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Under The Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See
For fourteen million tourists each year, San Diego is the fun place in the sun that never breaks your heart. But America’s eighth-largest city has a dark side. Behind Sea World, the zoo, the Gaslamp District, and the beaches of La Jolla hides a militarized metropolis, boasting the West Coast’s most stratified economy and a tumultuous history of municipal corruption, virulent antiunionism, political repression, and racial injustice. Though its boosters tirelessly propagate an image of a carefree beach town, the real San Diego shares dreams and nightmares with its violent twin, Tijuana.
This alternative civic history deconstructs the mythology of “America’s finest city.” Acclaimed urban theorist Mike Davis documents the secret history of the domineering elites who have turned a weak city government into a powerful machine for private wealth. Jim Miller tells the story from the other side: chronicling the history of protest in San Diego from the Wobblies to today’s “globalphobics.” Kelly Mayhew, meanwhile, presents the voice of paradise’s forgotten working people and new immigrants. The texts are vividly enhanced by Fred Lonidier’s photographs.
This alternative civic history deconstructs the mythology of “America’s finest city.” Acclaimed urban theorist Mike Davis documents the secret history of the domineering elites who have turned a weak city government into a powerful machine for private wealth. Jim Miller tells the story from the other side: chronicling the history of protest in San Diego from the Wobblies to today’s “globalphobics.” Kelly Mayhew, meanwhile, presents the voice of paradise’s forgotten working people and new immigrants. The texts are vividly enhanced by Fred Lonidier’s photographs.
418 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
15 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
Mike Davis
230 books680 followersMike Davis was a titan of radical scholarship, a "Marxist-Environmentalist" whose work redefined urban theory and California history. Born in Fontana and raised in the working-class community of Bostonia, Davis was shaped by the rugged landscape of San Diego’s East County and the visceral realities of class struggle. His "burning bush" moment occurred in 1962 during a CORE demonstration, propelling him into a life of activism. He became a key organizer for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), coordinating anti-Apartheid sit-ins and draft resistance while befriending lifelong mentors like Levi Kingston.
Before entering academia, Davis lived a quintessentially proletarian life as a meat cutter and long-haul truck driver. This "on-the-ground" perspective fueled his most influential work, City of Quartz (1990), which stripped away the sun-drenched myths of Los Angeles to reveal a fortress-like city defined by surveillance, police brutality, and spatial apartheid. He followed this with Late Victorian Holocausts, a harrowing examination of how colonial policy and El Niño weather patterns collaborated to create famines that killed millions, framing these "natural" disasters as products of global capitalism.
Davis was a master of prose, blending rigorous historical research with an apocalyptic sensibility that critics sometimes labeled "masculinist" or "overly bleak." Despite controversies regarding his journalistic "scene-setting," his insights into "the ecology of fear" and the "monster" of global pandemics proved prescient. A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow and Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside, he remained a defiant socialist until his death from esophageal cancer. He spent his final months "extraordinarily furious," regretting only that he could not die on a barricade. He is remembered as the primary cartographer of the "American Dream’s" dark underbelly.
Before entering academia, Davis lived a quintessentially proletarian life as a meat cutter and long-haul truck driver. This "on-the-ground" perspective fueled his most influential work, City of Quartz (1990), which stripped away the sun-drenched myths of Los Angeles to reveal a fortress-like city defined by surveillance, police brutality, and spatial apartheid. He followed this with Late Victorian Holocausts, a harrowing examination of how colonial policy and El Niño weather patterns collaborated to create famines that killed millions, framing these "natural" disasters as products of global capitalism.
Davis was a master of prose, blending rigorous historical research with an apocalyptic sensibility that critics sometimes labeled "masculinist" or "overly bleak." Despite controversies regarding his journalistic "scene-setting," his insights into "the ecology of fear" and the "monster" of global pandemics proved prescient. A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow and Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside, he remained a defiant socialist until his death from esophageal cancer. He spent his final months "extraordinarily furious," regretting only that he could not die on a barricade. He is remembered as the primary cartographer of the "American Dream’s" dark underbelly.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 24, 2008
This should be mandatory reading for anyone who has experienced San Diego, especially politically, in the last 20 years.
San Diego has been described as Enron-by-the-Sea and a hotbed of corruption on a level that would give New Orleans a run. But what is rarely explored is how we got here and, sadly, why we are in the ubiquitous messes that call America’s Finest City home.
Mike Davis opens up the book with the aptly titled “Next Little Dollar.” It is the best synopsis of San Diego history I have read. Much like he has done with Los Angeles, Davis pulls back the asphalt of development to expose matter-of-factly how the players change but the game remains the same.
