Mike Davis (scholar)
Encyclopedia
Mike Davis is an American Marxist social commentator, urban theorist, historian, and political activist. He is best known for his investigations of power and social class
in his native Southern California
.
and raised in El Cajon, California
, Davis' education was punctuated by stints as a meat cutter, truck driver, and a Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS) activist. He briefly studied at Reed College
in the mid-1960s but did not begin his academic career in earnest until the early 1970s, when he earned BA and MA degrees but did not complete the Ph.D. program in History from the University of California, Los Angeles
. He was a 1996-1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute
and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.
, and an editor of the New Left Review
. Davis has taught urban theory
at the Southern California Institute of Architecture
before he secured a position at University of California, Irvine
's history department. He also contributes to the British monthly Socialist Review
, the organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Great Britain
. As a journalist and essayist, Davis has written frequently for, among others, The Nation
and the UK's New Statesman
.
He is a self-defined international socialist and "Marxist-Environmentalist". He writes in the tradition of socialists/architects/regionalism advocates such as Lewis Mumford
and Garrett Eckbo
, whom he cites in Ecology of Fear. His early book, Prisoners of the American Dream, was an important contribution to the Marxist study of U.S. history, political economy, and the state, as well as to the doctrine of Revolutionary integrationism
, as Davis, like Trotskyists such as Max Shachtman
, Richard S. Fraser
, James Robertson
, as well as French anarchist Daniel Guérin
, argued that the struggle of blacks in the U.S. was for equality, that this struggle was an explosive contradiction fundamental to the U.S. bourgeois republic, that only socialism could bring it about, and that its momentum would someday be a powerful contribution to a socialist revolution in the U.S.
Davis is also the author of two fiction books for young adults: Land of The Lost Mammoths and Pirates, Bats and Dragons.
is notable for predicting some of the tensions that would lead into the 1992 Los Angeles riots
.
The popular success of Davis' many critical studies has incited some to denounce or scrutinize aspects of his reporting. Malibu Realtor Ross Ernest Shockley (aka "Brady Westwater") argued that Davis distorts or makes up facts to overdramatize his case against the contemporary capitalist city. This argument was subsequently repeated by Los Angeles communications professional Jill Stewart
, who labeled Davis a "city-hating socialist" in the New Times Los Angeles. These views were brought to a broader audience in Salon.com. According to Todd Purdum's unfriendly 1999 piece, Davis "acknowledged fabricating an entire conversation with a local environmentalist, Lewis McAdams, for a cover story he wrote for L.A. Weekly a decade ago (in the late 1980s); he defends it as an early attempt at journalistic scene-setting." However, in his October 2004 Geography article, "That Certain Feeling: Mike Davis, Truth and the City," Kevin Stannard held that this "controversy is explained by Davis's ambiguous balancing of academic research and reportage," although that same balance has also been noted for its informative readability and effectiveness (see above). Jon Wiener in the Nation has defended Davis, maintaining that these arguments against the validity of Davis' findings and interpretation are based in little more than big city boosterism.
Some academic leftists have also criticized Davis' less-than-celebratory focus on modern urban structures. Citing Jane Jacobs
' attacks upon Lewis Mumford in her Death and Life of Great American Cities, Andy Merrifield
(MetroMarxism, Routledge 2002) has attacked Davis' analysis as "harsh" (p. 170). Davis' work, particularly Planet of Slums, has been criticized by Merrifield and urban studies professor Tom Angotti as "anti-urban" and "overly apocalyptic." These critics charge that Davis fails to focus on what they see as the potential of activist groups among the poor and working class to address the problems of the contemporary metropolis on a local or citywide basis, as advocated by Manuel Castells
and Marshall Berman
. Davis, however, is less interested in such a reformist approach to the existing city as an end in itself, than he is in a global working-class social movement toward a revolutionary transformation of the city, along with capitalism itself, to ecological sustainability and socialist regionalism, as Lewis Mumford
and Garrett Eckbo
advocated.
