Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of DisasterA witty and engrossing look at Los Angeles' urban ecology and the city's place in America's cultural fantasies 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 catastrophe 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. |
Contents
How Eden Lost Its Garden | 57 |
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn | 93 |
Our Secret Kansas | 149 |
Maneaters of the Sierra Madre | 195 |
The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles | 273 |
Notes | 423 |
Acknowledgments | 463 |
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Common terms and phrases
Africanized bees alien American Angeles County Angeles's attacks bees building Canyon catastrophe chaparral Chupacabra Coast coastal cougar coyotes damage death destruction disaster fiction district Downtown drought earthquake ecology edge cities environmental fault fire firefighters firestorm Fish and Game flood Freeway gang Hills Hollywood homeowners homes housing human hunting Ibid immigrants January killed land landscape later Latino Long Beach Los Angeles County Los Angeles River major Malibu March meanwhile Mediterranean million mountain lion National natural neighborhoods Northridge Northridge earthquake novel November nuclear October official Olmsted Orange County Pacific Park Pasadena percent plague police population predator quake racial Ranch region residents riot River San Bernardino San Diego San Fernando Valley San Francisco San Gabriel Santa Ana Santa Monica Mountains seismic social South Southern California squirrels storm street suburban suburbs thousands tion tornado twister urban Westlake wild wildfire wildlife York zone