Rating: 
Summary: Take note of the agenda
Review: Red-baiters and miffed real estate agents (the people who seem to account for the audience of dissenters) should take note: This book has a conscience. You don't have to be a pinko lefty to see that Davis writes with not only good intentions, but considerable vision. He's also got over 800 footnotes to back up everything he says. Face it: He did his homework and he has some frightening news.
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Summary: Truth is hard to take, eh?
Review: Judging from the number of reader reviews, obviously this book has generated some heat, which is marvelous, because that is the intention of any good investigative work. If Davis has not done an exhaustive outline on land-use patterns in southern California, then he certainly has laid down a profound framework for readers to consider for themselves the consequences of another form of corporate welfare for the real estate industry. Land-water-air consumption and pollution are not problems to be ignored in our living space, government reform and policy making to rid of corporate sponsorship to ruin taxpayers' lives are to come. Knowledge is power, Davis's 'Ecology of Fear' contributes to the power of any ordinary citizen who studies what's happening to the golden state.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Book; Ignore the Backlash
Review: Even if you don't agree with all of it, this is a great book: well-written, scholarly, broad in scope but filled with illuminating details. Although it is non-ficition, it almost reads like a novel.For those browsing these pages or confused by the allegations of fraud by Davis, ignore the orchestrated backlash awash in the media and landing itself in these here customer critiques. For a response to the backlash, see Jon Weiner's piece in the Nation ("thenation.com" - go to the 1999 archives) which reveals the true anti-patriots at work allegedly discrediting Davis' work. Since the Establishment and its apologists can't debate Davis' central points, they sling mud instead, much of it regurgitated by commentators on this amazon critique page. In the end it only goes to prove the power of Davis' analysis. The book is a fascinating and interesting read; it will make you laugh out loud but more often make you feel like you've been kicked in the gut. It might even act like a wake-up call in how you choose to approach/keep an eye on your local government. I recommend it highly if you're at all interested in this sort of thing.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION
Review: This is an entertaining book, but shouldn't it be in the fiction department? Davis has already been outed for printing falsehoods so why do people consider this a history book. You can't just make up a bunch of stuff and call it history. That's why Davis lost his job and his reputation. I do think that this book is a hoot and half. Davis comes up with some pretty funny stuff. Especially his vision of downtown after the LA riots. I don't know how he thinks this stuff up, but he's really creative.
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Summary: Loved the book almost as much as its subject.
Review: Mike Davis' many critics miss the point: he loves and is fascinated by his subject, but they can't forgive his honesty. Anyone who shares his view of California's magnificent and madening "City" (sorry Northern California, it ceased being San Francisco long ago), recognizes his critique for what it is: lucid, stylish and bruttaly honest at heart, to a degree, the boasting of a loving but horrified parent. Mr. "Westwater," books come with a point of view. And since, apparently unlike you, I have read more than one, I am not surprised by a point of view that varies substantially from my own. If "Ecology of Fear" owes as much to Raymond Chandler as to Kevin Starr, it is all the more genuinely honest on the subject, more to the heart of the matter, and a whole hell of a lot more entertaining (no offense Mr. Starr). As for the L.A. Times allegations of factual errors, it would not be the first time that, in defense of the Chamber of Commerce's retrograde pink-poodle-and-polyester view of the place, the Times got its facts about facts dead wrong, correct Gary Webb? That's Gary Webb, Mr. Westwater, not Jack Webb. Jack's vision of "the facts" was more in keeping with yours, the Times Editorial Board, and the LAPD.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Left-Coast Pinko Trash
Review: This is exactly the kind of pinko, tree-hugging, nature-worshiping lefty bunk that's been making this country soft since WWII. On top of Davis' glaring factual errors (yes, they number in the hundreds), his "analysis" consists of mere obfuscation through clever wordsmithing, and blindside jabs at any organization that is not either a labor union or some manner of socialist/communist/syndicalist coalition working for the needs of "the common man." Lefty agenda, anyone? In fact, at least 90% of his vitriol is reserved for the very men and women who PUT THOSE PEOPLE TO WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE! Great idea, Mike! Clear out those annoying corporations that employ hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California and watch the entire region go down the toilet. Of course, he doesn't explain in any portion of the book that he's an avowed Marxist, so we're left to figure that out for ourselves (presumably while we double-check his inane "facts" as they exist in the footnotes). Do yourself a favor and leave it alone . . .
Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking read
Review: A fascinating read about how the interests of a few can destroy the way of life of many. It is particularly galling to read how we wind up subsidising the fire protection of the Malibu elite while people are burned to death in down town death traps.
Rating:
Summary: A True Story Despite False Details
Review: A passionate journalist and keen observer of Los Angeles, Mike Davis has gotten in trouble with the fact-checkers over his latest book. The alleged falsification of notes, if proved, is an unfortunate strike against the book as journalism. Read it, then, is a novel, but read it. Its central idea is worthy of a novel in any case. Los Angeles has been formed by a complex attitude toward disaster that combines fear, denial, and a sense of thrill. Davis traces how these three attitudes, playing off of each other, have prevented Los Angeles from confronting its many threats in a way that would lead to addressing them. Yes, the chapter on tornadoes is over the top, but as in a great novel, the core idea is true.
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Summary: Eye-opening and thought-provoking
Review: I am a native Angeleno (currently living elsewhere). I read the Los Angeles Time article on the factual problems with the book, as well as the comments here. I really think that these criticisms are missing the forest for the trees--or lack of trees. For example, is Los Angeles a big, continuous, undifferentiate plain of buildings with little greenery or parks? Yes. Did it used to have rivers and greenery and the like? Yes. I don't know if the way it got from A to B is exactly like Davis says, but _something_ went wrong. My sister moved recently to the east coast, and I was amazed at how the natural environment has been better preserved there. There were hummingbirds and butterflies in L.A. when I was a kid--no more. What about more recent cultural assets? What happened to the Pan Pacific auditorium? The Ships coffee shops? The city is just a slash and burn politcal-industrial complex.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most dishonest books ever written.
Review: After reading all the accounts debating if Mike Davis falsifed his 'facts' in ECOLOGY OF FEAR, I spent a day at the LA Public Library and checked out 100 of his claims or specific facts. Forty-two of them were either wrong - or simply out and out lies. And these lies were so blatant, anyone can find them simply by reading Davis' own footnotes - starting with the very first footnote! I was astounded. How could anyone have gotten away with with a literary hoax on this scale for so long? How the Hell has the media allowed a pathological liar to go unexposed for so long? Looking over all the articles on line I notice that not a single one of the people attacking those who dare call the book what it is - a work of almost total fiction - has rebutted any of the hundreds - if not thousands - of lies and errors which the LA Times and the New York Times and so many others have now belatedly found in the book. In response, Davis' supporters can only mount personal attacks on those who dare speak the truth since they too are afraid of the truth.
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