Mike Davis

Writer and Activist

Mike Davis is a writer-activist who lives in San Diego, California.

He is the author of 15 books including “City of Quartz” and Planet of Slums — an investigation of global urban poverty.

Born in the industrial suburb of Fontana in 1946, Mr. Davis grew up in inland Southern California, joining the Congress of Racial Equality in San Diego in 1962, when he was 16.

After several years on the staff of Students for a Democratic Society, he worked as a meat-cutter and heavy-duty trucker.

After receiving an M.A. from UCLA thanks to a scholarship from the Amalgamated Meatcutters Union, he worked variously in publishing, long-distance truck-driving and academia, teaching for 11 years at the Southern California Institute of Architecture as well as stints at SUNY-Stony Brook and UC-Irvine.

He is married to the Mexican artist Alessandra Moctezuma and has four children.