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 Mapping Ideology by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The New Enclosure by Mike Davis
Cover of the book In the Long Run We Are All Dead by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Prisoners of the American Dream by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Chasing the Harvest by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Enforcing Normalcy by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Last Resistance by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume III by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Redemption Song by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Arguments Within English Marxism by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Invention of the Jewish People by Mike Davis
Cover of the book Chavs by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The Age of Jihad by Mike Davis
Cover of the book The ABCs of Socialism 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