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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
"Lower Manhattan was soon a furnace of crimson flames, from which there was no escape" is not a lead sentence from the New York Post from last September, but an image from H.G. Wells's 1908 novel, The War in the Air. In this astute, compelling and often shocking tour of U.S. cities over the past decade (many of these pieces date from the early 1990s), Davis (City of Quartz; Ecology of Fear) goes beyond the usual boundaries of urban theory and creates a panorama of images of cities and landscapes in the throes of destruction-one in which September 11 is more norm than exception. Davis argues that "ecocide"-the degradation of the planet via air pollution, water pollution, nuclear waste and other industrial plagues, as well as by war-is integral to urban decay. Davis creates a Bosch-like portrait of America where Cold War waste disrupts genes and has made huge tracts of land into uninhabitable "national sacrifice zones"; Las Vegas is continually demolished and rebuilt; corporate "redevelopment" runs inner-city economies like feudal dynasties; an attempt to build a subway "eats" Los Angeles; and the "bourgeois utopia of a totally calculable and safe environment" is deeply shaken by September 11. Davis finds "an existential Earth shaped by the creative energies of its catastrophes" (like asteroid impacts, to which a chapter is devoted) that only "geomorphology," an emerging science, treats the effects of urban, rural, natural and man made urban disasters as part of the same continuum, might hope to explain. It's a grim reality, but, in the face of torrid summers, calving ice shelves and beaching whales, one that is increasingly difficult to ignore.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Both human-made and natural disasters threaten Earth's survival, and journalist and author Davis (City of Quartz; Ecology of Fear) here explores many variables that have led, and will continue to lead, to the death of many urban areas and ecosystems. A writer for the Nation, Sierra, and the Los Angeles Times, Davis states that many prophecies of urban doom have already come true (e.g., H.G. Wells in 1907 predicted that New York City would burn as a result of attacking airships). He worries about the future of humankind and urban life in light of terrorism, global warming, globalization, and the effects of changing weather patterns. Early chapters provide a thorough and often insightful account of governmental nuclear testing in the Western United States, documenting the fate of "Downwinders," the unwitting victims of fallout. Most of the rest of the book discusses the urban plight of Los Angeles. Davis provides a wealth of information but relies heavily on newspaper articles for his references. Despite Davis's apocalyptic vision, this may have appeal. Recommended for large public libraries.
Tim Delaney, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
"Lower Manhattan was soon a furnace of crimson flames, from which there was no escape" is not a lead sentence from the New York Post from last September, but an image from H.G. Wells's 1908 novel, The War in the Air. In this astute, compelling and often shocking tour of U.S. cities over the past decade (many of these pieces date from the early 1990s), Davis (City of Quartz; Ecology of Fear) goes beyond the usual boundaries of urban theory and creates a panorama of images of cities and landscapes in the throes of destruction-one in which September 11 is more norm than exception. Davis argues that "ecocide"-the degradation of the planet via air pollution, water pollution, nuclear waste and other industrial plagues, as well as by war-is integral to urban decay. Davis creates a Bosch-like portrait of America where Cold War waste disrupts genes and has made huge tracts of land into uninhabitable "national sacrifice zones"; Las Vegas is continually demolished and rebuilt; corporate "redevelopment" runs inner-city economies like feudal dynasties; an attempt to build a subway "eats" Los Angeles; and the "bourgeois utopia of a totally calculable and safe environment" is deeply shaken by September 11. Davis finds "an existential Earth shaped by the creative energies of its catastrophes" (like asteroid impacts, to which a chapter is devoted) that only "geomorphology," an emerging science, treats the effects of urban, rural, natural and man made urban disasters as part of the same continuum, might hope to explain. It's a grim reality, but, in the face of torrid summers, calving ice shelves and beaching whales, one that is increasingly difficult to ignore.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Both human-made and natural disasters threaten Earth's survival, and journalist and author Davis (City of Quartz; Ecology of Fear) here explores many variables that have led, and will continue to lead, to the death of many urban areas and ecosystems. A writer for the Nation, Sierra, and the Los Angeles Times, Davis states that many prophecies of urban doom have already come true (e.g., H.G. Wells in 1907 predicted that New York City would burn as a result of attacking airships). He worries about the future of humankind and urban life in light of terrorism, global warming, globalization, and the effects of changing weather patterns. Early chapters provide a thorough and often insightful account of governmental nuclear testing in the Western United States, documenting the fate of "Downwinders," the unwitting victims of fallout. Most of the rest of the book discusses the urban plight of Los Angeles. Davis provides a wealth of information but relies heavily on newspaper articles for his references. Despite Davis's apocalyptic vision, this may have appeal. Recommended for large public libraries.
Tim Delaney, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
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