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Under the Perfect Sun
  • Published: 16 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781644215449
  • Imprint: Seven Stories Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $65.00

Under the Perfect Sun

The San Diego Tourists Never See

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 June 2026
EBook
19 May 2026
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The only muckraking, progressive history of San Diego that covers the city’s historically recent turn from red to blue while outlining a new cast of right-wing villains and tenacious activists fighting for social justice.

Three essays on the underside of the city, the real life behind the postcard theme park—now in a new, updated, twentieth-anniversary edition.

A muckraking history of San Diego that covers the city’s historically recent shift from politically conservative to politically progressive while also outlining a new cast of right-wing villains and tenacious activists fighting for social justice.

"Behind the luminous veneer of San Diego, there is also a powerful story of radical activism and resistance—vital inspiration for our times.” —Angela Davis

“A left-leaning, fascinating history of San Diego that debunks the notion of America's Finest City.”―San Diego Magazine

San Diego is a sunny paradise for over thirty million tourists each year. But America’s eighth largest metropolis conceals a vast dark side of militarization, economic inequality, municipal corruption, and racial injustice. This updated and expanded edition of Under the Perfect Sun contains three muckraking essays that expose the underbelly of this city and interrogate its recent turn from red to blue.

Mike Davis outlines the making and re-making of San Diego by a series of largely unchecked local plutocrats, from the snarling Republicans of old to what he calls “high tech . . . opportunist Clinton Democracy.” He moves from John D. Spreckels’ crushing dissent amidst the Free Speech Fight during the Progressive era to a new class of politically shapeshifting business elites ushering in the “tidal wave of gentrification” that continues to this day. Jim Miller offers a bottom-up, peoples’ history of San Diego from the perspective of activists of all stripes—workers, immigrants, civil rights, and anti-war advocates—seeking to challenge the local hegemony. And oral historian Kelly Mayhew sketches life in this tourist wonderland with a series of interviews that reveal the “Other San Diego,” including stories from a wide range of local activists and everyday citizens who share the reality of living in San Diego. This twentieth-anniversary edition is an ode to one of America’s most complex cities.
  • Published: 16 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781644215449
  • Imprint: Seven Stories Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $65.00
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Praise for Under the Perfect Sun

“Definitely not on the Approved Reading List of the Convention & Visitors Bureau.... A provocative, in-your-suntanned-face history of San Diego.”           ―San Diego Union-Tribune

"Twenty years after its publication, Under the Perfect Sun makes a welcome return in this brilliant second edition. Bursting with vital insights and furious truths, this is a book that every San Diegan and Tijuanense should own. Davis, Miller and Mayhew show that the old city of venal politicians, corrupt contractors, and garrulous realtors is dead, but the new city of cultural vibrancy, multiracial democracy, and urban livability struggles to be born. As much as when it first appeared, Under the Perfect Sun points us toward a progressive urban movement capable of confronting the economic elites—and their enablers from both political parties.”     —Daniel Widener, author of Third Worlds Within: Multiethnic Movements and Transnational Solidarity

“An accessible, often moving, account of tragicomic events in a surreal city.”    —Clamor

“Definitely not on the Approved Reading List of the Convention & Visitors Bureau.... A provocative, in-your-suntanned-face history of San Diego.”           ―San Diego Union-Tribune

"Twenty years after its publication, Under the Perfect Sun makes a welcome return in this brilliant second edition. Bursting with vital insights and furious truths, this is a book that every San Diegan and Tijuanense should own. Davis, Miller and Mayhew show that the old city of venal politicians, corrupt contractors, and garrulous realtors is dead, but the new city of cultural vibrancy, multiracial democracy, and urban livability struggles to be born. As much as when it first appeared, Under the Perfect Sun points us toward a progressive urban movement capable of confronting the economic elites—and their enablers from both political parties.”     —Daniel Widener, author of Third Worlds Within: Multiethnic Movements and Transnational Solidarity

“An accessible, often moving, account of tragicomic events in a surreal city.”    —Clamor