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City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Essential Mike Davis) Paperback – September 17, 2006

by Mike Davis (Author), Robert Morrow (Photographer)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 318 ratings
See all formats and editions
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This new edition of the visionary social history of Los Angeles is “as central to the L.A. canon as anything that . . . Joan Didion wrote in the seventies” (New Yorker)

No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, “Los Angeles brings it all together.” To detractors, L.A. is a sunlit mortuary where “you can rot without feeling it.” To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide- ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias. 

In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs L.A.’s shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West—a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity. In this new edition, Davis provides a dazzling update on the city’s current status.
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  1. Print length
    441 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Verso
  4. Publication date
    September 17, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.5 x 8.23 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1844675688
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1844675685
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Davis’ work is the cruel and perpetual folly of the ruling elites.”
 —New York Times

“As central to the L.A. canon as anything that Carey McWilliams wrote in the forties or Joan Didion wrote in the seventies.”
—Dana Goodyear, New Yorker

“Los Angeles faces a perilous millennium whose emerging contours will surely have no more brilliant prophet or historian than Davis.”
—Alexander Cockburn

“A history as fascinating as it is instructive.”
—Peter Ackroyd, The Times

“At once intensely intellectual and visceral.”
—Contemporary Sociology

“Absolutely fascinating.”
—William Gibson

“Even as he offers vivid street-smart reportage (and frequently breathtaking prose), Davis projects a distinctive historical vision.”
—Adam Shatz, Lingua Franca

“Few books shed as much light on their subjects as this opinionated and original excavation of Los Angeles from the mythical debris of its past and future.”
—San Francisco Examiner

“Angelenos, now is the time to lean into Mike Davis’s apocalyptic, passionate, radical rants on the sprawling, gorgeous mess that is Los Angeles.”
—Stephanie Danler, author of Stray and Sweetbitter

“City of Quartz deserves to be emancipated from its parochial legacy … [It is] a working theory of global cities writ large, with as much to teach us about multiculturalism as it does racial apartheid in Los Angeles.”
—David Helps, Los Angeles Review of Books

“A wildly original analysis of the city on the threshold of the new millennium, the book synthesized knowledge about Los Angeles’s history, politics, culture, architecture, policing, immigration, and more, painting a dark picture that embodied a kind of American urban dystopia on steroids after the nightmare of Reaganism and the ‘developers’ millennium.’”
—Micah Uetricht, The Nation

“Dazzling.”
—Counterfire

About the Author

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

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Verso; New Edition (September 17, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 441 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1844675688
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1844675685
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.5 x 8.23 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 318 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
318 global ratings

Customers say

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

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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 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's past.

"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 pacing of the book fast and prescient.

"...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 say 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
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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
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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
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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.
2 people found this helpful
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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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