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A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate
Writing with a signature command of his subject and with compelling resonance, Marc Reisner leads us through California’s improbable rise from a largely desert land to the most populated state in the nation, fueled by an economic engine more productive than all of Africa. Reisner believes that the success of this last great desert civilization hinges on California’s denial of its own inescapable Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas sit astride two of the most violently seismic zones on the planet. The earthquakes that have already rocked California were, according to Reisner, a mere prologue to a future cataclysm that will result in immense destruction. Concluding with a hypothetical but chillingly realistic description of what such a disaster would look like, A Dangerous Place mixes science, history, and cultural commentary in a haunting work of profound importance.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
11 people are currently reading
378 people want to read
About the author
Marc Reisner
9 books52 followersMarc Reisner was an American environmentalist and writer best known for his book Cadillac Desert, a history of water management in the American West.
He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of a lawyer and a scriptwriter, and graduated from Earlham College in 1971. For a time he was on the staffs of Environmental Action and the Population Institute in Washington, D.C. Starting in 1972, he worked for seven years as a staff writer and director of communications for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York. In 1979 he received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, which enabled him to conduct research and write Cadillac Desert, which was first published in 1986.[3] The book was a finalist for both the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award (BABRA) that same year. In 1999, a Modern Library panel of authors and critics included it on a list of the 100 most notable English-language works of nonfiction of the 20th century. It was later made into a documentary film series that premiered nationwide on PBS nationwide in 1997 and won a Columbia University/Peabody Award.
He went on to write additional books and helped develop a PBS documentary on water management. He was featured as an interviewee in Stephen Ives's 1996 PBS documentary series The West, which was produced by Ken Burns. In 1997 he published a discussion paper for the American Farmland Trust on water policy and farmland protection. Shortly before he died, he had won a Pew Charitable Trusts Fellowship to support efforts to restore Pacific salmon habitat through dam removal.
Reisner was also involved in efforts to promote sustainable agronomy and green entrepreneurship. In 1990, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, he co-founded the Ricelands Habitat Partnership, an innovative program designed to enhance waterfowl habitat on California farmlands and reduce pollution by flooding rice fields in winter instead of burning the rice straw, as was then the common practice.[5] He also joined in efforts to help California rice farmers develop eco-friendly products from compressed rice straw, and a separate project to promote water conservation through water transfers and groundwater banking.
For a time, Reisner was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Davis, lecturing on the relationship between urbanization and environmental concerns.
Reisner died of colon cancer in 2000 at his home in San Anselmo, California, survived by his wife, biochemist Lawrie Mott, and their two daughters. His final book, A Dangerous Place, was completed before his death but did not appear in print until 2003.
He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of a lawyer and a scriptwriter, and graduated from Earlham College in 1971. For a time he was on the staffs of Environmental Action and the Population Institute in Washington, D.C. Starting in 1972, he worked for seven years as a staff writer and director of communications for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York. In 1979 he received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, which enabled him to conduct research and write Cadillac Desert, which was first published in 1986.[3] The book was a finalist for both the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award (BABRA) that same year. In 1999, a Modern Library panel of authors and critics included it on a list of the 100 most notable English-language works of nonfiction of the 20th century. It was later made into a documentary film series that premiered nationwide on PBS nationwide in 1997 and won a Columbia University/Peabody Award.
He went on to write additional books and helped develop a PBS documentary on water management. He was featured as an interviewee in Stephen Ives's 1996 PBS documentary series The West, which was produced by Ken Burns. In 1997 he published a discussion paper for the American Farmland Trust on water policy and farmland protection. Shortly before he died, he had won a Pew Charitable Trusts Fellowship to support efforts to restore Pacific salmon habitat through dam removal.
Reisner was also involved in efforts to promote sustainable agronomy and green entrepreneurship. In 1990, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, he co-founded the Ricelands Habitat Partnership, an innovative program designed to enhance waterfowl habitat on California farmlands and reduce pollution by flooding rice fields in winter instead of burning the rice straw, as was then the common practice.[5] He also joined in efforts to help California rice farmers develop eco-friendly products from compressed rice straw, and a separate project to promote water conservation through water transfers and groundwater banking.
