The second edition of the book, published in 2006, contains a new preface detailing changes in Los Angeles since the work was written in the late 1980s. The book concludes at what Davis calls the "junkyard of dreams," the former steel town of Fontana, east of LA, a victim of de-industrialization and decay. He covers the Irish leadership of the Catholic Church and its friction with the numerically dominant Latino element. The rest of the book explores how different groups wielded power in different ways: the downtown Protestant elite, led by the Chandler family of the Los Angeles Times the new elite of the Jewish Westside the surprisingly powerful homeowner groups the Los Angeles Police Department. The community moved in 1918, leaving behind the "ghost" of an alternative future for LA.ĭavis then explores intellectuals' competing ideas of Los Angeles, from the "sunshine" promoted by real estate boosters early in the 20th century, to the "debunkers," the muckraking journalists of the early century, to the " noir" writers of the 1930s and the exiles fleeing from fascism in Europe, and finally the "sorcerers," the scientists at Caltech. The book opens with Davis visiting the ruins of the socialist community of Llano, organized in 1914 in what is now the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining how contemporary Los Angeles has been shaped by different powerful forces in its history.
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