Ciudad de cuarzo

In 1900, Los Angeles was a large town that had sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of the Californian desert. Today, it is the third most important pole of economic activity in the world after Tokyo and New York. No city has been more loved and hated at the same time. For its promoters, "L.A. brings it all together." Indeed: sun, capital (lots of capital), iconic architecture, multiculturalism and diversity, Bel Air, Hollywood, etc. But also crack, gangsta rap, racial violence, private police, mass homelessness, extreme inequality and greed. Los Angeles, between paradise and the postmodern dump of the American dream. Written in 1990 and revised in 2018, Quartz City is an essential contemporary classic of urban sociology, in which Mike Davis reconstructs the dark history of Los Angeles and dissects the role and power games of its protagonists: the elites of the real estate development, the old dynasties that owned the Los Angeles Times, the world of culture, the marginalized inhabitants of the suburbs, immigrants, the Church, the famous LAPD (Los Angeles police), etc. A fascinating work in which to glimpse our own future reflected with terrifying clarity.