Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster

$51.70 - $59.90
(No reviews yet) Write a Review
UPC:
9780375706073
Maximum Purchase:
3 units
Binding:
Paperback
Publication Date:
1999-09-07
Release Date:
1999-09-07
Author:
Mike Davis
Language:
english
Edition:
1st Vintage Books ed
Adding to cart… The item has been added

Graced with a bold political and environmental vision, much splendid phrasemaking and a multitude of facts. . . . A truly eccentric contribution. --The New York Times Book Review

Earthquakes. Wildfires. Floods. Drought. Tornadoes. Snakes in the sea, mountain lions, and a plague of bees. In this controversial tour de force of scholarship, unsparing vision, and inspired writing, Mike Davis, the author of City of Quartz, revisits Los Angeles as a Book of the Apocalypse theme park. By brilliantly juxtaposing L.A.'s fragile natural ecology with its disastrous environmental and social history, he compellingly shows a city deliberately put in harm's way by land developers, builders, and politicians, even as the incalculable toll of inevitable future catas-trophe continues to accumulate.

Counterpointing L.A.'s central role in America's fantasy life--the city has been destroyed no less than 138 times in novels and films since 1909--with its wanton denial of its own real history, Davis creates a revelatory kaleidoscope of American fact, imagery, and sensibility.Drawing upon a vast array of sources, Ecology of Fear meticulously captures the nation's violent malaise and desperate social unease at the millennial end of the American century. With savagely entertaining wit and compassionate rage, this book conducts a devastating reconnaissance of our all-too-likely urban future.

Dizzying. . . . In Mr. Davis's account, the world ends in fire, and the next time is now. --The New York Times