Library Journal
Eschewing the character study that comprises most Los Angeles history, Davis concentrates on the ongoing and ignored ethnic and class struggles, formerly manifested by booster (pro-growth) exploitation, now replaced by exclusionary (no-growth) neighborhood incorporation, and by police control of Afro-American and Latino neighborhoods. His analysis of recent Los Angeles history is often chilling and--sad to say--more true than false. Small inaccuracies sometimes afflict the narrative, and the breathlessness of Davis's writing will probably confuse readers who are unfamilar with the region. But these criticisms quibble with an otherwise important and necessary work. Recommended.-- Tim Zindel, Hastings Coll . of the Law, San Francisco
From the Publisher
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
San Francisco Examiner
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.
William Gibson
Absolutely fascinating.
Peter Ackroyd - The Times
A history as fascinating as it is instructive.
The Times - Peter Ackroyd
A history as fascinating as it is instructive.
