• FugaziArchivist [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    City of Quartz is phenomenal if you're interested in urban sociology. It's about the materialist formation of Los Angeles and its signatures, such as white flight or "Lakewoodism," tax revolts, surveillance architecture, and the draconian overreach of the LAPD, like through Operation Hammer. Part II of his first book, Prisoners of the American Dream, gives a very granular account of the ethos of 1980s corporate Democrats. For example, in an analogue to what happened to Bern dawg in '16 and '20, he writes about how DNC forces mobilized against Jesse Jackson. His book Planet of Slums is a quick read and also very eye-opening about how (sadly) ~2 billion people live in serious poverty around the world, and how slum dwellers represent over 90% of the urban populations in Chad, Ethiopia, Nepal, and elsewhere