Dead Cities and Other Tales is a rich and varied collection of essays, each stamped with a year, presumably of its composition; some have been updated. The earliest date from 1990.

Davis's tone is generally journalistic or analytical, depending on the origin of the piece. Though he calls himself an "aging socialist" (309) these pieces are more descriptive than prescriptive. His sensibility is that of an historian, though he does not claim that title here.

Most of the book is about Los Angeles. But the longest piece is an ambitious and mind-boggling account effectively summarizing and conceptualizing recent scientific work radically revising the history of the earth and our understanding of how it relates to the surrounding cosmos, with special attention to the theory of "coherent catastrophism" and its deep implications for the biological sciences. Why Davis did not expand this extraordinary piece into a book of its own is a mystery; no foreword explains the author's intentions. ( )

Some books haunt my stacks of books laughing at me for they have never been read or were started and now wait slowly for me to get around to finishing them. In a moment of triumph i just finished one book I started in January that through off my reading mojo for the last two months. The problem was that most times when i read a book I can start reading a book and find a rythym to the book. When you find this you can move into a book like a dance moving through the style and flow of words. I can take what I need whether it be data, laughter, drama, or whatever else the words holds for me. This book wasa challenge for it was not a whole but yet a collection of essays and reports done by the writer over the years and collected in one volume.
The book is broken into several distinct sections dealing with the overall theme of the fall of modern city through variuous incarnations. The first section deals mostly with the west and effect people and technology have had on the romantic picture of the west that os often pictured by mainstream media. It begins with a look at the early settlement of the west and breakdown of a native culture with the introduction of white settlers. It moves on to nuclear testing, the outlandishness of las vegas, test bombing sites, and the weakness of hawaii from tsunami's. The structural weakness of the west and how it comes from the weakness of its builders. There is one tentative connection between each of the essays but overall different themes and ideas are presented.
The second section deals directly with a series of articles written about the problems within cities due to political or social problems occuring in our modern day city. At times this section gets preachy and is in a lot of ways the slow part of the book where i got stuck. Many of the articles were insightful and beautifully written. Mostly many of these articles were out dated by a almost ten years and give you little insight into contemporary situations in many of the mentioned locales. Some of the sections are also very long!!!!!!
The third part of the book is alot more personal testimonies from subjects in the book and at times gives you better insight into the everyday life of people you read about. This section is called riot city and deals with various movements in the city. Crime, housing, politics, gangs, murder, and everything in between gets touched upon in this section. Very good reading!!!!!!!!!
The last section is acopalytic veiwpoints from various writers and scientists about the fall of the cities in general. This section is the part that would be a boon to all eco activists because he gives interesting information about enivonmental problems. The nice part of this is that these articles are more recent and thus more up to date in terms of issues that are being presented. This section specifically Dead Cities: A natural History is an interesting look at literature that was written in england over a hundred years ago that looks at nature reclaiming much of the modern world within a few generations. This was treat to read how people would see cities and their eventual fall a hundred years ago.
Overall this was a good book, but not a great one. This isn't the writers fault because each piece stands alone by itself as great. Together they get lost in their own repetitiveness and preachiness. One of the problems i have with Davis is he reminds you how smart he is and at times this can be a little annoying. Yet since I have all his book I guess I can't blame him.