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City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles Paperback – March 10, 1992

by Mike Davis (Author), Robert Morrow (Photographer)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 322 ratings
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The hidden story of L.A. Mike davis shows us where the city's money comes form and who controls it while also exposing the brutal ongoing struggle between L.A.'s haves and have-nots.
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  1. Print length
    462 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    March 10, 1992
  5. Dimensions
    5.17 x 0.99 x 7.97 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679738061
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679738060
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mike Davis peers into a looking glass to divine the future of Los Angeles, and what he sees is not encouraging: a city--or better, a concatenation of competing city states--torn by racial enmity, economic disparity, and social anomie. Looking backward, Davis suggests that Los Angeles has always been contested ground. In the 1840s, he writes, a combination of drought and industrial stock raising led to the destruction of small-scale Spanish farming in the region. In the 1910s, Los Angeles was the scene of a bitter conflict between management and industrial workers, so bitter that the publisher of the Los Angeles Times retreated to a heavily fortified home he called "The Bivouac." And in 1992, much of the city fell before flames and riot in a scenario Davis describes as thus: "Gangs are multiplying at a terrifying rate, cops are becoming more arrogant and trigger-happy, and a whole generation is being shunted toward some impossible Armageddon." Davis's voice-in-a-whirlwind approach to the past, present, and future of Los Angeles is alarming and arresting, and his book is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary affairs. --Gregory MacNamee

From the Publisher

"An eye-opening account of the economic, political, intellectual and architectural development of 20th-century Los Angeles, City of Quartz is a deeply troubling look at a city beset by environmental time bombs, vast inequities of wealth and chronic, increasingly brutal racial violence...The city that takes shape in this elegantly argued book seems to be swiftly heading toward some Armageddon...Few books shed as much light on their subjects as this opionated and original excavation of Los Angeles from the mythical debris of its past and future."--Sara Frankel, The San Francisco Examiner

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 10, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 462 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679738061
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679738060
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.99 x 7.97 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 322 ratings

About the author

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Mike Davis

Mike Davis

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Mike Davis is the author of several books including City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, Planet of Slums, and Magical Urbanism. He was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. He lives in Papa'aloa, Hawaii.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
322 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book great, special, and fun. They also appreciate the important historical material and fast pacing. Readers say the book is long and deep, but worth it.

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ReadabilityHistoryPacingValue for money
13 customers mention "Readability"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book great, special, and fun. They also say it's impressive, fascinating, and has original thoughts.

"I am currently reading CITY OF QUARTZ and I find it fascinating and illuminating...." Read more

"...I love it and think it has a lot of original thoughts...." Read more

"Great read the if you are into the counter-culture of southern California. Long read so you must be dedicated to reading it." Read more

"a great read, some chapters are totally captviating" Read more

3 customers mention "History"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's history important and a great read on LA.

"important historical material" Read more

"Great read on LA's history, yet at times seemed to target "insiders" with deep knowledge of the local business and political elites and..." Read more

"Davis does not only a great job of dealing the history of Los Angeles but also critiquing the planning behind it...." Read more

3 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's pacing fast. They also mention the story on RFK is the best.

"...With an updated preface, this book published in 1990 remains amazingly prescient." Read more

"Fast delivery. Story on RFK was the best of the lot. Other than that, not memorable." Read more

"Fun and fast paced story." Read more

3 customers mention "Value for money"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book worth the wait and mention it's a long, deep read.

"Always wanted to read this book and it was worth the wait! History repeats itself when nothing is done. But you have to have the history 1st" Read more

"...It's a long, deep read, but very worth it." Read more

"...Long read so you must be dedicated to reading it." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Bman
5.0 out of 5 stars Book in great shape delivery 1 day
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
Always wanted to read this book and it was worth the wait! History repeats itself when nothing is done. But you have to have the history 1st
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Rockin' Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars A Rigorous and Challenging Expose of Los Angeles Culture and History
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2022
Verified Purchase
I am currently reading CITY OF QUARTZ and I find it fascinating and illuminating. Davis depicts "The City of Angels" as a hybrid of heaven and hell, dream and nightmare, and a battleground for the ideological forces clashing in America, at large.
6 people found this helpful
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Not Moses
4.0 out of 5 stars Polemics Galore, but Clues in Abundance, as Well
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2015
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One need not go totalistic about this or any other book coming from a True Believer at either end of the political spectrum. Davis may =be= an over-the-top, over-identified-with-the-underdog, welfare-spraying ward healer (it gets worse in the later chapters), but that doesn't mean his observations should be ignored.

