City of Quartz
Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
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Narrated by:
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Tim Campbell
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By:
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Mike Davis
About this listen
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together". To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it". To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.
In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs LA's shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West-a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity. In this new edition, Davis provides a dazzling update on the city's current status.
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By: Daniel Brook
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Armageddon Averted
- The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining historical and geopolitical analysis with an absorbing narrative, Kotkin draws upon extensive research, including memoirs by dozens of insiders and senior figures, to illuminate the factors that led to the demise of Communism and the USSR. The new edition puts the collapse in the context of the global economic and political changes from the 1970s to the present day. Kotkin creates a compelling profile of post-Soviet Russia.
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insightful
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-20
By: Stephen Kotkin
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The Age of Acquiescence
- The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power
- By: Steve Fraser
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy. Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog-eat-dog capitalism. But over the last half-century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished. Why? The Age of Acquiescence seeks to solve that mystery.
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Excellent
- By Brad on 05-03-15
By: Steve Fraser
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Forgotten Continent
- The Battle for Latin America’s Soul
- By: Michael Reid
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Latin America has often been condemned to failure. Neither poor enough to evoke Africa’s moral crusade nor as explosively booming as India and China, it has largely been overlooked by the West. Yet this vast continent, home to half a billion people, the world’s largest reserves of arable land, and 8.5 percent of global oil, is busily transforming its political and economic landscape.
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Good Reporting / Disorganized Content
- By Steven Schuster on 02-11-12
By: Michael Reid
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Fantasy Island
- Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
- By: Ed Morales
- Narrated by: Sean Duffy
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.
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Gringo Narrattion
- By shakira julia on 02-08-21
By: Ed Morales
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This Brave New World
- India, China and the United States
- By: Anja Manuel
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the next decade and a half, China and India will become two of the world's indispensable powers - whether they rise peacefully or not. During that time, Asia will surpass the combined strength of North America and Europe in economic might, population size, and military spending. Both India and China will have vetoes over many international decisions, from climate change to global trade, human rights, and business standards.
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Good book, could be better
- By General on 09-23-16
By: Anja Manuel
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 43 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through 34 nations and 60 years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative.
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Great book, but not terrific listening
- By History on 10-18-11
By: Tony Judt
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Golden Gulag
- Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California
- By: Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- Narrated by: Machelle Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1980, the number of people in US prisons has increased more than 450 percent. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world". Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces conjoined to produce the prison boom.
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Started off great but devolved into case study
- By normal person on 10-16-21
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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California
- A History
- By: Kevin Starr
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed author, historian, and Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Starr is a professor at the University of Southern California. His extensive knowledge shines through this concise, yet comprehensive, depiction of the most fascinating aspects in California's history. From its colonial beginnings through Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the Golden State has become a uniquely American phenomenon that has enchanted people with the possibility of a better life.
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Interesting read, until it's not
- By MiamiMe on 03-27-18
By: Kevin Starr
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A Narco History
- How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”
- By: Carmen Boullosa, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The term Mexican Drug War misleads. It implies that the ongoing bloodbath, which has now killed well over 100,000 people, is an internal Mexican affair. But this diverts attention from the US role in creating and sustaining the carnage. It's not just that Americans buy drugs from and sell weapons to Mexico's murderous cartels. It's that ever since the US prohibited the use and sale of drugs in the early 1900s, it has pressured Mexico into acting as its border enforcer - with increasingly deadly consequences.
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Interesting book, tricky pronunciation
- By Enrique on 12-24-18
By: Carmen Boullosa, and others
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A Savage Order
- How the World's Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security
- By: Rachel Kleinfeld
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From Georgia to Colombia to Ghana and Italy - crime exists in every democratic nation on earth, but in some places, it runs rampant, shaping all aspects of civic life. A Savage Order investigates why and how some places, riddled by inept government and states, are able to recover. Drawing on fifteen years of both academic and firsthand field research, Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld documents the unambiguous measures that societies have taken to empower the strong civic movements, governments, and institutions that protect countries and mitigate atrocities that damage people's lives.