San Diego has always tolerated a certain amount of corruption because that is the way it has always been. If you get in with the powers that be, you won’t be punished until the Feds swoop in and, by then, the damage will have been done.
Jim Miller’s “Just Another Day in Paradise?” shows the violent and bloody history of San Diego that could be seen as a work of fiction given how little is known about the city’s history were it not true.
He details the savagery that befell the poor at the turn of the 20th century in what is now the Gaslamp when they tried to organize. Everything from vigilante squads to threats of lynching for exercising the right of free speech, all the classic American methods or repression were honed and employed.
This tradition of thuggary thrived through the Civil Rights era and especially during the Vietnam War. Many lefty publications and HQ’s were attacked, destroyed and infiltrated by the FBI on the grounds of un-American activities. In fact, Pete Wilson first used the “America’s Finest City” phrase as a way to introduce a celebratory week to help San Diegans forget about the nasty war protests.
The 70s through the 90s were a hot time for labor and the fall of the prevailing business structure. The creation of Chicano Park and protests at Third College at UCSD sent shock waves throughout the establishment.
The point is made that even though San Diegans joined in the flag pornography that sprouted on SUVs after the Iraqi invasion that recruitment levels remained flat. It’s a fitting reminder that the interests that boost the city are atop a seething caldron that knows something is very wrong. This leaves a city in transition with no clear winners yet and an old guard doing what it can to hang on.
Kelly Mayhew’s “Life in Vacationland” reads like a San Diego Reader cover story with others telling their individual tales of living in San Diego. It’s a nice human-interest piece that concludes this book leaving a vague taste much like the city.
There doesn’t seem to be much tying these three essays together except for the topic, yet I still think this is an important book because these three authors are grappling with a history that is being intentionally sacrificed for the tourist dollar.
It’s akin to being the first ones at an archeological site; it takes a few theories before a real story can emerge from the fragments left behind.
Their conclusion says it all:
We hope, in the first place, that this will be a useful tool for activists and stimulate further explorations of San Diego’s controversial past, especially the neglected histories of labor and communities of color. We also have faith that this will annoy some of the rabid radio talk-show hosts, sports franchise publicists, downtown renewal cheerleaders, and Pentagon lobbyists who too often pass themselves off as “San Diego public opinion.” This is a partisan book, dedicated to the San Diego Left, past and present, and it is meant to sting.
San Diego has been described as Enron-by-the-Sea and a hotbed of corruption on a level that would give New Orleans a run. But what is rarely explored is how we got here and, sadly, why we are in the ubiquitous messes that call America’s Finest City home.
Mike Davis opens up the book with the aptly titled “Next Little Dollar.” It is the best synopsis of San Diego history I have read. Much like he has done with Los Angeles, Davis pulls back the asphalt of development to expose matter-of-factly how the players change but the game remains the same.
San Diego has always tolerated a certain amount of corruption because that is the way it has always been. If you get in with the powers that be, you won’t be punished until the Feds swoop in and, by then, the damage will have been done.
Jim Miller’s “Just Another Day in Paradise?” shows the violent and bloody history of San Diego that could be seen as a work of fiction given how little is known about the city’s history were it not true.
He details the savagery that befell the poor at the turn of the 20th century in what is now the Gaslamp when they tried to organize. Everything from vigilante squads to threats of lynching for exercising the right of free speech, all the classic American methods or repression were honed and employed.
This tradition of thuggary thrived through the Civil Rights era and especially during the Vietnam War. Many lefty publications and HQ’s were attacked, destroyed and infiltrated by the FBI on the grounds of un-American activities. In fact, Pete Wilson first used the “America’s Finest City” phrase as a way to introduce a celebratory week to help San Diegans forget about the nasty war protests.
The 70s through the 90s were a hot time for labor and the fall of the prevailing business structure. The creation of Chicano Park and protests at Third College at UCSD sent shock waves throughout the establishment.
The point is made that even though San Diegans joined in the flag pornography that sprouted on SUVs after the Iraqi invasion that recruitment levels remained flat. It’s a fitting reminder that the interests that boost the city are atop a seething caldron that knows something is very wrong. This leaves a city in transition with no clear winners yet and an old guard doing what it can to hang on.
Kelly Mayhew’s “Life in Vacationland” reads like a San Diego Reader cover story with others telling their individual tales of living in San Diego. It’s a nice human-interest piece that concludes this book leaving a vague taste much like the city.
There doesn’t seem to be much tying these three essays together except for the topic, yet I still think this is an important book because these three authors are grappling with a history that is being intentionally sacrificed for the tourist dollar.
It’s akin to being the first ones at an archeological site; it takes a few theories before a real story can emerge from the fragments left behind.
