Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Smogtown

By: Chip Jacobs, William J. Kelly
Narrated by: Charles Constant
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

The smog beast wafted into downtown Los Angeles on July 26, 1943. Nobody knew what it was. Secretaries rubbed their eyes. Traffic cops seemed to disappear in the mysterious haze. Were Japanese saboteurs responsible? A reckless factory? The truth was much worse - it came from within, from Southern California's burgeoning car-addicted, suburban lifestyle.

Smogtown is the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic struggle against airborne poisons barraging their hometowns. With wit, verve, and a fresh look at history, California-based journalists Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly highlight the bold personalities involved, the corporate-tainted science, the terrifying health costs, the attempts at cleanup, and how the smog battle helped mold the modern-day culture of Los Angeles.

There are scofflaws aplenty and dirty deals, plus murders, suicides, spiritual despair, and an ever-present paranoia about mass disaster. Brimming with forgotten anecdotes and new revelations about our environmentally precarious present, Smogtown is a journalistic classic for the modern age.

©2008, 2015 Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Driving the Future cover art
A Field Philosopher's Guide to Fracking cover art
Green Hell cover art
Climategate cover art
This is Your Country on Drugs cover art
Internal Combustion cover art
Moving Millions cover art
Why We Hate the Oil Companies cover art
Toms River cover art
The Doomsday Machine cover art
Fire Underground cover art
Detroit cover art
Rooftop Revolution cover art
The Big Fix cover art
Oil and Honey cover art
Horsemen of the Apocalypse cover art

What listeners say about Smogtown

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.