For a time, Reisner was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California at Davis, lecturing on the relationship between urbanization and environmental concerns.
Reisner died of colon cancer in 2000 at his home in San Anselmo, California, survived by his wife, biochemist Lawrie Mott, and their two daughters. His final book, A Dangerous Place, was completed before his death but did not appear in print until 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 9, 2009
This book is part history of California (fascinating), part geology/seismology (fascinating), part state-wide logistics - things like how our drinking water is delivered, etc., (shocking in some ways), and part novel in which the author tries to tie it all together in a hypothetical earthquake in the SF bay area. Obviously the prognosis isn't good, but it's far worse than one might otherwise imagine given some of the vulnerabilities of which most of us are ignorant (at least I was).
The San Diego Union-Tribune called it "required reading" and I have to agree. It's not all fear-mongering - the author has interviewed large numbers of inside and outside experts and has clearly done a great deal of research. If it comes across as scary it's because the prospect really is scary, not because he's drumming it up.
The San Diego Union-Tribune called it "required reading" and I have to agree. It's not all fear-mongering - the author has interviewed large numbers of inside and outside experts and has clearly done a great deal of research. If it comes across as scary it's because the prospect really is scary, not because he's drumming it up.
August 23, 2007
Reisner died before the final edit so it's not well annotated. So it goes from being a scholarly meditation to more of a polemic. But a good polemic. The only part I didn't care for was the imagined earthquake. I can't imagine he would have left that in as it really brings down the very factual descriptions of how California has unwittingly put itself in a really bad place.
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November 1, 2023I did skip most of the imagined earthquake but the book is still relevant despite being written in 1999
August 22, 2007
This wasn't anything new to me since I am familiar with earthquakes and the Delta. Still scary, though. Anyone who lives in California and doesn't know a lot about geology (or the disaster in the making that is the Sacramento River Delta) should read this.
September 12, 2007
Reisner writes about the infrastructure problems that exist in the Bay Area due to the threat of earthquakes. It is a very interesting read of what if?. Reisner creates a scenario of damage that would make Katrina and New Orleans pale in comparison.
March 8, 2009
... and here's a non-fiction book which explains exactly how likely California is no simultaneously flood, fall into the ocean, catch fire, and get eaten by dinosaurs. It's pretty good, though it prompted a small flurry of emergency-prep in our house.
July 10, 2013
Time to either get out of the Bay Area, or stock up on water, food, gas, and meet a friend with a boat in Marin. Great book, very scary to learn just how unstable the densely populated areas of California are...
June 2, 2023
Reisner was an environmentalist wrote a seminal book called Cadillac Desert about water in the American West. A Dangerous Place is his smaller, later book about earthquakes in my adoptive state of California. It's the first book of his I've read (Cadillac Desert is on my shelf, next up), and he's a good writer. Having enjoyed his whirlwind tour of the ill-advised settling of Europeans en mass on this part of the continent, atop a spiderweb of destructive faultlines and prone to floods and fires too, I'm now digging into his hypothetical but solid presentation of what would happen if a major quake struck under the bay a few years from now. It's chilling and fascinating reading.
Here's a brief bit from his history section:
"San Francisco was something beyond the most explosive boomtown in history. It was the only nineteenth-century American boomtown among hundreds that never skipped a beat. It didn't decline, collapse, disappear from the earth -- it just went on. This is not necessarily something to brag about, because the by-products of San Francisco's early years were horror and excess. During the gold-panning era, which went full-tilt for only five or six years, miners and cavalry massacred Indians by the thousands. When they were bored killing Indians, they lynched Mexicans, blacks, and Chinese. Market hunters feeding San Francisco and the gold country towns and camps needed about eight years to wipe out the Central Valley's herd of antelope and elk, which some had compared to bison on the Great Plains: they also slaughtered waterfowl by the millions. Whole mountainsides -- whole basins, like Lake Tahoe's -- were shorn of virgin timber to erect San Francisco and dozens of mining towns."
This is environmental revisionist history written with a sharp pen, enlightening, grisly, sometimes thrilling, as Reisner moves from history into his detailed cautionary tale of what lies ahead for California's big cities when a big quake finally hits one.
