A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate [Hardcover]

Marc Reisner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2003

In A Dangerous Place, Marc Reisner, the author of Cadillac Desert, the classic history of the American West and its fatal dependence on water, returns to the subject that never ceased to seduce him: California.

Writing with his signature command of his subject and with compelling resonance, Reisner leads us through California’s improbable history and rise from a largely desert land to the most populated state in the nation, fueled by an economic engine more productive than all of Africa. Reisner believes that the achievement of this, the last great desert civilization, hinges on California’s denial of its own inescapable fate. Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas sit astride two of the most violently seismic zones on the planet. The earthquakes that have already rocked California were, according to Reisner, mere prologues to a future cataclysm that will result in destruction of such magnitude that the only recourse will be to rebuild from the ground up. Reisner concludes A Dangerous Place with a hypothetical but chillingly realistic description of such a disaster and its horrifying aftereffects.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

California's vulnerability to earthquakes, although internalized by its citizens as a dread of the Big One, seems to be virtually ignored as developers continue to build in all directions, even atop faults and landslide-prone mountains. This narrative by the late author combines a history of Los Angeles' and San Francisco's growth with a lurid scenario of what the San Francisco Bay Area will look like after the Pacific plate lurches northward a few feet. Reisner ends the book imagining a collapsed Bay Bridge; a destroyed Oakland and UC-Berkeley campus; a burning Richmond; and serial destruction of BART, highways, aqueducts, and airports. It is likely the author planned to write a like scenario for L.A.'s day of doom, but even so, Reisner's work of warning effectively reminds us of the vast infrastructure required to sustain these two megalopolises. As befits the author of Cadillac Desert (1986), Reisner highlights the vulnerability of water supplies, a point that will attract environmentalists to this work, as well as anyone who just likes a scary story. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“If you are anxious about the safety of American cities, this book may give you a nervous breakdown. Reisner was an uncanny visionary and his testament is this terrifying warning note. It is not for the faint of heart.”
—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear

“A Dangerous Place represents an apocalyptic cadenza to Marc Reisner’s lifetime of environmental prophecy. Facing his own end, Reisner—ever the moralist, ever the prophet of choice—invites us to contemplate the inevitable consequences of putting California where we have put it: atop, that is, a subterranean sea of seismic volatility that will one day, inevitably, reassert itself.”
—Dr. Kevin Starr, author of Americans and the California Dream

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; First edition. edition (February 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679420118
• ISBN-13: 978-0679420118
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marc Reisner  his last book, dammit, December 14, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate (Hardcover)

What a great guy Marc Reisner was. He wrote A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate as he was dying of cancer, and it's not just a benchmark of California's environmental history but also a profound and emotional valedictory effort. Living as I do within ¼ mile of the grumbling and growling Hayward Fault, I found Reisner's projections of the cataclysmic effects of the Big One to be more than unsettling. Those of us who are priviledged or doomed to live in this glorious state cannot fail to take heed of the picture he paints of the likely events surrounding our upcoming tectonic hiccups, belches, and sneezes.
The book is divided into 3 sections. The first retells Californias environmental history from the era of Junipero Serra's mission system right up to our own freeway system. The middle section deals with the fundamentals of plate tectonics. But it's that 3rd section that looks forward to (shudder) a hypothetical eruption of the Hayward Fault in 2005 that is most gripping. Yikes.
Sayonara to a great environmentalist and author.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and frightening look at what might be, March 31, 2003

By 

Robert D. Merkamp "Robert D Merkamp" (San Mateo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate (Hardcover)

A 7.2m earthquake ruptures on the Hayward Fault one February day in California and the chaos begins. Unreinforced buildings topple to the ground, freeway overpasses buckle, and the cantilever structure of the Bay Bridge falls into the bay below. Several thousand people are killed by the event. More troubles ensue as the fault destroys canals, power lines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, and highways (all built across the fault) that could bring help and aid to the dazed survivors. Even the airports are knocked out of commission as their runways, built on bay mud) are turned to jello by the ground motion. Loma Prieta was a whimper compared to what the Hayward fault has unleashed.

This is a fictional scenario of course, yet it leans heavily on what could be. The events are based on long conversations the author had with experts in the earthquake field. Anyone who has read Cadillac Desert knows the power of Marc Reisner's ability to analyze and explore a topic.

The only "con" for me was the book was too short! It was so gripping I couldn't put it down but I still wanted more. A book double or triple the size would've been fine.

Please also note, that the book is being published 3 years after Mr. Reisner's death. As such, it does not seem the book was in it's absolute final form prior to being released. There are only three chapters and they don't seem quite balanced. He also launches into his scenario (the last half of the book) rather abruptly, requiring the reader to be alert. I didn't mark it down in terms of a rating as I was expecting this (and the quality of the material is high enough to overlook this oddity) but I mention it here to warn the reader.

Still, while it lacks in polish is more than compensated for in it's urgency. If you've been wasting time getting your earthquake kit together stop fooling yourself. These things will happen and what's more, it could be worse than what's described in this book. Something every Californian should read.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW -- What a frightening book!, March 2, 2003

By 

Lowell E. Waite (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate (Hardcover)

This book is required reading for all, not only Californians. We are talking here about the BIG ONE, the inevitable next large earthquake to hit the San Andreas fault system. It is not a question of if it will happen, but when -- next year, in 2010, or perhaps not until the year 2110? When it happens, it will undoubtedly be the largest national disaster on record, killing thousands, and destroying buildings and infrastructure with a cost of...well, some dollar figure best written with scientific notation.

The book is organized into three parts: Part 1 summarizes the colonization history of southern California, L.A., and San Fransciso, explaining how the cities came to be and how half of the western population somewhat suprisingly now resides therein; Part 2 briefly discusses the basics of plate tectonics, earthquakes, and the numerous geographic and geologic hazards unique to California; and Part 3 is a fictional diary of the author's day set in the near future (February 28, 2005), the day a large quake occurs on the Hayward Fault on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. Parts 1 and 2 are both informative and well written, but it is Part 3 that is particularly disturbing; the entire scenario is drawn from experiences of past earthquakes and the author's local knowledge, and the description is quite plausible. The consequences of such an earthquake are difficult to envision, but I believe that you will find Mr. Reisner's fictional treatment really hits the mark.

I read one of his previous books, "Cadillac Desert" and found it politically one-sided and tough to finish. This book is different. It is short (181 pages, I finished it in two sittings), very well-written, and carefully researched (as a professional geologist, even I was unaware of the consequences a large quake in San Francisco would potentially have to the water supply of Los Angeles).

Sadly, the young Marc Reisner passed away in 2000, so this will likely be his last book. That is truly unfortunate! I highly recommend this book to anyone with a even a passing interest in U.S. history, science, and/or politics, and especially to those of you who live on the left coast.

One thing for sure, as noted by the well-known philosopher Will Durant: "Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice."