Mike Davis serves a cold dish of reality for Los Angelinos, who may have fears deeply rooted in superstition and hysteria, among other misconceptions. Examining the likes of good weather, bad disasters, and ugly suburbs mike manages to pen a sharp social history, and informed ecological study of one of his favorite topics and home, southern California. From letting Malibu burn to tenement apartments and the bubonic plague the stage is set for a revelation of fact and fiction as he examines hundreds of novels and dozens of movies of disaster in Los Angeles. Together with his other southern California literature, "Magical Urbanism" and "City of Quarts" he is on the way to map out a new history from the propagandistic textbooks barely suitable for toddlers picture books.
