Excavating a Future Vision Past: Mike Davis’ City of Quartz

Abstract

When Mike Davis published City of Quartz in 1990, his work was widely praised by many and dismissed as liberalist hysteria by others. The reflections it contains on architectural design as a reflection of sociopolitical tumult still strike chords today. This article sets out a reexamination of the text through hindsight, using contemporary and subsequent reviews to consider how the book was relevant at the time of its publication, how it may be relevant today and how it has had a profound impact on sociological and cultural studies.

Keywords:

• sociology
• architecture
• socialism
• urban studies

Notes

1 Sharon Zukin, “The Postmodern Invasion,” International Journal of Urban & Regional Research 16, no. 3 (1992): 489.

2 Tay Garnett, dir., The Postman Always Rings Twice (USA, 1946).

3 Ridley Scott, dir., Blade Runner (USA, 1982).

4 John Schlesinger, dir., Day of the Locust (USA, 1975).

5 Christopher P. Wilson, “When Noir Meets Nonfiction,” Twentieth Century Literature 61, no. 4 (2015): 484.

6 John Singleton, dir., Boyz in the Hood (USA, 1991); and Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, dirs., Menace II Society (USA, 1993).

7 Suzanne Mantell, “Mike Davis: Flirting with Disaster,” Publishers Weekly 245, no. 35 (1998): 42.

8 Jeffrey Decker, “Postmodernity, or, the Worlding of America,” American Quarterly 44, no. 1 (1992): 146.

9 David Harvey, Paris, Capital of Modernity (London, UK: Routledge, 2003), 40.

10 Ibid.

11 Andy Merrifield, The New Urban Question (London, UK: Pluto Press, 2014), 102-3. Also see R. E. Pahl, Whose City?: And Further Essays on Urban Society (London, UK: Penguin Books, 1976).

12 Tim Zindel, “City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Book),” Library Journal 116, no. 1 (1991): 125.

13 William H. Whyte, City: Rediscovering the Center (New York: Anchor, 1988).

14 Ali Modarres, “Book Reviews,” Journal of Urban Affairs 18, no. 1 (1996): 77.

15 Todd Purdum, “Best-Selling Author’s Gloomy Future for Los Angeles Meets Resistance,” The New York Times, Wednesday January 27, 1999, late edition – final, Section A, 12.

16 Linda Mcdowell, “Speaking Volumes; Books,” The Times Higher Education Supplement, March 24, 1995: 22.

17 Edward Rooksby, “City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles,” Capital & Class 32, no. 94 (2008): 151.

18 Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London, UK: Verso, 1990), 6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Blick

William Blick is an assistant professor/electronic resources librarian at Queensborough Community College (CUNY), USA. He has master’s degrees in English Literature and Library Science from Queens College (CUNY), Flushing, NY, USA. He is also a scholar of popular culture, literature, film and sociology. He has published over 30 articles, short stories, essays and film criticisms online and in print. He has presented at conferences at Harvard, University of Gdansk, University of Leeds and University of Galway on a wide range of topics of librarianship, literature and film.