![]() ![]() The essay is incredibly well-researched, spanning disciplines with a deceptive ease. This piece, "Dead Cities: A Natural History," offers a crash course in what makes Davis so good - and a glimpse of the apocalyptic strain that can be exasperating in large doses. ![]() "Nature is constantly straining against its chains: probing for weak points, cracks, faults, even a speck of rust." "Global change aside, there have always been compelling reasons to worry about the 'sustainability' of big cities," Davis writes in the title essay. So it is in "Dead Cities," a new collection in which Davis broadens his leftist focus from Los Angeles - scene of his masterful "City of Quartz" - to the Southwest's urban edge and, in an exponential raising of stakes, the looming dangers that reverberate from modern society's impact on the Earth. ![]() Even when he raises specters of urban decay or environmental collapse, the visions crackle with energy and unexpected turns of phrase. Mike Davis must be the United States' most engaging prophet of doom. ![]()
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