Here's a brief bit from his history section:
"San Francisco was something beyond the most explosive boomtown in history. It was the only nineteenth-century American boomtown among hundreds that never skipped a beat. It didn't decline, collapse, disappear from the earth -- it just went on. This is not necessarily something to brag about, because the by-products of San Francisco's early years were horror and excess. During the gold-panning era, which went full-tilt for only five or six years, miners and cavalry massacred Indians by the thousands. When they were bored killing Indians, they lynched Mexicans, blacks, and Chinese. Market hunters feeding San Francisco and the gold country towns and camps needed about eight years to wipe out the Central Valley's herd of antelope and elk, which some had compared to bison on the Great Plains: they also slaughtered waterfowl by the millions. Whole mountainsides -- whole basins, like Lake Tahoe's -- were shorn of virgin timber to erect San Francisco and dozens of mining towns."
This is environmental revisionist history written with a sharp pen, enlightening, grisly, sometimes thrilling, as Reisner moves from history into his detailed cautionary tale of what lies ahead for California's big cities when a big quake finally hits one.
May 10, 2017
This book was published three years after the author's death, so there are some things that probably would have changed and improved the flow and clarity of the book. However, it's got a great recap of the history of water in California, and a lot of deserved focus on the vulnerabilities of the levees in the delta not only to natural decomposition, erosion and flooding, but to seismic activity. He brings that home again in the scenario he paints for the future, and he is not uninformed. The scenario sections which form the latter half of the book are sometimes briefly confusing as the text as it was left mixes in real history with the imagined future scenario.
At this point, there's also an issue that some of the material is outdated. However, in terms of the major points and purposes of the book, they should probably be temporarily overlooked in order to get a larger sense of perspective.
I am quite familiar with most of the things the author talks about, because of being exposed to the delta issues early on, and a long (and ongoing) career in emergency management. I'm not sure how or if the completely uninitiated would take or understand the whole book in the same way, or even if they would be able to get through it. But I do recommend that people who live and work in California make the effort and pay attention to this little book, a fast read, because there are factors we can change for better outcomes if there is enough knowledge and political will.
At this point, there's also an issue that some of the material is outdated. However, in terms of the major points and purposes of the book, they should probably be temporarily overlooked in order to get a larger sense of perspective.
I am quite familiar with most of the things the author talks about, because of being exposed to the delta issues early on, and a long (and ongoing) career in emergency management. I'm not sure how or if the completely uninitiated would take or understand the whole book in the same way, or even if they would be able to get through it. But I do recommend that people who live and work in California make the effort and pay attention to this little book, a fast read, because there are factors we can change for better outcomes if there is enough knowledge and political will.
January 22, 2025
While some of the writing is a little dated in 2025, the book is brief and compulsively readable. The author passed away before finishing the manuscript, so it feels a little rough, but it still paints a very clear (and frightening) picture of the risks inherent in living in California’s most populous areas.
The last 1/3-1/2 is the book is an imagined earthquake scenario in the Bay Area—easy enough to skip if you just want the facts, but interesting to read if you want to fill in gaps in your earthquake kit.
The last 1/3-1/2 is the book is an imagined earthquake scenario in the Bay Area—easy enough to skip if you just want the facts, but interesting to read if you want to fill in gaps in your earthquake kit.
September 12, 2017
Excellent history of the 19th and early 20th century population booms of San Francisco and Los Angeles, particularly in LA and the engineering (and chicanery) involved in getting water from point A to (a very far) point B. The book ends with a rather lengthy but horrifyingly detailed hour-to-hour imagining of THE BIG ONE hitting the Bay area, based on past disaster and modern understandings of seismology and structure. Why again did I move to California?
November 5, 2017
Amazing and just a bit frightening. Concisely spells out the dangers associated with building on unstable land. Also identifies the financial forces that encourage unwise siting and building practices. Focuses on San Francisco and LA. Yes, in concludes with a possible earthquake scenario centered on San Francisco.
Could benefit from more maps. As it is, it assumes you can figure out where these places are. Also, could benefit from a few more photos.
Could benefit from more maps. As it is, it assumes you can figure out where these places are. Also, could benefit from a few more photos.
