City of Quartz

Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology, Urban, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book City of Quartz by Mike Davis, Verso Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mike Davis ISBN: 9781844674862
Publisher: Verso Books Publication: September 17, 2006
Imprint: Verso Language: English
Author: Mike Davis
ISBN: 9781844674862
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication: September 17, 2006
Imprint: Verso
Language: English

A fiercely elegant and wide-ranging history of L.A.’s Dickensian extremes and Pynchonesque conspiracies

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 Westa city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A fiercely elegant and wide-ranging history of L.A.’s Dickensian extremes and Pynchonesque conspiracies

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 Westa city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.

More books from Verso Books

Cover of the book The Anti-Social Family by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Landscapes by Mike Davis
Cover of the book A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Invisibility Blues by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Philosophy Of Praxis by Mike Davis
Cover of the book No Such Thing as a Free Gift by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Concept Of Nature In Marx by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Walter Benjamin's Archive by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Crashing the Party by Mike Davis
Cover of the book We Want Everything by Mike Davis
Cover of the book All-American Nativism by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Women's Work, Men's Property by Mike Davis
Cover of the book In Broad Daylight by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Concept and Form, Volumes 1 and 2 by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Feminism by Mike Davis
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy