ancient cities

characterization of the areas affected by the 2007
wildfires as “pink stucco death valleys full of
bored teenagers and desperate housewives” typifies
his assessment of southern California’s class
and spatial structure.
Ecology of Fear contributes to Davis’s overall
argument about the global and historical relationships
among capitalism, urbanization, and epic
human disasters. His shift in focus beyond North
America came with Late Victorian Holocausts
(2001), a mammoth examination of the “making
of the Third World” in the last half of the nineteenth
century. Using scientific studies for evidence,
Davis charges colonial forces with exploiting
El Niño–caused droughts and famines for economic
and political expansion (much as contemporary
developers in southern California enjoy the
opportunities presented by natural disasters). The
Monster at Our Door (2005) traces the avian
influenza threat to globalization and the “superurbanization”
of poverty, while Buda’s Wagon
(2007) identifies the car bomb—“the hot rod of
the apocalypse”—as the first indigenously urban
form of guerilla warfare. In Planet of Slums (2006),
Davis returns specifically to cities, tying the late
twentieth-century explosion in the size and expanse
of slums to the structural adjustment regime of
marketization and privatization. The importance
of these five books lies in Davis’s argument that
two eras of economic and geographic restructuring
serving the interests of capital have not only
wrought social and ecological havoc in the third
world, but inadvertently brought political and biological
terror to the West.
Davis’s best work often appears as topical
pieces in left and mainstream periodicals, and he
publishes and is interviewed widely online. He
excels as a commentator on contemporary events:
elections and labor politics as well as natural disasters
and terrorist attacks. Davis’s writing contains
strong narrative elements, and his appeal to academic
and public audiences rests, in large part, on
his ability to tell absorbing tales of cities, people,
and events even while employing sometimes-
impenetrable turns of phrase. He uses photographs
to communicate wit and anger.
One result of the entrance of Davis’s work into
the public sphere is controversy. From the Right, he
has been excoriated as hysterical, given to concocting
Davis, Mike
207
facts, and an academic elite in working-class garb.
Ecology of Fear instigated furious responses and
denunciations from conservative commentators
nationally, the Los Angeles business community,
and some California scholars. At issue were the tone
of the book—that is, Davis’s diagnosis of the cause
of California natural disasters and his apocalyptic
predictions for the future—and the veracity of his
evidence. From the Left, Davis is treated as a hero
and defended from what are considered smear campaigns.
He is portrayed as prophetic and a meticulous
chronicler of the havoc wrought by capitalism.
Nonetheless, even some urban scholars who are
disposed toward Davis’s general point of view
regarding the vast problems of cities have objected
that he is unnecessarily apocalyptic and insufficiently
attentive to the importance of culture and
gender.
In sum, Mike Davis’s appeal lies in his ability to
cross the boundary between the academy and the
world of what he calls “the honest working class.”
He has energized the field of urban studies and, by
fashioning a complex explanation of urban conditions
in California and globally, has made himself
an object of both praise and condemnation.
Judith A. Garber
See also Los Angeles, California; Los Angeles School of
Urban Studies; Urban Theory
Further Readings
Bearman, Joshuah. 2004. “Mike Davis.” The Believer
2(February). Retrieved March 25, 2009 (http://www
.believermag.com/issues/200402/?read=interview_davis).
Davis, Mike. 1986. Prisoners of the American Dream:
Politics and Economy in the History of the U S.
Working Class. London: Verso.
———. 1990. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of
Los Angeles. London: Verso.
———. 1998. Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the
Imagination of Disaster. New York: Metropolitan
Books.
—–—. 2001. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño
Famines and the Making of the Third World. London:
Verso.
———. 2006. Planet of Slums. London: Verso.
———. 2007. In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against
Empire. Chicago: Haymarket Books.