Set the Night on Fire

L.A. in the Sixties

By: Mike Davis, Jon Wiener

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A magisterial, riveting movement history of Los Angeles in the '60s.

Los Angeles in the '60s was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power - where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture.

Mike Davis and Jon Wiener provide the first comprehensive movement history of LA in the '60s, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of interviews with principal figures, as well as the authors’ storied personal histories as activists. Following on from Davis’ award-winning LA history, City of Quartz, Set the Night on Fire is a historical tour de force, delivered in scintillating and fiercely beautiful prose.

©2020 Mike Davis and Jon Wiener (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

An amazingly comprehensive story of a critical decade.

This is a massive and important book, and also a necessarily long listen as an audiobook. (I was able to listen at 1.5x with no loss of comprehension.) I know both the authors and some of the people mentioned in the book, so it was of particular interest to me. I was a kid in the Midwest in the '60s, so I wasn't aware of much of this history, or of the important role that some of my acquaintances played. I think every listener will find that there are some sections of the book that go into more detail than really engages them, but I don't consider that a flaw. Wiener and Davis have taken on the monumental task of creating a comprehensive record of a critical decade, and they have succeeded masterfully. This is a book for the ages, beautifully written and fascinating from beginning to end.

Remarkable History

Do yourself a favor- stop reading the reviews and start in on this history. Action-packed.

Heart Stopping!

Very enthralling real life stories. Encapsulates so much of the 1960s. These occurrences alone — in the conservatives’ top “decadent” metropolis — destroys the idea that it was hippies and sex that caused the 1960s.
It was the failure of local, state and national officials not recognizing all the damage they were causing. There was the indefensible Vietnam War, ongoing sexism, racism still unleashed especially evident by the gestapo/police, and the ignoramus bullies like Reagan.

So close but no cigar

I am 19 hours into this massive 25 hour listen. Yes, TWENTY-FIVE hours.

I am a Los Angeles native and a progressive activist. This should be my book.
The writers use excruciating detail that bogs me down. (Paraphrasing) "The next Friday Captain so and so of the whatever division received a phone call that would change everything" TWENTY-FIVE HOURS.

And the reader has zero vocal changes. Zero meets twenty-five.

I might have to stop. This listen is giving me stress.