Today some may think of George Moscone as a career politician who was assassinated along with Harvey Milk, but there was much more to this influential and fascinating man’s story. He was a trailblazing progressive and powerful state legislator who was instrumental in passing legislation on issues ranging from LGBT rights to funding for school lunches. After these accomplishments he served as San Francisco’s Mayor at a key time in the city’s history.

Moscone was deeply embedded in the fabric and culture of San Francisco. He grew up the only son of a single mother in Cow Hollow when it was a working class, largely Italian-American neighborhood. He became the kind of politician who knew bartenders, playground attendants, small business owners, and neighborhood activists in every corner of the city.

Lincoln Mitchell will discuss his new biography of George Moscone, Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco. It focuses on how Moscone’s life and the history of San Francisco during the middle half of the twentieth century are deeply intertwined and provides important insight into how San Francisco became the city it is today.

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About Lincoln Mitchell: 

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Lincoln Mitchell teaches in the Political Science Department and School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In addition to Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco, Lincoln has written eight other books about politics, history, and baseball in San Francisco. Lincoln grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Stuart Hall and University High School before earning his BA from UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D from Columbia.