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.

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.

Great history book discussing various campaigns in all communities of 1960s LA.

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!

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

Review forthcoming.

BLESS UP I CANT BELIEVE IM FINALLY DONE WITH THIS BOOK.

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.

review here

january nf book club: https://www.youtube.com/live/6DT_Ts80...

So good I forgive it for leaving a Doors song stuck in my head for two weeks. Audiobooked 25 hours of this and it's worth the investment of your life for an understanding--locally based but nationally and internationally relevant--of how the movements of the sixties coalesced, rose and fell, fought the cops and each other, and left behind a legacy that at the end had me legit in tears. Only complaint is that the women's movements seem to kind of get short shrift--not only in terms of length but also in the engagement the authors show. Where they go in depth in so many other struggles, criticizing as well as explicating, they seem curiously unwilling to take women's struggles as seriously.

But anyway, read it. If nothing else it will give you an understanding of why police abolition has to be central to any radical program.

A thorough and very long compartmentalized history of Los Angeles during the 1960s and early 1970s, with a definite tilt towards the more radicalized groups, the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, etc., but highly interesting. Los Angeles and its region was one of the most segregated places outside of the South in 1960, and the next decade and a half was filled with transformative change that sometimes turned violent. Most of the violence came from the system, usually in the form of the Los Angeles Police Department or the Trumpian-like mayor, Sam Yorty. I found this book very good, but I wished the authors had edited some chapters out and spent more time on the backgrounds of some of the major figures of the time. The authors strive to include everyone, including Chicanos, blacks, women, gays and lesbians, and Asians. All have chapters devoted to them, often more than one.