City of Quartz Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. Mike Davis
- 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 (...).
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.
Reviews
“Davis’ work is the cruel and perpetual folly of the ruling elites.” – New York Times
“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 ExaminerPotrzebujesz pomocy? Masz pytania?Zadaj pytanie a my odpowiemy niezwłocznie, najciekawsze pytania i odpowiedzi publikując dla innych.