In the early '60s, Santa Cruz business leaders who had controlled local government and guided land development since the town's inception lobbied for a new campus of the University of California in Santa Cruz County, and then supported the annexation of the campus into the city limits.

William Domhoff and Richard Gendron, authors of "The Leftmost City: Power and Progressive Politics in Santa Cruz," demonstrate how the opening of the university in Santa Cruz, and the convergence of other factors, acted as a powerful catalyst and led to the eventual control of local government by a progressive coalition, much to the distress of business leaders.

Domhoff and Gendron, sociology professors at UCSC and Assumption College in Massachusetts respectively, track in detail the course of Santa Cruz politics since the city's foundation in the mid-19th century, and delineate the sociological theories that might explain the rapid ascension of the progressive coalition over business interests during the past four decades.

Their in-depth recounting of the growth of Santa Cruz from tiny settlement to college town and Silicon Valley bedroom community is intertwined with a description of the events and political maneuverings that drastically changed local politics.

The research into the city's political history was a "labor of love" for Domhoff and co-author Gendron, Domhoff said in a recent interview, but the resulting text was meant to be a "combative" argument for progressive change and a guide for how it can be accomplished. Santa Cruz was in effect a "test case" for progressives who wanted to effect significant political and social changes at the level of city government.

After a short discourse on various sociological theories of urban power which Domhoff suggests would be of most interest to sociologists and political theorists, the authors launch into an in-depth recounting of the struggles over land development and allocation of resources that caused tremendous conflict between business interests primarily landowners and developers and progressives over the years.

Business interests helped to build Santa Cruz as a town and lobbied to make it the county seat. For decades they promoted vigorous development and growth, except for periods during the Great Depression and World War II. Then, in the '60s and '70s, an unprecedented rise in progressive power began to influence key developmental issues, and in 1981, progressives were able to take control of the City Council. Domhoff, a pioneer faculty member who came to the university in 1965, said that much of the history of how this political change transpired came as a "revelation" to him, even though he had been a close observer at the time.

Gendron and Domhoff show how factors such as the establishment of a state university that attracted idealistic students from throughout the state; the hiring of activist faculty members; the passage of the 26th Amendment, allowing 18-year-olds to vote; and the national political unrest ignited by the Vietnam War, all converged to create a voter bloc that greatly bolstered progressive aims.

Domhoff said he found through his research that the establishment of the Community Studies Department at UCSC played a much larger role in the progressive rise than he'd realized at the time. Through seminars and internships, the students became intensely involved in the community and its politics. Thus the introduction of the university into the town, supported at the outset by business interests, was soon revealed to be an unintentional "Trojan horse" that fostered significant changes in the political landscape.

Significant conflicts arose between progressives and the business coalition over such issues as the factory outlet proposal, the plan to expand the former Dream Inn to include a conference center and four-story parking structure, the building of a freeway to the Boardwalk along with a beach-loop freeway and other pro-growth measures.

The progressive factions were able, despite their differences, to work together to achieve significant goals, including the rebuilding of downtown Santa Cruz after the 1989 earthquake without allowing a takeover by the business coalition. The progressives had to compromise on some issues but were successful in blocking big-business enterprises and encroachment into neighborhoods, and were thus successful in maintaining the downtown as a social and cultural center and a place for unique, smaller businesses.

Advocates of progressive politics may read "The Leftmost City" as a guide for taking control of local and even national policymaking through activism, coalition-forming and electoral efforts, and Domhoff freely admits that he and his co-author aimed to "advance a story" of the successful rise of progressives. However, those from across the political spectrum will gain insight from the reporting of the unusual course of the rise and fall of various political factions in Santa Cruz, and will find the book useful, as Domhoff pointed out, "for understanding how cities are really governed."

A new Web site, www.leftmostcity.com, is designed as a supplement to "The Leftmost City," and provides more information about Santa Cruz and its political leaders, with links to other sites about the city.