Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties - Hardcover

Mike Davis; Jon Wiener

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1784780227 ISBN 13: 9781784780227

Publisher: Verso Books, 2020

Synopsis

A magisterial, kaleidoscopic, riveting history of Los Angeles in the Sixties Histories of the US Sixties invariably focus on New York City, but Los Angeles was an epicenter of that decade's political and social earthquake. LA was a launchpad for Black Power--where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation--and home to the Chicano walkouts and Moratorium, as well as birthplace of "Asian America" as a political identity, base of the antiwar movement, and of course, center of California counterculture. Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive history of LA in the Sixties, drawing on extensive archival research, scores of interviews with principal figures of the 1960s movements, and personal histories (both Davis and Wiener are native Los Angelenos). Following on from Davis's award-winning LA history, City of Quartz, and picking up where the celebrated California historian Kevin Starr left off (his eight-volume history of California ends in 1963), Set the Night on Fire is a fascinating historical corrective, delivered in scintillating and fiercely elegant prose.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Davis is the author of several books including City of Quartz, The Monster at Our Door, Buda's Wagon, and Planet of Slums. He is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in San Diego. Jon Wiener is host and producer of "Start Making Sense," The Nation's weekly podcast. He is an emeritus professor of US history at UC Irvine, and his most recent book is How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America. He lives in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1784780227
• ISBN 13: 9781784780227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 800