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The Perfect Fire

by Mike Davis

Mr. Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, and most recently, Dead Cities: and Other Tales. He is a Professor of History at UC Irvine.

This article first appeared on www.tomdispatch.com, a weblog of the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources, news and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, a long time editor in publishing, the author of The End of Victory Culture, and a fellow of the Nation Institute.