By: Rachel Kleinfeld
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A little dated ring when was originally published
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Great start, weak completion
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A good (but a little corny) history of LA
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Great start, weak completion
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What listeners say about City of Quartz
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Hopeless
- 02-06-21
Carefully elaborates LA in historical character
LA is presented as not a given, but as social relations made, unmade and remade in historical time, choices made by individual and group actors yes, but under conditions they ultimately didn't choose.
The metaphor of noir ties in nicely with the felt inexorability of political, social, and geographical upheavals and conflicts given the broader context of forces and relations in motion. Yet, despite this, Davis gives a sense of rebellion even in its most cynical and nihilistic forms as a creative as well as creatively destructive force. The contending classes may end in ruin but not without a fight.
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- Scott GG Haller
- 01-18-21
Multifaceted history of a city
Interesting perspectives on Greater Los Angeles, a city I moved to in 1989 -- a year before this book was published.
It covers lots of ground and provides backgrounds of many names I've encountered -- the Chandlers, Hell's Angels, and Kaiser Permanente.
I especially appreciated the essay exploring the history of the archdiocese of Los Angeles with the long tradition of Celtic bishops over a largely Latinx flock.
The reader does make some pronunciation errors which stumble over the authority of the author. Pico Rivera becomes "Riviera" and Los Feliz unhappily becomes "Felix".
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2 people found this helpful
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- PHXJBK
- 05-29-21
good not great
needs to be updated and bridged to 2021. good history but not end of story
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- DeAna Hayashi
- 02-11-24
A fascinating history of So Cal. land ownership & business.
A fascinating cautionary history of So Cal. land ownership & business. Famous families, secrets, why things failed, or succeeded, who’s who today & how they got there.
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Winston Churchill / George Santayana
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- RelizzScholar27
- 10-07-22
Important Urban History Marred by Sneery Narration
Mike Davis's on-the-ground history of LA provides an important framework for understanding late modern urbanization and its many discontents. Providing a different perspective on urbanization from both the Chicago School and its rival at UCLA, Davis illustrates how deep histories of inequality linger in contemporary and future city planning. It is a cautionary tale, but one with potentially transformational insight. Those concerned with the fate of cities should READ this book. I stress reading rather than listening not as I sometimes do--because the content is too nuanced and complex to move through without the aid of footnotes and other details that are muted in oral renditions (though this is true to some extent)--but because Tim Campbell's narration is so relentlessly snarky that there is a sneer or intoned eye roll with every other line. The tone makes complicated, often painful histories seem like a big joke. Moreover, Campbell's mispronunciations grate. Aimee Semple McPherson's first name is pronounced just like the Anglicized "Amy," not Amm-ee. Jones and Laughlin Steel, where my father worked, does not have a hard "f" in Laughlin. It was pronouched "Lock-lin." I could go on. All of this makes a valuable book a painful listen.
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- Becca
- 11-13-18
Interesting LA history
Interesting, leftist urban history of Los Angeles. At times feels hyperbolic and sensationalized (ex comparing widespread joblessness to literal nuclear disaster) and this is exacerbated by the reader’s dramatic voice, which is reminiscent of the Preview Man. Nonetheless some really educational and revelatory reporting on the power levers operating in LA’s geography including global finance and local politics. Written in 1990, sections on the drug wars, urban development and Latin American asylum seekers directly foreshadow current major political issues.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 02-05-23
The City of Angels, a History, a Vision & a Dream!
A powerful text! A must read for those that live or have lived in LA. The truth of history is a call to action for working together in making a better future for all!
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-15-20
Great book!
Been looking for a good history of LA book and this hit a lot of the subjects I was looking for.
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- Barbara Richards
- 12-23-23
Fascinating read
This book is excellently written, although the point, of view, is a little too liberal, for me.
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- Travis Winn
- 09-17-20
Great Insights to Where BLM Uprisings Come From Institutional Rascism
This book really gives see you insights into how Los Angeles was created including various ways over 150 years. I have no idea about the institutionalized racism that takes place here. It is truly a real estate Nirvana for the people who have made all this money all these years and these sorts of things seem to continue. If you want to learn about Los Angeles, this is a must read book. It was written in 1990 and So many of the things that happened before then repeats itself in the following 30 years. Learn your history and see why the present day is the way it is.
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1 person found this helpful