Jacobin Radio: Set the Night on Fire with Mike Davis and Jon Wiener

Suzi talks to historians Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, touching on some of the many intersecting stories they tell in their long awaited and absolutely compelling history, Set the Night on Fire: Los Angeles in the Sixties.

Here we see Los Angeles as a hotbed of political, social and cultural upheaval — from the Watts rebellion to the Chicano Blowouts, the anti-war movement, youth protests and strikes, the women’s and gay movements, the cultural flowering and media expressions, including KPFK, the Los Angeles Free Press and the Ashgrove — as well as the ferocious, racist and violent police response at every turn. Their account of the ever increasing mass protests and the movements behind them convey that “special excitement that occurs when a group of people can see and visibly measure their potential power for the first time.”