This is Jacobin Radio and I'm Susie Wiseman.

On today's program program we spend the hour with historians Mike

Davis and John Wiener bringing just some of the intersecting stories they tell in

their long-awaited and absolutely compelling history of Los Angeles in the 60s

set the night on fire.

Here we see Los Angeles as a hotbed of political, social, and cultural upheaval and struggles.

From the Watts Rebellion to the Chicano blowouts, the anti-war and youth protests,

the women's and gay movements, the cultural flowering and media expressions, including

KPFK and the Los Angeles Free Press, as well as the ferocious racist and

violent police response at every turn. It's all here and we're happy to spend the hour highlighting

this story when we return in just a moment.

Welcome to Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. We're going to be talking about a new book called Set the Night on Fire,

LA in the 60s. It's our subject. Mike Davis and John Wiener, the authors, are here to tell the story. This is a monumental

brand new book just put out by Verso Press. I won't scare you with how many pages it are, but it's dense. It's an amazing story. I have to say I'm a fast reader. I had to read it slowly just to take it all in and what a great pleasure it was I could not put it down. Mike

Davis is a writer historian, longtime political activist, professor emeritus at

you see are. He sort of is populated throughout this book. Mike has

written beyond this book. He's also written the monster at our door about a

different pandemic than the one we're in right now but very informative for the

one that we're in prisoners of the American dream city of courts late Victorian

Holocaust Buddha's wagon planet ofums, and so many more.

And John Wiener is a long time contributing editor at the nation,

host and producer of Start Making Sense, which is their weekly podcast.

...