Their conclusion says it all:
We hope, in the first place, that this will be a useful tool for activists and stimulate further explorations of San Diego’s controversial past, especially the neglected histories of labor and communities of color. We also have faith that this will annoy some of the rabid radio talk-show hosts, sports franchise publicists, downtown renewal cheerleaders, and Pentagon lobbyists who too often pass themselves off as “San Diego public opinion.” This is a partisan book, dedicated to the San Diego Left, past and present, and it is meant to sting.
September 22, 2011
Under The Perfect Sun says things that need to be said about San Diego, it's past and it's present. It's a perspective we (who live in San DIego) get glimpses of, but rarely see fully. The writing style and multiple contributions and agendas make this an up-and-down reading experience (some portions far more accessible and digestible than others), but it opens the door to a side of San Diego that needs to be seen and encountered. Not in order to develop disdain or hate, but to see this city for what it is (and isn't). I've grown to see San Diego as my home, in all it's imperfections.
The 3 star rating is only in reference to the style of collected writings that (I feel) work against the overall narrative of the book. Still, it's a good and important read for anyone living in San Diego, and wanting insight into some of it's hidden realities.
The 3 star rating is only in reference to the style of collected writings that (I feel) work against the overall narrative of the book. Still, it's a good and important read for anyone living in San Diego, and wanting insight into some of it's hidden realities.
August 5, 2009
anyone who has experienced the most conservative city located(directly)on the west coast will appreciate this book. It'll help em understand how the hell it got to be so stiffling. There is a good overview of the trifling bit of leftist activism that has been able to survive over the years-- I read this while I was on an organizing campaign in Oceanside, Ca
April 24, 2019
Mike Davis's section is really good, covering the whole sleazy hslistory of San Diego. Jim Millers is ok, covering a lot of the same ground with more of a focus on recent (as of 2004) history. Kelley Mahews section is just interviews with people, some of which provides useful information and background, some doesn't. Almost every organizer quoted, though, talks about what an awful place San Diego is and how apathetic and backward the people, including the left activists are here. Which felt very good after two years of inexpert but relentless gaslighting by some of the dumbest people I've ever met.
January 16, 2026
This book has interesting information about the history of San Diego. However, certain sections (especially the middle section) are written in a style that makes it pretty difficult to read. It's written in the style of a newspaper article, but the length of an actual book. The information is dense, jumps around, and doesn't flow in a narrative fashion. The first section is more accessible, and the final section is a series of short segments from different individuals mainly in the labor movement and their experiences living and working in San Diego, which gives some interesting perspective.
March 18, 2018
Like all anthologies, it is mixed, but there is nothing else like it on the area and, as such, it is a requisite text for any lefty or progressive who wants to make sense of the region. (I wish the editors had included a chapter on Tijuana, though)
November 3, 2012
Though I think some of the prose is a bit forced and too opinion-driven, I think this book does a great job of laying out some of the issues that aren't discussed much. The discussion about the military, civil rights movement, suppression of the labor movement, and pollution in the bay are some of the finest moments in the book. Also the profiles of corruption, and the ascendancy of agenda-setting elites - starting with Spreckels, and continuing onward - definitely makes for good reading.
Read
May 2, 2012Even for a left-leaning guy like me, the politics in the book are clunky and heavy handed. Still though, it contains a good history of how the military, defense contractors, and even the mob, influenced today's San Diego. It's nice to think of Mission Valley remaining a pastoral space. Ah what could have been...
July 19, 2008
If you are going to goto your loved one's graduation from UCSD then its worth reading, or if you really Mike Davis' other writings about urban landscapes then it'd be worth it...
Otherwise you are probably better off just reading Dead Cities, cause that book should come with a fifth of scotch to swallow the cold hard truth.
Otherwise you are probably better off just reading Dead Cities, cause that book should come with a fifth of scotch to swallow the cold hard truth.
January 7, 2015
Not a book to read from cover to cover...too many historical details on every subtopic that is covered in the book. Nonetheless it's a good book to skim through with good sections on the corrupt politics of the '60s to today, union busting, economic stratification and perspectives on San Diego life.
May 16, 2008
Of extremely local interest. Mike Davis is one of three authors, and by far the attraction here. Unless you not only lived in San Diego for a while and closely followed politics and have some historical background about the place, this is incomprehensible.
July 14, 2018
Not the San Diego that we like to see, but there nonetheless. As a lifelong SD resident, the corrupt politics and ensuing problems with equality, infrastructure, and social services have always been a part of life here. This book is depressing, but illuminating.
Currently reading
June 23, 2008Haven't started it yet... but looks like a great book on San Diego Politics.
Read
October 17, 2008currently reading...
March 28, 2012
Great attempt at a side of San Diego you aren't supposed to see. A must read for San Diegans, but likely inaccessible to many outsiders.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews