The sheer number of writers, researchers, activists, etc coming out of the woodwork with a story about how they reached out to Mike or had some sort of chance encounter with him and received incredible attention, kindness, and generosity in return ... that's a great tribute to him. We could all be so lucky to have people remember us that way.
"There are many great and brilliant books in the tradition, but there may be no single text that shows better what Marx’s historical materialism can actually accomplish if it is faithfully—but not dogmatically—practiced."
That's it, right there. Both him and Barbara Ehrenreich, also gone this year, deserve infinite credit for being incredibly gifted political communicators at a time when the left was totally out in the cold in America that showed what leftism really meant as a personal and political practice beyond stupid culture war shit and the media spectacle of party politics.
I first encountered Mike Davis through a sociology professor at Binghamton who worshipped him. This dude had unkempt salt and pepper hair, squint eyes, wore baggy, rumpled clothes, khakis with dirty basketball sneakers, and would periodically break off from his lecture to put his foot up on a chair, hike up his pants, and say, in this wingy voice, "Mr. Bush... and Mr. Cheney.... knew *very well* there were no weapons of mass destruction..." Fucking love that guy, fucking love Mike Davis.
For Davis further afield, try Late Victorian Holocausts, about several mega-famines in India, China and Brazil, which includes an in-depth discussion of how these were caused by both 19th Century imperialist policy and by the effects of El Nino on the rainfall patterns in those places.. Totally worth it for anyone who wants to really understand the 19th Century. the guy was a genius, and he will be missed.
The sheer number of writers, researchers, activists, etc coming out of the woodwork with a story about how they reached out to Mike or had some sort of chance encounter with him and received incredible attention, kindness, and generosity in return ... that's a great tribute to him. We could all be so lucky to have people remember us that way.
"There are many great and brilliant books in the tradition, but there may be no single text that shows better what Marx’s historical materialism can actually accomplish if it is faithfully—but not dogmatically—practiced."
That's it, right there. Both him and Barbara Ehrenreich, also gone this year, deserve infinite credit for being incredibly gifted political communicators at a time when the left was totally out in the cold in America that showed what leftism really meant as a personal and political practice beyond stupid culture war shit and the media spectacle of party politics.
I first encountered Mike Davis through a sociology professor at Binghamton who worshipped him. This dude had unkempt salt and pepper hair, squint eyes, wore baggy, rumpled clothes, khakis with dirty basketball sneakers, and would periodically break off from his lecture to put his foot up on a chair, hike up his pants, and say, in this wingy voice, "Mr. Bush... and Mr. Cheney.... knew *very well* there were no weapons of mass destruction..." Fucking love that guy, fucking love Mike Davis.
For Davis further afield, try Late Victorian Holocausts, about several mega-famines in India, China and Brazil, which includes an in-depth discussion of how these were caused by both 19th Century imperialist policy and by the effects of El Nino on the rainfall patterns in those places.. Totally worth it for anyone who wants to really understand the 19th Century. the guy was a genius, and he will be missed.
I got City of Quartz. I have just finished the prologue. What a promising book and what a powerful and engaging writer. Thanks.