with Lincoln Mitchell
"The author’s enthusiasm for [baseball] and the [Giants] come through, both in the minute detail in which he reports statistics that only a hardcore fan will understand, but in making us care about a baseball season in which the Giants finish, after all, only in third place. Here, the mix of the author’s own memories of going to games as an 11-year-old with his scholarly reflections on the team’s 1978 season pay off."
"1978 was a harrowing year of tragedy and political upheaval in San Francisco, but there were also some bright spots — including a burgeoning punk rock scene and a Giants team that spent much of the summer atop the NL West — and Mitchell ties it all together in this compulsively readable tome."
"Mitchell charts the tensions in San Francisco's politics between the struggle for progressive policies—led by the emergent political force of the LGBT community and influenced by the radicalism of punk rock—and the pro-business policies that were ultimately implemented. His recounting of the Giants 1978 season, which unified the city, is meticulous. This book is a good starting point to understand today's San Francisco. Recommended."
Sports Byline interview with Lincoln Mitchell
"Lincoln Mitchell on His Love of Baseball and Politics" https://www.storiedsf.com/episodes/s3e5-part-1-lincoln-mitchell-on-his-love-of-baseball-and-politics
"What lessons can the US learn from the British election results?" interview with Lincoln Mitchell
"San Francisco Year Zero makes a welcome contribution to the urban history of this left-coast city and will be an engaging read for those interested in the city’s political, musical, and baseball past."
"This freewheeling narrative captures the chaos of 1978 well, with a decade’s worth of highs and lows packed into one memorable calendar year....San Francisco Year Zero is still a rollicking look at a very unique year in a very unique city."
"Mitchell's comprehensive portrayal of the zeitgeist of 1978 San Francisco is illuminated by a prism sided by the unlikely trio of baseball, punk, and our city’s political traumas. His writing manifests the passion of a participant with the certainty of a historian. He has perfectly captured that dark uncertain moment when San Francisco was seen in black and white, between the psychedelic era of hippies and the city's reemergence as a diverse cultural Mecca."
singer and songwriter, the Avengers - Penelope Houston
"The Year That Was: 1978 and the Making of Contemporary San Francisco" https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/year-was-1978-and-making-contemporary-san-francisco
The Commonwealth Club Podcast
Baseball by the Book podcast interview with Lincoln Mitchellhttps://baseballbythebook.libsyn.com/episode-229-san-francisco-year-one
Baseball by the Book podcast
Lincoln Mitchell interview on "The Chip Franklin Show," KGO 810 https://omny.fm/shows/the-chip-franklin-show/january-28-2020-how-san-francisco-became-san-franc
" KGO 810 "The Chip Franklin Show
"Harvey Milk's murder is a stark reminder of the persistence of police brutality" by Lincoln Mitchell https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/27/harvey-milk-assassination-police-brutality
"From the perspective of an adolescent growing up in post-hippie San Francisco, Lincoln Mitchell brings a totally new and riveting perspective to every facet of San Francisco in 1978 from Major League Baseball, to the early days of punk rock to the tragic, tumultuous and violent politics. San Francisco Year Zero sheds new light on how the events of that pivotal year shaped politics in San Francisco and the rest of our country for the next four decades and to this day. And it’s a gentle reminder that it’s still not too late for us to once again chart the progressive political course that was cut short by the political assassinations and messianic violence that rocked San Francisco and America 40 years ago."
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin
"7 Questions on San Francisco, Social Movements, and Politics with Author Lincoln Mitchell" https://www.thecampaignworkshop.com/blog/7-questions/social-movements?utm_content=131047336utm_medium=socialutm_source=twitterhss_channel=tw-1012407859831820291
KCRW "Press Play" interview with Lincoln Mitchell https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/how-rep-karen-bass-sees-impeachment-playing-out/1978-shaped-san-francisco-into-a-modern-city
"New Books Network—New Books in the American West" interview with Lincoln Mitchell https://newbooksnetwork.com/lincoln-mitchell-san-francisco-year-zero-rutgers-up-2019/
The Page 99 Test: Lincoln A. Mitchell's "San Francisco Year Zero" http://page99test.blogspot.com/2019/10/lincoln-mitchells-san-francisco-year.html
"Sound On: Impeachment, 2020 Fundraising, Vaping Ban" podcast interview with Lincoln Mitchell https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2020-01-03/sound-on-impeachment-2020-fundraising-vaping-ban-podcast
"SSTN Interview with Lincoln Mitchell"
Lincoln Mitchell discusses San Francisco Year Zero on Bar Crawl Radio https://player.acast.com/bar-crawl-radio/episodes/san-francisco-1978-murder-gay-rights-jonestown-no-end-trump
"The book is both rigorous political science that would be very useful to scholars of urban politics generally and San Francisco more specifically, but is also a highly readable and fun book that gives a deeper perspective into San Francisco in 1978. Mitchell captures both the larger political issues that defined the city then and continue to impact it now as well as the feel of what it meant to be growing up in San Francisco at the time.
