The book appeared at a serendipitous moment: A full decade of Reaganism had remade American society in the image of Southern California, with its volatile mix of squalid inner cities and gated communities. Mike Davis's reputation rests largely on City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Verso), his 1990 chronicle of the city's history from the socialist cooperative of Llano del Río to Blade Runnerstyle capitalism. In his writings on Southern California, the American working class, and the lives of the dispossessed, Davis offers dark parables of a post-liberal America poised on the brink of ruin.

What this motley crew has in common is a belief that Mike Davis holds the keys to understanding the city of Los Angeles, and much else. It might also be a Danish curator mounting an exhibit on the postmodern city, an organizer with the hotel workers' union, a student at UCLA's Cesar Chavez Center, or (very likely) a Hollywood screenwriter. It could be Backlash author Susan Faludi, whom Davis has introduced to young gang members for her upcoming book on masculinity, or former Crip leader Dewayne Holmes, a Davis confidante who works in state senator Tom Hayden's L.A. Pei with a request for one of Davis's legendary tours of L.A. It might be the photographer Richard Avedon or the architect I.M. Sitting on his porch on a warm evening this past June, I understood why: The phone rang incessantly, and Davis never once rose from his chair.

Before arriving in Los Angeles, where Davis lives and writes, I'd had no luck reaching him. It is a virtually futile way of getting hold of the celebrated author of City of Quartz. Phoning Mike Davis is a good way of getting acquainted with his answering machine. Verso is extremely sad to announce the death of our friend and comrade Mike Davis (1946-2022), the pioneering historian of the US working class and fierce critic of the economic, political, and military apparatuses of the US state machine and the brutalities of empires in general.

Dead Cities by Mike Davis