Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties

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A magisterial, kaleidoscopic, riveting history of Los Angeles in the Sixties

Histories of the US Sixties invariably focus on New York City, but Los Angeles was an epicenter of that decade's political and social earthquake. LA was a launchpad for Black Power--where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation--and home to the Chicano walkouts and Moratorium, as well as birthplace of "Asian America" as a political identity, base of the antiwar movement, and of course, center of California counterculture.

Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive history of LA in the Sixties, drawing on extensive archival research, scores of interviews with principal figures of the 1960s movements, and personal histories (both Davis and Wiener are native Los Angelenos). Following on from Davis's award-winning LA history, City of Quartz, and picking up where the celebrated California historian Kevin Starr left off (his eight-volume history of California ends in 1963), Set the Night on Fire is a fascinating historical corrective, delivered in scintillating and fiercely elegant prose.

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 96 votes)
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96 reviews All reviews
April 26,2025
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This was an enlightening dive into the history of 1960s social movements in Los Angeles. In the imaginations of many, LA is a whitewashed place without a history. This prevailing image erases the experiences of marginalized communities. This prevailing image erases many marginalized communities and peoples from the vibrant history of LA. Set the Night on Fire eloquently shares this rich history.

This book is riveting. Its 800 pages are filled to the brim with stories and studies told about the unrest around race, class, and sex. The story brings in hundreds of influential players in these years which makes the history feel vast while being extremely personal.

Because of the Davis and Wiener's lived experience of these tumultuous years in LA, this book is an intimate history of an influential decade. This book will become an invaluable piece of history of the history of Los Angeles.
April 26,2025
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This is a magisterial history of Los Angeles in the 1960s. From the Black Panthers and Chicano liberation movement to the gay rights movement and feminism, Davis and Weiner provide a tremendous amount of information that takes the reader deep into a world that has passed. As the pandemic crisis upends the global economy, the relevance for building social movements is more salient than ever. The book is ultimately a descriptive history, closely hewing to the detailed portraits it paints. There is relatively little analysis or reflection from the authors on assessing the strategic choices of actors which obviously mostly failed. Surprisingly the authors who of course are extremely well read (Davis is renowned for his contributions) focus overwhelmingly on social movement history. This was clearly a deliberate choice and the result is impressive. But I found it a bit strange that there is very little attention paid to the left organizations of the time such as the SWP or smaller ones. I perhaps dogmatically thought a book about California in the 1960s might mention Hal Draper, a legendary Bay Area activist, but I do appreciate the commitment to a constricted geographic scope. These are quibbles. This is a must read book.
April 26,2025
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Incredible movement history and a pleasure to read. Recommending this to everyone I know whether they are directly connected to LA or not. Book of the year!
April 26,2025
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Would be 3.5 but no option. Davis is obviously a titan of the left in the field and in LA, but his personal leanings from the time can be distracting (the authors weird devotion to US is the most frequent offender). The book also suffers from a lack of narrative flow or specific criteria- we hop from hot spot to hot spot and issue to issue without an actual movement narrative until the epilogue, which provides the paltry explanation of ‘while some think the 60s failed, many seeds were planted’, a too pat by half thesis.

All that is to say that the sheer care and knowledge contained herein is tremendous, and well worth skimming and even reading. The inclusion of so many organizers first hand stories really stands out, and the unique knowledge of having been there themselves gifts them a great eye for detail. Certain self contained threads and stories are incredibly instructive as Left organizational do’s and don’t’s from just the jaded figures who saw it all. Makes this a valuable resource through whatever else
April 26,2025
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This is a comprehensive account of the growth of 60s radicalism in LA, covering the development of Black Power, feminism, the anti-war movement, LGBTQ struggle, trade unionism and much more. Both authors were 60s activists themselves, and their engaged sympathy shines through, as does their considered analysis. I was lucky enough to speak to Mike Davis and sub-edit some of his articles in the noughties, and he maintained his voracious curiosity, humour and righteous indignation until his recent passing. This is a great monument to him.
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