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For the late great Mike Davis, the ravaging of the climate by capital—and his prescient analysis of its consequences for those of us left to deal with the resulting crises—was always a central part of his urban geography.
In these wide ranging, incisive, and hauntingly relevant essays, Davis asks us to consider what we would find if we put a microscope to the ruins of Metropolis, and provides a riveting account of the disasters—natural, man-made, and those (as in the case of climate calamity) where the distinction is impossible to make—that he finds on the other end. He begins his examination by sifting through the rubble of the twin towers in the wake of 9/11, presciently identifying the seeds of war already germinating in the scorched soil of ground zero, and closes by considering how little prepared our hollowed out urban infrastructure is to deal with shocks of any kind, be they from car bombs or ice storms. In between we are treated to tours of blasted wastelands where American generals built and destroyed replicas of Berlin, glimpses of Las Vegas’s penchant for annihilating its own best-known landmarks, and other riveting tales of the dialectic between nature and the city.
Dead Cities, written over twenty years ago, abounds with prophecies fulfilled, contains echoes of our current moment where conspiracies abound and anxieties drown out official celebrations of prosperity, and offers dreams of alternative paths not taken.
“Including some of Davis’ most vivid and powerful short essays, it is about time this superb book was back in print. There’s prophecies here if you want them, but much more than that: this book of American urbicides of the past, present and future is still vital for understanding how we got into such an appalling mess, and what forces could wrench us out of it.” –Owen Hatherley, Lit Hub
“If America is over, the prose laureate of its decline is Mike Davis…a vivid indictment of the social and environmental chaos enveloping urban America.” —J.G. Ballard
“A crash course in what makes Davis so good.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Davis culls nuggets of avarice and depredation the way miners chisel coal.”
—The Nation
“Rangy, astute, switchblade-wicked essays.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Smart and tough: an author with one eye out for the underdog.”
—Library Journal
Mike Davis (1946-2022) was a writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian. He is best known for his investigations of power and class in works such as City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Planet of Slums. His last two non-fiction books were Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, co-authored by Jon Wiener, and The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu, and the Plagues of Capitalism. He was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award.
Preface: The Flames of New York 1
PART I NEON WEST 21
1 ‘White People Are Only a Bad Dream …’ 23
2 Ecocide in Marlboro Country 33
3 Berlin’s Skeleton in Utah’s Closet 65
4 Las Vegas Versus Nature 85
5 Tsunami Memories 107
PART II HOLY GHOSTS 117
6 Pentecostal Earthquake 119
7 Hollywood’s Dark Shadow 127
8 The Infi nite Game 143
9 The Subway That Ate L.A. 183
10 The New Industrial Peonage 191
PART III RIOT CITY 205
11 ‘As Bad as the H-Bomb’ 207
12 Burning All Illusions 227
13 Who Killed L.A.?: A Political Autopsy 239
vi i i DEAD CITIES AND OTHER TALES
14 Fear and Loathing in Compton 275
15 Dante’s Choice 285
PART IV EXTREME SCIENCE 305
16 Cosmic Dancers on History’s Stage? 307
17 Dead Cities: A Natural History 361
18 Strange Times Begin 401
Acknowledgments 419
Index