City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
| Author | Mike Davis |
|---|---|
| Published | 1990 |
| Format | Book |
TL;DR — Mike Davis’s 1990 history of Los Angeles as a city built by boosters, developers and police power, read through its myths, politics and land.
First published by Verso in 1990; this copy is the 2006 edition with a new preface by the author. Chapters include “Sunshine or Noir?” on the city’s intellectuals and image-makers, “Power Lines” on its ruling elites, “Homegrown Revolution” on homeowner politics, “Fortress L.A.” on the militarisation of public space, “The Hammer and the Rock” on policing and gangs, “New Confessions” on the Catholic Church, and “Junkyard of Dreams” on Fontana.
Davis, a Marxist urban historian, argues that Los Angeles was shaped by land speculation and a security-minded elite, and the book was widely read as having anticipated the 1992 riots.
What it is: a celebrated, in-copyright work of urban history written from the left. This copy is a scan of the published book.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
467 pages. A PDF copy is held in Kyle’s private archive; it is not linked or shared here.