Professor Emeritus of political science, Hunter College, CUNY - Kenneth Sherrill
Drinks with Tony podcast interview with Lincoln A. Mitchell http://www.drinkswithtony.com/lincoln-a-mitchell-65/
"Dead Kennedys in the West: The Politicized Punks of 1970s San Francisco - The New Punk Generation Made the Hippies Look Past Their Prime" excerpt from San Francisco Year Zero https://lithub.com/dead-kennedys-in-the-west-the-politicized-punks-of-1970s-san-francisco/
28 all-star books about California baseball including the Giants, Dodgers, A’s and more: "1978 was a harrowing year of tragedy and political upheaval in San Francisco, but there were also some bright spots — including a burgeoning punk rock scene and a Giants team that spent much of the summer atop the NL West — and Mitchell ties it all together in this compulsively readable tome."
"Lincoln A. Mitchell writes fluidly and skillfully about his old home with wistful nostalgia. A reconciliation of the good times with the worst times are difficult but nevertheless compelling. A+ narrative."
San Francisco Book Review
"San Francisco Year Zero parses the year 1978—the annus horribilis and nadir—of San Francisco's 'time of troubles.' Mitchell's brilliant political analysis has, as a counterpoint,an analysis of the 1978 Giants season. This creative mixture makes San Francisco Year Zero an extraordinarily important contribution to the historiography of San Francisco."
Historian, author, founder and president emeritus of the San Francisco Historical Society - Charles A. Fracchia Sr.
Jeff Santos Show - 6/19/20 HR-3 Joe Sanberg Lincoln Mitchell interview https://soundcloud.com/ron-crider/61920-hr-3-joe-sanberg-lincoln-mitchell
"Mitchell writes with clarity, effortlessly switching between the main parts of the narrative while simultaneously bringing in other peripheral observations and facts. I am sure San Fransicans will reveal in this, while those who have never ventured to the city should find the events of 1978 captivating."
"The 1978 Giants were a truly special, exciting and fun team. Mitchell does a wonderful job telling the story of that team, but what makes this book truly compelling is that he shows why baseball and the Giants were so important to the extraordinary period in San Francisco that 1978 was. By doing that, Mitchell provides an indispensable perspective and resource not only for baseball fans, but for anybody who wants to understand how San Francisco got to be the city it is today. Mitchell has woven a tale of politics, murder, cults, punk rock and baseball together to provide an entertaining, powerful, cohesive and holistic picture of San Francisco during the year that changed everything in our city."
San Francisco Giants Owner, 1976-1992 - Bob Lurie
"Lincoln Mitchell presents a new and brilliant understanding of San Francisco, America's most progressive city, by describing and interpreting its culture through the extraordinary prism of politics, baseball, and the punk rock scene in the seventies. The reader learns how and why San Francisco, frequently chided derisively by President Trump and other right wing politicians for our ‘San Francisco values,’ developed those values that eventually become an indelible part of American values everywhere.
Mayor of San Francisco, 1988-1991 - Art Agnos
"1978 was a year that shook and reshaped San Francisco just as brutally and profoundly as 1906 had, though the changes it wrought were due to cultural, social and political upheaval instead of shifting tectonic plates. In San Francisco Year Zero , Lincoln Mitchell paints a cinematic and insightful portrait of a year in which such disparate characters as Harvey Milk, Jim Jones, Johnny Rotten, Jello Biafra, Jerry Garcia, Bill Graham, Dianne Feinstein, Penelope Houston, Vida Blue and Jack Clark all left lasting marks on The City By The Bay. If you love San Francisco, urban history, baseball and/or punk rock, this is an essential read."
author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s - Dan Epstein
Infinite Inning podcast - Episde 130 "A Death in the Family" interview with Lincoln Mitchell https://www.spreaker.com/user/11343337/infinite-inning-130-a-death-in-the-famil
"All in all it is a very interesting book. Well worth purchasing for not only punk rock fans but also for people interested in the history of San Francisco."
Lincoln Mitchell interview on the Marty Lurie Show http://www.loveofthegameproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mitchell_Lincoln041820.mp3
"‘Year Zero’ uses baseball, politics to explain how 1978 forever changed SF" by Brandon Yu https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/year-zero-uses-baseball-politics-to-explain-how-1978-forever-changed-sf
Bergino Baseball Clubhouse podcast interview with Lincoln Mitchell https://berginobaseballclubhouse.podbean.com/e/san-francisco-year-zero-with-lincoln-mitchell/
Bergino Baseball Clubhouse
"How San Francisco's quirky politics gave California an edge in the Covid-19 fight" by Lincoln Mitchell https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/opinions/san-francisco-california-covid-19-response-mitchell/index.html
"Essential reading for newcomers and old-timers alike."
"Lincoln Mitchell connects the dots of the last 41 years of San Francisco" - California Sun podcast http://californiasun.libsyn.com/lincoln-mitchell
"‘Year Zero’ uses baseball, politics to explain how 1978 forever changed SF" by Brandon Yu https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/books/year-zero-uses-baseball-politics-to-explain-how-1978-forever-changed-sf
