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  • Monthly Review Essays

About Mike Davis

Mike Davis is the author of Prisoners of the American Dream (1986), City of Quartz (1990), Late Victorian Holocausts (2001), Planet of Slums (2006) and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (2007). Davis is a frequent contributor to left publications such as New Left Review (where his excellent article, "Election 2016," is free access), LINKS, and many others. He is past recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in San Diego.
  • Mike Davis

    Mike Davis on becoming a Marxist

    Originally published: Verso on October 26, 2022 (more by Verso)  |

    After losing a coveted niche in the trucking industry, I started UCLA as an adult freshman, attracted by rumors of a high-powered seminar on Capital led by Bob Brenner in the History Department.

  • Capitol Building

    ‘We’re witnessing a fundamental political realignment’: Mike Davis on the crisis in the United States

    Originally published: Red Flag on January 15, 2021 (more by Red Flag)  |

    In the wake of the deadly riot in Washington, DC, and with the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden just days away, Ben Hillier spoke to Mike Davis, author of Prisoners of the American Dream and Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory, about the crises and transformations of U.S. politics.

  • Wildfire in Joshua Tree National Park in 2014 (National Park Service photo).

    California’s apocalyptic ‘second nature’

    Originally published: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung NYC on September 11, 2020 (more by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung NYC)  |

    A new, profoundly sinister nature is rapidly emerging from our fire rubble at the expense of landscapes we once considered sacred. Our imaginations can barely encompass the speed or scale of the catastrophe. Gone California, gone.

  • LAPD Chief William H. Parker

    How LAPD chief William H. Parker influenced the depiction of policing on the TV show Dragnet

    Originally published: Verso Books along with Jon Wiener on June 16, 2020 (more by Verso Books along with Jon Wiener)  |

    LAPD Chief William H. Parker was initially wary of Dragnet but also saw the opportunity to publicize his views on law and order. LAPD advisors closely examined the script to guarantee that the LAPD officers on Dragnet were ethical, efficient, terse and white.

  • Coronavirus has reinforced Karl Marx's critique of capitalism

    Marxism in an age of catastrophe – capitalism created an era of plagues

    Originally published: Socialist Worker on April 18, 2020 (more by Socialist Worker)  |

    We live in an era of plagues because of capitalist development, argues socialist author Mike Davis. But he also says coronavirus has exposed the gap between a tiny rich elite and the rest of us—and creates space to put forward socialist ideas

  • Mike Davis on pandemics, super-capitalism and the struggles of tomorrow

    Mike Davis on pandemics, super-capitalism and the struggles of tomorrow

    Originally published: Mada Masr on March 31, 2020 (more by Mada Masr)  |

    The coronavirus pandemic is overwhelming to comprehend. There are now hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases. Tens of thousands have died. Nations are on lockdown as the disease continues to spread. The planet is in crisis.

  • Capitalism Is The Disease: Mike Davis on the Coronavirus Crisis

    Capitalism Is The Disease: Mike Davis on the Coronavirus Crisis

    Originally published: Haymarket Books on March 31, 2020 (more by Haymarket Books)  |

    Fifteen years ago, in his prescient book, The Monster At Our Door, Mike Davis warned that a viral catastrophe was being cooked up in the toxic vat built by the combined dangers of global capitalist production, ecological devastation, and the intentional, politically motivated neglect of public services the world over.

  • Electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2

    Mike Davis on COVID-19: The monster is finally at the door

    Originally published: Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal on March 12, 2020 (more by Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal)  |

    We are in the early stages of a medical Katrina. Despite years of warnings about avian flu and other pandemics, inventories of basic emergency equipment such as respirators aren’t sufficient to deal with the expected flood of critical cases.

  • Mike Davis on Trumps America

    Mike Davis on Trumps America

    Originally published: Rebel News on September 4, 2018 by Mike Davis (more by Rebel News)  | (Posted Sep 06, 2018)

    Donald Trump is coming to Ireland. Behind the bluster, what does his presidency actually represent? Mike Davis—a world renowned American scholar, and author of several books—was interviewed by Seán Mitchell for Rebel, about the state of Trump’s America.

  • Marx mural

    Socialists are urgently looking for the future: American Marxist Mike Davis talks to Algerian journalist Mohsen Abdelmoumen

    Originally published: Mohsen Abdelmoumen Blog on April 13, 2018 (more by Mohsen Abdelmoumen Blog) (Posted Apr 25, 2018)

    The Algerian journalist Mohsen Abdelmoumen interviewed Mike Davis recently. This is a fascinating interview that ranges from the question of Marxism today to the politics of Middle East to the necessity of socialism.

Monthly Review Essays

  • US Imperialism in Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges to a Global Community with a Shared Future
    Sam-Kee Cheng A late 1940s Soviet poster showing a US military service member lounging on top of a German factory, smoking a cigar. The text beneath reads DER DOLLARIMPERIALISMUS [dollar imperialism].

    1. Introduction The predominance of US economic, political and military power in the world was established at the end of the Second World War.1 With just 6.3 percent of global population, the United States held about 50 percent of the world wealth in 1948. As the only power which had used nuclear weapons on civilian […]

Lost & Found

  • Journalism, democracy, … and class struggle
    Robert W. McChesney Bob McChesney on Saving Journalism

    Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism.

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