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.
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City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles Paperback – March 10, 1992
by
Mike Davis
(Author),
Robert Morrow
(Photographer)
|
Mike Davis
(Author)
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Print length462 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherVintage
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Publication dateMarch 10, 1992
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Dimensions5.17 x 0.99 x 7.97 inches
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ISBN-100679738061
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ISBN-13978-0679738060
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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
From the Inside Flap
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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Product details
- Publisher : Vintage; Reprint edition (March 10, 1992)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 462 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0679738061
- ISBN-13 : 978-0679738060
- Item Weight : 1.01 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.17 x 0.99 x 7.97 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#736,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,168 in Sociology of Urban Areas
- #4,256 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
175 global ratings
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Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2015
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26 people found this helpful
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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.
5 people found this helpful
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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
12 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2017
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Essential for anyone living in Los Angeles. This book is your history. You need to read this and you need to realize how far the city has come.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2015
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A remarkable look at the nefarious City of "Angels," its noirish history and its dirty cast of characters. With an updated preface, this book published in 1990 remains amazingly prescient.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2000
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Mike Davis's white hot rant gives the great anti-city precisely the rhetorical slapping around it deserves. Don't be put off by the author's undisguised, unvarnished, old-fashioned Marxist biases--Chairman Mao once observed, "we Marxists disdain to conceal our views," and Davis makes his clear--because he's spot on: this is a city built by scoundrels on a foundation of perfidy and despoliation. Not a novel observation, true; mainstream historians, scores of journalists of every persuasion, and, yes, Roman Polanski also point this out, but Davis's narrative has far splashier colors and a high entertainment quotient. Alas, the book drops one star for what I judge to be its unevenness--the first two chapters are brilliant, the concluding chapter on Fontana is very fine, the remainder simply less so but still worthy. (Another, minor, beef--the excellent photographs, and there are many, are not given very respectful reproduction.) That said, City of Quartz is an indispensible tour of some of the darker corners of LA's famous story and an informative guide for those who have long looked for help in articulating precisely "why I really, really don't like Los Angeles."
21 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2015
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Davis does not only a great job of dealing the history of Los Angeles but also critiquing the planning behind it. City of Quartz also remains a fun read with exciting lore of celebrities. Hollywood Babylon written by an architect.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The urban study of Los Angeles past,present and future
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2017Verified Purchase
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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Mr. Richard Marris
4.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opening
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2016Verified Purchase
A well-written dissection of capitalism and the landscapes it creates. The fate of Fontana, in particular, reads like a black comedy.
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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, 2019Verified Purchase
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.
Frank Lutz
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book
Reviewed in Germany on January 7, 2021Verified Purchase
alles bestens
Klient serwisu Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth to give it a try!
Reviewed in Germany on July 9, 2017Verified Purchase
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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