City of Quartz

City of Quartz is the seminal work of Los Angeles author and social commentator Mike Davis. The underlying material was originally intended as as Ph.D. submission in completion of the requirements for his history doctorate, but it was rejected. Davis completed it and found a publisher for it.

The book is a historical, sociological, economic, and cultural dissection of Los Angeles, Los Angeles life, and Angelenos. Given its origin as a Ph.D. dissertation, the book is well-researched and scrupulously well-footnoted. However, this abundance of citation has also led to criticism by those who have found the source material to not support Davis's assertions.

City of Quartz, and various stories from the work, are occasionally cited in local newspaper articles in the Los Angeles Times, the now-defunct New Times LA, and particularly, LA Weekly.