The first three chapters here are quite excellent, but the book becomes looser and a little more tedious as it progresses. This is probably the weakest of the seven Mike Davis books I've read. A chapter devoted to the innumerable ways books and movies have destroyed Los Angeles gets repetitive; the last chapter, tenuously related to Blade Runner, is a bit of a hodgepodge of errata that doesn't resolve the book's overall thesis statement. Yet I would still strongly recommend the first three chapters, in particular "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn," as very strong. My interest petered out the more the book went on, making me take longer than usual to finish a Mike Davis book.

Loved this book - lots of well researched info on the evolution of the insane urban sprawl we now call the county pf angels. I particularly enjoyed the anthropological facts about the la basins natural resources and the number of recorded tornadoes that touch down each year. As the other Mike D. Says, "its a nice place to visit but a better place to rob."

Davis had some excellent point to make about the often schizophrenic sociological landscape of LA in City of Quartz. But by the time this book rolled around he'd run out of much to say. Yes, he has a lot of scary anecdotes about all the natural disasters that can potentially fall L.A. But so what? It's not clear Davis has any solution, other than maybe that people should just pack-up and leave L.A. (for where?). As an aside, I've always wondered why there's this double standard with regard to that city - other, even more densely populated cities around the world are prone to equal or greater peril than Los Angeles. Yet there's this academic and literary cottage industry dedicated to telling Angelenos that their city is uniquely doomed. Some sort of wish fulfillment, I guess.

Anyway, Davis ultimately comes across as merely a city-hater, the sort of leftist who fantasizes about utopian communities in the rural countryside without ever considering that (1) if all the people in the city left for the countryside it wouldn't be countryside much longer, or (2) while American cities have historically had their share of ugly racist episodes and capitalist exploitation, they have also played a vital role as places of opportunity for immigrants, racial minorities, and historically oppressed populations such as the GLBT community.

Davis is singular. His intensity of purpose and ferocity of intent are restrained a little by his pugnacious writing style, but across the whole of Ecology of Fear the sense of a brilliant, troubled mind at play is undeniable. Particularly strong was the deadly intelligent chapter on literary descriptions of Los Angeles in various catastrophes - sometimes, it takes an outsider to the field to elegantly demonstrate illustrative uses for the genre. Strongly recommended, even if your interest in Los Angeles is, like mine, minimal!

Los Angeles and southern California is undoubtedly the United States capitol for possible disasters. The author walks us through the litany of disasters that have already occurred: earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, floods, droughts, urban-wild interface, and social disintegration. The author also includes a 'goldmine' of literary catastrophe and dystopian novels if that is your type of reading. Although this book was published in 1998, I have to believe that 24 years later it cannot be considered outdated, and that the list of disasters discussed by the author has only grown. This book was one of my late son's college textbooks that I came across while sorting books in his room. The book just happens to be one of the titles cited in the 2020 book, Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott.

The first chapter on drought and the difference in Mediterranean climates vs North East / European climate and that effect on how we conceptualize nature in LA was very interesting... the writing became more sensationalist as the book moved on, as if Mike Davis took delight in describing all the ways people die from natural and manmade disaster in LA. The 100 page chapter on all the books and movies where LA was destroyed was especially tedious.


Ecology of Fear Notable Pages

64
68-71
72
79
85
97
100-101
105
253

I picked this book up at a store in Coronado when I was out in California on a work trip. I've been interested in learning more about the people and the different cultural regions of that state that occupies such a an important place in the American psyche.

But that's not what I learned. This book is over 400 pages of detailed descriptions of catastrophic California: fault lines; tornadoes; wind storms; mudslides; flash floods; wildfires. I think there was a chapter on tsunami danger as well. California has volatile weather. If you'd like to learn more about the specific events that make the previous sentence a reasonable statement, open this book up.

"The first fatality was a Nisei farmer named Hega who was working in his garden in the Bandini area. Struck directly in the face by a bolt of lightning, he burst into flames in full view of his appalled and horrified neighbors."

unparalleled in its scope & clear analysis of how capital drives who lives & dies under "disaster."

required reading for all angelenos.

Enjoyed this book a lot as a resident of LA. (Also made me angry about LA's policy failures). I would have liked an update on it. I think there have been a lot of interesting changes in the ecology/growth/development of LA since this book was published.

Enjoyed annoying my wife by trying to convince her that SoCal has a tornado alley. Also like the rundown of fictional LA apocalypses, as someone who used to do some work on low budget disaster movies, some of which took place in LA.

What a generous scholar Mike Davis was. I've read of a few of his books now and they always fascinate, illuminate, and demonstrate of the importance of A) thinking deeply and critically about history (which always already starts now) and B) getting your butt into the archive. Davis read *everything* and he reports back in a lucid and entertaining manner. Ecology of Fear is positively lurid: if you are into disaster porn, distopian dramas or other dark-zone genres, give this a try. Reality bites, capitalism sucks, and Mike Davis caught it all on paper.

As an ecologist, it was fascinating to learn about the natural conditions of disaster in Los Angeles/SoCal. The history of these events was dynamically described to be entertaining and informative at the same time. I particularly liked the essays on fire ecology and human-wildlife relationships, but that’s probably because of my professional/personal interest in those topics. But I enjoyed learning about how the people of LA reacted and interacted with these disasters the most. As a foreigner, it was eye opening to read about the socio-political environment in the city/region through time and how that might explain current culture in the city. Crazy how deep and far classism and racism stretches back! Enjoyable read overall, although I do feel I might’ve enjoyed it more if I were American and understood all the references and such.

Absolute masterpiece of a book, that not only helps me see the way in which Mike Davis sees the world but also helps me see the socioeconomic context I grew up in in a totally different light. Every Southern Californian, every American should be reading Mike Davis.