July 9, 2018
The first half is a rehash of sorts of Reisner's Cadillac Desert, which is a fascinating history of water rights and the early American settling of California. Then it moves to the earthquake and fault line issues the state faces, which is terrifying. The last portion is Reisner's imagined terrible-case-scenario of what happens if the big one hits. This dive into speculation is terrifying, not-unreasonable, but also I kind of wish he stayed to historical detail. Still a wild read!
July 29, 2020
Definitely an eye opening book along with Cadillac Desert which I really enjoyed! Made me glad I don’t live in California. I felt the author painted a very vivid picture of what could happen in California in regards to earthquakes at any time.
I thought the book ended abruptly but I know Reisner passed away before the book was completed so might by the reason.
Reisner made some amazing contributions to literature and I’m sad he has passed away.
I thought the book ended abruptly but I know Reisner passed away before the book was completed so might by the reason.
Reisner made some amazing contributions to literature and I’m sad he has passed away.
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December 17, 2021Marc gives an insightful history of San Francisco and Los Angeles. I agree with some of the other reviewers here that the description of the earthquake scenario making up the second half of the book is extremely specific and in some places, gets in its own way explaining it. I found his writing in this book hard to get into at first but ultimately endearing; it's witty but I liked the anecdotes.
February 20, 2017
Interesting look at the dangers the Bay Area is under due to fault lines and tectonic movement. Interspersed with Reisner's non-fiction is his [future] fictional scenario of a catastrophic event and the destruction that would occur.
June 23, 2020
As a native Californian, it was interesting to have some of my experiences validated. This is scary stuff and we’re good at ignoring it. It would be interesting to have a post-Fukushima update, unfortunately not possible by this author, but I hope somebody does it.
March 4, 2019
A harrowing but unfinished read. Reisner was a treasure.
January 24, 2021
Marc Reisner is right, California is indeed a “Dangerous Place.” Every resident should read this.
May 28, 2021
Written in 1999 and published in 2003, when we still used the term "cellular phone." How quaint.
March 15, 2023
The writing is good. But I stopped about a third way in. I just am not interested enough in the subject matter - pertinent as it may be.
April 25, 2023
Some egregious writing in here, but lots of interesting information as well.
January 1, 2025
Eye opening, and I knew a lot already! Should probably be required reading for newcomers to California.
July 22, 2007
Just discovered this at a library sale in Buena Park a few weeks ago...this is a very interesting book on California's latent earthquake problem.
If you're going to live out here, you might as well know something about that, because at some point San Francisco will probably turn into New Orleans, and you can read all about it in the last half of the book.
Most interesting fact in the book, on page 93: the Hayward fault line is located directly under UC Berkeley's football stadium. If an earthquake hits duirng a game, especially during a Cal-Stanford game, 75,000 plus people are going to have a REALLY - BAD - DAY.
And Reismer has hundreds of similar facts packed into a very small volume of doom. I have seen Marc Reisner attacked by various critics for making historical facts and circumstance seem worse than others felt the situation warranted, especially on Cadillac Desert. It's possible there's some of that going on here with Dangerous Place.
But it's too bad we don't have Reisner around anymore, because we need to constanly keep hearing about how our developing infrastructure sets up for man-made disasters in the future. Whether one buys into global warming or not, it's hard to argue against the likelihood of anoth huge California earthquake and some of the other catastrophes that Reisner devoted his career to writing about.
If you're going to live out here, you might as well know something about that, because at some point San Francisco will probably turn into New Orleans, and you can read all about it in the last half of the book.
Most interesting fact in the book, on page 93: the Hayward fault line is located directly under UC Berkeley's football stadium. If an earthquake hits duirng a game, especially during a Cal-Stanford game, 75,000 plus people are going to have a REALLY - BAD - DAY.
And Reismer has hundreds of similar facts packed into a very small volume of doom. I have seen Marc Reisner attacked by various critics for making historical facts and circumstance seem worse than others felt the situation warranted, especially on Cadillac Desert. It's possible there's some of that going on here with Dangerous Place.
But it's too bad we don't have Reisner around anymore, because we need to constanly keep hearing about how our developing infrastructure sets up for man-made disasters in the future. Whether one buys into global warming or not, it's hard to argue against the likelihood of anoth huge California earthquake and some of the other catastrophes that Reisner devoted his career to writing about.
