Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster

Description

Counterpointing Los Angeles'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, Mike 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 in an era of climate change and social change. With savagely entertaining wit and compassionate rage, this book conducts a devastating reconnaissance of our all-too-likely urban future. With a new 2021 afterword taking stock of LA's 21st century.

Mike Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, Buda's Wagon, and Planet of Slums. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award.

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