Fiction
Reviews
Interviews
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
in his native Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
Life
Born in Fontana, CaliforniaFontana, California
Fontana is a city of 196,069 residents in San Bernardino County, California. Founded in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area...
and raised in El Cajon, California
El Cajon, California
-History:El Cajon is located on the Rancho El Cajon Mexican land grant made in 1845 to María Antonia Estudillo, wife of Miguel Pedrorena. In 1876 Amaziah Lord Knox , a New Englander who had recently moved to California, established a hotel there to serve the growing number of people traveling...
, Davis' education was punctuated by stints as a meat cutter, truck driver, and a Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS) activist. He briefly studied at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
in the mid-1960s but did not begin his academic career in earnest until the early 1970s, when he earned BA and MA degrees but did not complete the Ph.D. program in History from the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. He was a 1996-1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute
Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute , located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". A program of the J...
and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.
Career
Davis is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, RiversideUniversity of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...
, and an editor of the New Left Review
New Left Review
New Left Review is a 160-page journal, published every two months from London, devoted to world politics, economy and culture. Often compared to the French-language Les Temps modernes, it is associated with Verso Books , and regularly features the essays of authorities on contemporary social...
. Davis has taught urban theory
Urban theory
Urbanomics describes the city formation phenomenon where economic priorities prevail to facilitate the city’s propensity to generate and accumulate wealth. Such city formation involves some irreversible spatial investments, massive resource allocations and financial investments recoverable only if...
at the Southern California Institute of Architecture
Southern California Institute of Architecture
The Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles , California, is an independent, nonprofit school offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture. It offers community design and outreach programs, and free public access to frequent exhibitions and lectures by leading...
before he secured a position at University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
's history department. He also contributes to the British monthly Socialist Review
Socialist Review
The Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the British Socialist Workers Party. As well as being printed it is also published online.-Original publication: 1950-1962:...
, the organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Great Britain
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...
. As a journalist and essayist, Davis has written frequently for, among others, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
and the UK's New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
.
He is a self-defined international socialist and "Marxist-Environmentalist". He writes in the tradition of socialists/architects/regionalism advocates such as Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
and Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living.-Youth:...
, whom he cites in Ecology of Fear. His early book, Prisoners of the American Dream, was an important contribution to the Marxist study of U.S. history, political economy, and the state, as well as to the doctrine of Revolutionary integrationism
Revolutionary integrationism
Revolutionary Integrationism is an analysis, philosophy, and program for resolving the "black question"--the problem of the superoppression of blacks, and their liberation—in the United States.-Origins:...
, as Davis, like Trotskyists such as Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.-Beginnings:...
, Richard S. Fraser
Richard S. Fraser
Richard S. Fraser was an American Trotskyist and the principal theoretician of the doctrine of revolutionary integrationism in the 1950s within the Socialist Workers Party , against George Breitman's advocacy of support for black nationalism. He joined the Trotskyist movement in 1934, and was a...
, James Robertson
James Robertson (Trotskyist)
James Robertson is National Chairman of the Spartacist League of the United States, which is a section of the International Communist League , an international organization of small Trotskyist groups...
, as well as French anarchist Daniel Guérin
Daniel Guérin
Daniel Guérin was a French libertarian and author, best known for his work Anarchism: From Theory to Practice, as well as his collection No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism in which he collected writings on the idea and movement it inspired, from the first writings of Max Stirner in the...
, argued that the struggle of blacks in the U.S. was for equality, that this struggle was an explosive contradiction fundamental to the U.S. bourgeois republic, that only socialism could bring it about, and that its momentum would someday be a powerful contribution to a socialist revolution in the U.S.
Davis is also the author of two fiction books for young adults: Land of The Lost Mammoths and Pirates, Bats and Dragons.
Criticisms and reviews
Reviewers have praised Davis' prose style and his exposés of economic, social, environmental and political injustice. His book Planet of Slums inspired a special issue of Mute Magazine on global slums. City of QuartzCity of Quartz
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining problems facing Los Angeles. The underlying material was originally intended as a Ph.D. submission in completion of the requirements for his history doctorate, but it was rejected...
is notable for predicting some of the tensions that would lead into the 1992 Los Angeles riots
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...
.
The popular success of Davis' many critical studies has incited some to denounce or scrutinize aspects of his reporting. Malibu Realtor Ross Ernest Shockley (aka "Brady Westwater") argued that Davis distorts or makes up facts to overdramatize his case against the contemporary capitalist city. This argument was subsequently repeated by Los Angeles communications professional Jill Stewart
Jill Stewart
Jill Stewart is the Deputy Editor of News at LA Weekly, the largest alternative weekly newspaper in the Western U.S. She directs a staff of metro reporters who specialize in Los Angeles and California news and politics...
, who labeled Davis a "city-hating socialist" in the New Times Los Angeles. These views were brought to a broader audience in Salon.com. According to Todd Purdum's unfriendly 1999 piece, Davis "acknowledged fabricating an entire conversation with a local environmentalist, Lewis McAdams, for a cover story he wrote for L.A. Weekly a decade ago (in the late 1980s); he defends it as an early attempt at journalistic scene-setting." However, in his October 2004 Geography article, "That Certain Feeling: Mike Davis, Truth and the City," Kevin Stannard held that this "controversy is explained by Davis's ambiguous balancing of academic research and reportage," although that same balance has also been noted for its informative readability and effectiveness (see above). Jon Wiener in the Nation has defended Davis, maintaining that these arguments against the validity of Davis' findings and interpretation are based in little more than big city boosterism.
Some academic leftists have also criticized Davis' less-than-celebratory focus on modern urban structures. Citing Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
' attacks upon Lewis Mumford in her Death and Life of Great American Cities, Andy Merrifield
Andy Merrifield
Andy Merrifield is a Marxist urban theorist. He was born in Liverpool in 1960 and received his PhD from Oxford. Merrifield has taught at universities in England and America and now lives in the Haute-Loire, France....
(MetroMarxism, Routledge 2002) has attacked Davis' analysis as "harsh" (p. 170). Davis' work, particularly Planet of Slums, has been criticized by Merrifield and urban studies professor Tom Angotti as "anti-urban" and "overly apocalyptic." These critics charge that Davis fails to focus on what they see as the potential of activist groups among the poor and working class to address the problems of the contemporary metropolis on a local or citywide basis, as advocated by Manuel Castells
Manuel Castells
Manuel Castells is a sociologist especially associated with information society and communication research....
and Marshall Berman
Marshall Berman
Marshall Berman is an American philosopher and Marxist Humanist writer. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Political Science at The City College of New York and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, teaching Political Philosophy and Urbanism.-Biography:An alumnus of...
. Davis, however, is less interested in such a reformist approach to the existing city as an end in itself, than he is in a global working-class social movement toward a revolutionary transformation of the city, along with capitalism itself, to ecological sustainability and socialist regionalism, as Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
and Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo
Garrett Eckbo was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living.-Youth:...
advocated.
Books
Nonfiction- Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control, The Ecology of Fear (1992)
- Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics and Economy in the History of the U.S. Working Class (1986, 1999)
- City of QuartzCity of QuartzCity of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining problems facing Los Angeles. The underlying material was originally intended as a Ph.D. submission in completion of the requirements for his history doctorate, but it was rejected...
: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (1990, 2006) - ¿Quién mató a Los Ángeles? (1994, Spanish only)
- Casino Zombies: True Stories From the Neon West (1999, German only)
- Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster (2000)
- Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City (2000)
- Late Victorian HolocaustsLate Victorian HolocaustsLate Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World is a book by Mike Davis about the connection between political economy and global climate patterns, particularly El Niño-Southern Oscillation...