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July 18, 2009 What I learned from this book is that I should probably pick up a spare property in another state! Of couse, I've known for some time about the state of California's siesmic problems (my mom was a geologist) and it's water problems (I work for the state). I suppose some kind of well thought out emergency exit strategy is in order, in case this scenario Reisner proposes happens. I actually have little doubt that it will someday--I've watched the state's political debates over water and earthquake retrofitting ever since I came here in 1982--and I have read most of the code sections dealing with those problems, too. I'd have to say that Reisner's concerns in this book actually seem quite reasonable. The fact is some of the predictions I've heard in the hallways of the state capitol are a whole lot more worrisome than Reisner's. But this book is a very good introduction to the problem and its possible scale--it's a good starting place for getting an idea of what could happen and not, I suspect, to far off the mark.
July 29, 2015
If you live in California and don't have an earthquake kit or plan, you'll want to start one as soon as you finish this book. Telling the story of a potential earthquake is probably the most effective way I've ever seen for communicating what life might be like after a major quake in the Bay Area. The initial toll and devastation is horrifying, but the completely life-altering repercussions that spread to the Central Valley and even Southern California are food for thought. The blend of information from scientists and engineers with the author's storytelling creates a terrifying picture. Given that this book is 15 years old (and the author is no longer with us to update it) I would be curious to know how the potential effects may have changed - how many of the structures mentioned would likely withstand an earthquake now due to retrofitting (such as the new Bay Bridge, which, as the author predicts, opened years behind schedule), or what new information we've learned that might ease the potential for damage - or, heaven forbid, make it worse.
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March 20, 2011Disturbing.
We Golden State dwellers have ignored history and built two of the largest cities in America on soil that is prone to liquifaction, landslides and is in danger of tsunami.
The potential for destruction and loss of life is staggering, and the carnage is inevitable.
Especially troubling considering the current events in Japan. I frequently drive by the San Onofre nuclear power plant, situated right on the ocean and find the authorities claim that ' it couldn't happen here ' laughable.
The Northridge quake was a smallish 6.9 and caused freeway collapses. http://www.google.com/images?q=northr...
The average person I talk to has no water storage, and no food besides what is in the fridge and pantry. It seems that 95% of the population has done exactly nothing to prepare.
We Golden State dwellers have ignored history and built two of the largest cities in America on soil that is prone to liquifaction, landslides and is in danger of tsunami.
The potential for destruction and loss of life is staggering, and the carnage is inevitable.
Especially troubling considering the current events in Japan. I frequently drive by the San Onofre nuclear power plant, situated right on the ocean and find the authorities claim that ' it couldn't happen here ' laughable.
The Northridge quake was a smallish 6.9 and caused freeway collapses. http://www.google.com/images?q=northr...
The average person I talk to has no water storage, and no food besides what is in the fridge and pantry. It seems that 95% of the population has done exactly nothing to prepare.
September 3, 2009
Reisner was an excellent researcher and writer. This book scared the snot out of me, and I live north and east of the really bad areas (the Bay Area and the Delta).
[Edit:]
As I thought about this more, I realized that what scares me is less the disaster scenario -- though that's horrific enough -- but more the blindness and stupidity, past and present, that will contribute to that disaster.
[Edit:]
As I thought about this more, I realized that what scares me is less the disaster scenario -- though that's horrific enough -- but more the blindness and stupidity, past and present, that will contribute to that disaster.
December 8, 2016
Reisner is justly famous for Cadillac Desert, a detailed account and critique of water usage and resources in the West. This book was put together from notes after his untimely death. First he shows why Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the worst places to build a large city. The largest section details the catastrophic aftereffects on both infrastructure and water supply of a major earthquake on the Hayward Fault. Very chilling.
October 31, 2013
I much preferred Reisner's minor classic, Cadillac Desert, a history of water exploitation in the western U.S. This book is mostly an expose of the earthquake "menace" in California and the author's elaborate description of a worst case catastrophe. As a resident residing in Davis, California, just east of the San Francisco Bay Area and who lived in Southern California and experienced numerous minor earthquakes over the years, I am interested in the topic but underwhelmed by the presentation.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews