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Title: Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster by Mike Davis ISBN: 0-375-70607-0 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.61 (46 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must-read for environmentalists, historians, policy makers
Comment: I'm writing to respond to the one-star reviewers who dismissed _Ecology of Fear_ out of hand as "communist." What a great example of how we got where we are--if you disagree with someone's conclusions, call him a Commie, avoiding the need for any depth of thought or pretense of analysis.
I found "The Dialectic of Ordinary Disaster" and "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn" two of the most enlightening chapters I've read lately. Drawing on the work of a variety of scientists to show that Southern California is a distinctive, cataclysmic environment, Davis shows how "natural" disasters are socially created, and the consequences of this, especially for the poor.
Despite his environmental focus, Davis clearly cares more about human life than anything else. He draws attention, rightly in my view, to the enormous level of local, state, and federal money spent to save celebrity properties in Malibu (not to mention the risk to firemen's lives) and official indifference to the deaths of dozens of immigrants in tenant-house fires in inner-city L.A. Davis implicitly challenges the environmental movement, as well as Americans generally, to rethink our priorities in light of what we know.
A spectacular stylist with an insightful phrase on every page, Mike Davis is not easy to listen to. All the more reason we should pay attention.
Rating: 3
Summary: This sequel does not live up to the original
Comment: It's too bad Mike Davis settled for this book. After reading his first book, City of Quartz, I expected more. Ecology of Fears lacks the energy of City of Quartz, the writing style becomes more erratic, and the subject matter is nowhere near as compelling.
The events that took place in Southern California in the 1990's would have fit perfectly in Davis's world view that Los Angeles is a city fated by the gods to die an early and tragic death. Anyone who lived in Los Angeles through the 1990's knows that this was a dynamic period of big events and major changes - for good and bad. This decade deserves a good book worthy of its tumult and transformation. Ecology of Fear is not that book.
Unfortunately, what he produced ventured frequently into the bizarre and byzantine, and if the Los Angeles Times is to be believed, downright falsehoods. The book's basic premise was that Los Angeles is a land fraught with Mother Nature's castatrophies that has been misrepresented to the masses as an earthly paradise. To support his point, we get a chapter on Southland tornadoes, a chapter on man eating mountain lions living in the hills, and then a chapter on apartment fires of the 20th Century. Don't forget the chapter on L.A.'s propensity to flood where he repeats all the cliches about the Los Angeles River. Honestly, as an Angeleno, these are the last things I'm going to worry about (earthquakes, to which he also devotes a chapter, are another matter). It was as if Davis was trying to will his fantasies about the destruction of L.A. into existence through this book.
Now for the positive things about this book. The chapter on the destruction of the environment and the neglect of building an adequate park system is very good. This is surely one of the tragedies of Los Angeles. His chapter on the Los Angeles riots is excellent, and he has a section on Mayor James Hahn, who was then City Attorney, which was enlightening.
This is a good book to skim. Many of his statements have been proven to be false, and who really wants to read 50+ pages about the danger of tornadoes in Los Angeles? Davis could have done better than this.
Rating: 4
Summary: trademark Mike Davis material
Comment: Not a sequel to City of Quartz, but a look at current and historical LA from an environmental perspective instead of Quartz's sociological view. Famous for its criticism as much as its content, Ecology Of Fear compiles a staggering amount of information into an informative and compelling story. LA's dynamism is a product of its people, land, water, air, wildlife, history, and future. This is the book that can tell you what life has been and will be like, for those who choose to live in the wilderness of Los Angeles.
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Title: City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis ISBN: 0679738061 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Dead Cities: And Other Tales by Mike Davis ISBN: 1565848446 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City by Mike Davis ISBN: 185984328X Publisher: Verso Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See by Mike Davis, Kelly Mayhew, Jim Miller ISBN: 1565848322 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics and Economy in the History of the US Working Class by Mike Davis ISBN: 1859842488 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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