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Summary: LA Times Article
Review: I haven't read the book fully yet and hitherto I'd been hearing good reviews. In the LA Times (4/13/99) though, there's an interesting article over actual facts in the book. Some resarch was made, etc. and apparently in many cases Davis exagerated, interpreted, or accidentally made up facts and quotes. I happen to agree with the main themes of the book but if this is the case then i'm highly disapointed.
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Summary: To all the "one-star" aggressors, back off, the jig is up.
Review: This is an excellent, impassioned and rigorously thought out book. I am currently living in Boston, but had lived in Southern California for most of my life. As much as I enjoyed the area, it is a strange land, indeed. I enjoyed the author's earlier City of Quartz and recommend Ecology of Fear to anyone else who is interested/concerned about the social politics of L.A. Davis writes as one who cares enough to dissect and yes, criticize the city that he knows so well. To the earlier negative reviewers (who apparently thinks "Commie" baiting still works): come on, save your sabotage tactics for a city council meeting. If you really did read the book, you would know that you are only proving Davis' thesis...
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Summary: Commie Talk
Review: I knew this writer years ago before he wrote his first book. I am here to say that this boy Davis is a commie. And if that is not enough to write off a book as worthless, I don't know what is!
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Summary: Sure to be a Classic!
Review: This is a remarkably good book. As a professor of United States history who frequently teaches about the West, and a former resident of Southern California, I recommend this masterpiece without reservation. Mike Davis is the rare combination of a thorough researcher, a terrific writer, and a dynamic and vigorous intellectual. In this book, he weaves together one gripping story after another, vividly demonstrating the underlying racial and class tensions that have accompanied the long history of disasters in Los Angeles. I've noticed some of the poor reviews this book has received from other Amazon.com customers, and I cannot understand why. Take it from me: This is a remarkable book!
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Summary: Dreadful
Review: This book is, at best, an insult to the intellect. As much as I prefer living on the East Coast, I found the contents of this book to be overly pessimistic, sullen and cynical. The copious references were obscure, the analogies were misleading, and the "scholarly" jargon was archaic.A perfect example of "The Ecology of Fear" is the amount of trees wasted to make this printed drivel. Unfortunately, though it was highly deserving, I could not give it less than one star.
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Summary: Beware of book critics with ulterior motives
Review: Those potential customers for this profound analysis of the history of LA who are troubled by Brady Westwater's charge (above) that Mike Davis "maufactured" his facts, should know that "Brady Westwater" is a pseudonym for Ross Ernest Shockley, a Malibu realtor who has orchestrated attacks on Davis out of obvious self-interest. Davis does not deal kindly with real estate developers in his book and they are threatened by the way he defines LA. If it strikes you as odd that someone can use this web site to attack the credibility and integrity of the author's case while faking his own identity, read the story in The Nation magazine out on February 8th, "LA Story: Backlash of the Boosters" by Jon Wiener, that describes the unprincipled attacks on Mike Davis.
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Summary: Fascinating, but is L.A. really that bad?
Review: A great book and a wonderful read, which has had the momentary effect of preventing me from ever wanting to visit L.A. again. Davis is brilliant at the links between the political and physical geography of the city. But what gives me pause is that with my family we visted L.A. in 1996 and had a great time - the city seemed awesome, fascinating, full of energy and not at all frightening - and we're from New Zealand. Is Davis' L.A. in fact just another literary artifice - the latest example of California noir? I'm looking forward to his third volume where he says he will be exploring the synergies and creativity of the city.
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Summary: Mike Davis Picks the Right Enemies
Review: Perhaps the most important book about Los Angeles since....City of Quartz. In Los Angeles, this book as experienced a mini-backlash from the likes of Downtown New's two "Urban Affairs" reporters, as well as from New Times' Jill Stewart on the word of a certain crank who calls himself the "Zelig of Los Angeles" and who has spammed various venues, including Amazon trying to sabotage this book, Ecology of Fear is an intellectually demanded examination of Southern California, and forces at work within the community, and the stresses and strains of living here. Of course, Chamber of Commerce types will not like this book, however thinking Angelenos who care about everyone in city, and how to make it livable will find this book filled with remarkable and clarifying insights on how we have come to be here.
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Summary: Flawed Yet Totally Engrossing (Just Like L.A.)
Review: This book is not the tour de force that City of Quartz was, I think, because Davis is on shakier ground (pun intended) when he tries to prove his points with questionable use of statistics. However, it always makes a compelling and provacative read. By cynically asking where we are going and why, and examining where we have been and how we arrived here, Davis is bound to ruffle feathers. After over a century and a half of boosterism and Hollywood myths, it is past the time to ask the tough questions. Unlimited development and the unquestioned right for the rich to live on the ocean or in the chaparral are ideas that have been contradicted by events of the past decade. It is time to examine these outmoded ideas and scores of others. Ecology of Fear dares to present new and long overdue perspectives. This book required reading for anyone interested in the future of Southern California.
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Summary: Tabloid-style angst-provoking drivel with footnotes
Review: If you're interested in reading histrionic meanderings about earthquakes, floods, firestorms, backyard cougars, and urban unrest, by all means, read this book. The author evidently lives in Southern California and proceeds to rip apart social, historical, and environmental ills--all for what? Book sales? Yellow journalism look-alike contests? To imply that The Big One is just around the corner because we haven't had sufficient seismic activity recently is ludicrous and does nothing but attempt evocation of panic for the sake of titillation. If you want a novel, look elsewhere; if you want academic drivel with alarmist tendencies--this guy has got to be paranoid--go ahead and invest an afternoon in reading it. But don't blame me when you're wondering what this guy was hoping to accomplish and why he still lives here after writing his books.
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