William Issel

Bill Issel "is Professor of History Emeritus at San Francisco State University and a Visiting Professor of History at Mills College. He has also served as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Westminster (formerly the Polytechnic of Central London). A specialist in American culture, society, and politics since the Civil War, Issel taught in the History, Humanities, and Urban Studies departments at San Francisco State from 1968 to 2006 and served as Coordinator of the American Studies Program and Associate Chair of the History Department.  During the 2008-2009 academic year, he will serve as the László Országh Chair in American Studies, a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturing Award, at the University of Pécs in Hungary.  Issel began his history work as a student in the honors program of the University of California, Berkeley History Department before transferring to San Francisco State College, where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in American History. He began doctoral studies in American labor history and political history at University of Pittsburgh, then moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in American Civilization. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

"He is particularly interested in the social, cultural, and political history of American cities and has written several books and many articles that address the role of labor, ethnicity, religion and politics in twentieth century San Francisco.  Issel is co-editor of the nine-book series "The Contemporary USA" (Palgrave Macmillan) and the author of one of the books in the series Social Change in the United States (1985). He is also the author (with Robert W. Cherny) of San Francisco, 1865-1932: Politics, Power, and Urban Development (University of California Press, 1986). He is editor (with Robert Cherny and Kieran Taylor) and contributor to American Labor and the Cold War: Grassroots Politics and Postwar Political Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2004). He is the author of a chapter on Catholic Action in Catholicism in the American West: A Rosary of Hidden Voices (Texas A & M Press, 2007) and a chapter on Catholic and Jewish cooperation in the civil rights movement in California Jews (Brandeis University Press, 2003). He is writing books on the travails of Sylvester Andriano, a San Francisco Catholic Action leader falsely accused of Fascism in 1942, and on the role of citizen activism in the history of twentieth century San Francisco."

His homepage is http://bss.sfsu.edu/issel