Under the Perfect Sun

<b>A muckraking history of San Diego that covers the city’s historically recent shift from politically conservative to politically progressive while also outlining a new cast of right-wing villains and tenacious activists fighting for social justice.<br> <br>"Behind the luminous veneer of San Diego, there is also a powerful story of radical activism and resistance—vital inspiration for our times.” —Angela Davis</b><br><br>“A left-leaning, fascinating history of San Diego that debunks the notion of America's Finest City.”―<i>San Diego Magazine</i><br><br>San Diego is a sunny paradise for over thirty million tourists each year. But America’s eighth largest metropolis conceals a vast dark side of militarization, economic inequality, municipal corruption, and racial injustice. This updated and expanded edition of <i>Under the Perfect Sun </i>contains three muckraking essays that expose the underbelly of this city and interrogate its recent turn from red to blue.<br><br>Mike Davis outlines the making and re-making of San Diego by a series of largely unchecked local plutocrats, from the snarling Republicans of old to what he calls “high tech . . . opportunist Clinton Democracy.” He moves from John D. Spreckels’ crushing dissent amidst the Free Speech Fight during the Progressive era to a new class of politically shapeshifting business elites ushering in the “tidal wave of gentrification” that continues to this day. Jim Miller offers a bottom-up, peoples’ history of San Diego from the perspective of activists of all stripes—workers, immigrants, civil rights, and anti-war advocates—seeking to challenge the local hegemony. And oral historian Kelly Mayhew sketches life in this tourist wonderland with a series of interviews that reveal the “Other San Diego,” including stories from a wide range of local activists and everyday citizens who share the reality of living in San Diego. This twentieth-anniversary edition is an ode to one of America’s most complex cities.