Vintage Books Number of pages: 496 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) Language: English (Published)

RRP: £10.59
Flawed Yet Totally Engrossing (Just Like L.A.)
Review date: 1998-11-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

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.