Smogtown

The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles

By: Chip Jacobs, William J. Kelly

Narrated by: Charles Constant

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

A surprisingly witty and insightful history

Smogtown is an interesting and sometimes even funny history that starts with how by 1943 Los Angeles was sometimes blanketed in toxic smog. By the late 40s work had begun to try to clean up the air, but as the population grew this became more and more challenging. There are many sources of smog, but the greatest one turned out to be, of course, the automobile. Because of the smog battle in LA, by the mid-1990s cars were polluting 99% less than cars of the mid-1960s—not only in California, but across the US and even in other parts of the world. In other words, this is a success story, but with lots of bumps in the road, oversized and colorful personalities, and so on. By the late 1990s California was even pioneering the EV revolution that is now finally underway in the 2020s. The reading by Charles Constant is wonderful, and really conveys the sense of humor that the authors are going for without overdoing it.