Having worked for several of the major downtown LA movers and shakers (Bank of America, Atlantic-Richfield, the Chandler-era Los Angeles Times (for Vance Stickle), Federated Department Stores, Carter-Hawley-Hale, the Los Angeles Central City Association (for former deputy mayor Steve Gavin)) as well as several of the major residential and commercial developers of the surrounding communities (American-Pacesetter (for John Klug), Pacific Mutual Life Insurance, Ernest W. Hahn, Cadillac-Fairview Ltd., the Alaska Teamsters Union Pension Fund, MCO Properties (for Charles Hurwitz), Landmark Land Company (for Ernie Vossler), Kohlberg-Kravis-Roberts via KSL Land) as a paid informer -- and dis-informer -- during the Central Business District Redevelopment campaign in 1975 and numerous municipal approval campaigns before and after, I was far enough inside to know that Davis was, as well.

Money talks, BS walks. The Big Boys knew this then, and they know it now. No one that I know of, however, has Pieced It All Together as elegantly and definitively, however rambling, tangential and (possibly) difficult to follow Davis's prose becomes at times. I respect the fact that having been there helps, but for the graduate -- or even upper-division undergrad -- student Looking for Clues, this is a gold mine... and not just about Los Angeles or even southern California. In most ways, this =is= the way things work pretty much everywhere.
51 people found this helpful
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Alonso Lopez
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2014
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I have lived 5 years in Los Angeles and I have to say reading this book has completely changed my perception of the city. Coming from another continent, names like Hollywood and Beverly Hills were familiar to me before arrival, but I knew nothing about Pasadena "Old Money" or South Central struggles. And even after years living here, I had some notions of the city history but I was far away from the rich and complex web of relationships unveiled by this book. Reading this book left me craving for more readings, I think I will go over the book again and read some of the books mentioned in the citations
26 people found this helpful
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peter arnett
5.0 out of 5 stars quick delivery
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2023
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important historical material
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James Craig Dalrymple
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2019
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Hands down one of my favorite books of all time. I started seeing Los Angeles in a completely different way after reading this. Like, I literally started noticing things about the physical environment I had never noticed before. It's a long, deep read, but very worth it.
15 people found this helpful
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Martin Miliev
3.0 out of 5 stars Great read on LA's history
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great read on LA's history, yet at times seemed to target "insiders" with deep knowledge of the local business and political elites and structures.
3 people found this helpful
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Mark M
5.0 out of 5 stars I love it and think it has a lot of original ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book is a classic analysis of urban design. I love it and think it has a lot of original thoughts. But bear in mind that (I) many of the observations are a bit specific to Los Angeles and (ii) the book is getting kind of dated.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Pedro Miguel Almeida
5.0 out of 5 stars Technical Book - Urban Sociology, Urban Studies
Reviewed in Spain on October 28, 2019
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Just amazing because the high expectations that Mike Davis create on us are always fulfilled. A great partner for researchers, helping in the built of the theoric framework, easying your job in the fieldwork.
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Klient serwisu Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth to give it a try!
Reviewed in Germany on July 10, 2017
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I've been looking forward to read this one for a long time. And here it is. Complicated stuff, surely not for everyone, but fascinating and compelling. Worth to give it a try.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The urban study of Los Angeles past,present and future
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2017
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Los Angeles has many histories and Mike Davis relates each one in this classic book on its urban story.If theres one book you should read on the history of LA this is it.
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Frank Lutz
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in Germany on January 7, 2021
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alles bestens
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Antoine
4.0 out of 5 stars La modernité urbaine expliquée
Reviewed in France on March 26, 2015
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Il s'agit d'un chapitre tiré du livre City of quartz. La description du Los Angeles actuel est tout à fait effrayante. Ultra-Sécuritaire. Ségrégationniste. Une construction artificielle lavée de toute histoire. Un climat qui rend toute étincelle explosive et ont plongé la ville dans un engrenage des plus vicieux. Los Angeles est un bel exemple de ce que peut être la cité idéale du point de vue du plus riche. Un rêve pour les uns, un cauchemar pour les autres. Mais le plus déprimant dans tout cela c'est de voir comment Paris ne fait que suivre cette dérive ultra capitaliste sous couvert d'une politique pseudo-sociale-écolo-gentil. Tout comme Los Angeles, une véritable centrifugeuse a exclut ce qui constituait le peuple de Paris. Et si les frontières de la capitale s'étendaient un peu plus, ce phénomène de "ghettoïsation" sauterait aux yeux. Du libéralisme, du sécuritaire, le reste on verra. Paris ne sera jamais L.A mais la capitale devra suivre la marche du monde. À côté de cela c'est certain, le L.A robotique de Blade Runner, ses hautes tours, ses voitures volantes perçant des horizons noirs est une belle poésie.
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