: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (2001) - The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas, edited with Hal Rothman (2002)
- Dead Cities, And Other Tales (2003)
- Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See, with Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew (2003)
- Cronache Dall’Impero (2005, Italian only)
- The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu (2005)
- Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Working Class (2006)
- No One Is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border, with Justin Akers Chacon (2006)
- Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (2007)
- In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire (2007)
- Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism, edited with Daniel Bertrand Monk (2007)
Fiction
- Islands Mysterious: Where Science Rediscovers Wonder – a Trilogy, illustrated by William Simpson
- 1. Land of the Lost Mammoths (2003)
- 2. Pirates, Bats, and Dragons (2004)
- 3. Spider Vector (forthcoming)
Articles and essays
- The Democrats After November, New Left ReviewNew Left ReviewNew Left Review is a 160-page journal, published every two months from London, devoted to world politics, economy and culture. Often compared to the French-language Les Temps modernes, it is associated with Verso Books , and regularly features the essays of authorities on contemporary social...
, 43, January–February 2007 - Vigilante Man
- A Paradise Built on Oil
- Has Time Run Out? - The Coming Avian Flu Pandemic
- The Mysteries of New Orleans - Twenty-five Questions about the Murder of the Big Easy
- Poor, Black, and Left Behind
- Remembering Bill and Ivan
- The Perfect Fire
- "The Flames of New York", New Left Review, 12, November–December 2001
- "Planet of Slums", New Left Review, 26, March–April 2004
- "Cry California"
- "The Winged Killer Flies In", Red PepperRed pepperRed pepper may refer to:* Capsicum, whose fruit is used as a vegetable or spice** Specifically, the cayenne pepper, especially in its dried and powdered form* The ripe form of black peppercorns* Red Pepper , in Uganda...
, December 2005 - "Believer Interview", The Believer (magazine)The Believer (magazine)The Believer is a United States literary magazine that also covers other arts and general culture. Founded and designed in 2003 by the writer and publisher Dave Eggers, it is edited by Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits and Ed Park...
, February 2004 - "Who Is Killing New Orleans?", in The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, April 10, 2006
External links
- Faculty page at Univ. of California, Irvine
- Faculty page at Univ. Of California, Riverside
- Mike Davis' articles in The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
. - Davis interviewed by Bill Moyers Video, transcript and recent articles. March 20, 2009
- "The American Earthquake - Mike Davis and the Politics of Disaster By Adam Shatz, in Lingua Franca, (September 1997).
- LA Weekly profile, 1999
- Salon.com profile, 1999
- "L.A. Story: Backlash of the Boosters" by Jon WienerJon WienerJon Wiener is an American professor of history at the University of California Irvine, a contributing editor to The Nation magazine, and a Los Angeles radio host. He was the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its files on John Lennon.-...
Nation (4 February 1999). - "Best-Selling Author's Gloomy Future for Los Angeles Meets Resistance" Todd S. Purdum, New York Times
- Audio of 2008 lecture, "Who Will Build the Ark: The Architectural Imagination in an Age of Catastrophic Convergence."
- Discussion with Susan Straight January 2008
Reviews
- A collection of reviews of Planet of Slums
- "Seven Oaks" Planet of Slums review, by Derrick O'Keefe
- Planet of Slums reviews in Mute Magazine
- Planet of Slums Review from (Johannesburg) Sunday Independent
- "Slums, resistance and the African working class" A friendly critique of Planet of Slums by Leo Zeilig and Claire Ceruti in International Socialism journal
Interviews
- Interview with Orhan Ayyüce of Archinect, 12 October 2009.
- Interview with Juris Jurjevics of San Diego ReaderSan Diego ReaderThe San Diego Reader is the largest alternative press paper in the county of San Diego, distributed free in stands and private businesses throughout the county, funded by advertisements...
, 6 April 2006. - Interview with the editors of Voices of Resistance from Occupied London, an anarchist journal from the United Kingdom, 23 February 2007.
- Interview with IRIN News, the news service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, September 2007.
- Interview on Bill Moyers Journal, 20 March 2009.
- Podcast of Mike Davis discussing his article "Can Obama See the Grand Canyon?", October 15, 2008.
- BOMB Magazine Interview with Mike Davis by Lucy Raven. Summer 2008
- Tomdispatch Interview Part I: Mike Davis, Turning a Planet into a Slum
- Tomdispatch Interview Part II: Mike Davis, Green Zones and Slum Cities