Jon Wiener — Set the Night on Fire Book Publicity Case Study

Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Jon Wiener and Mike Davis

This book publicity case study outlines the work Coriolis Company performed for Professor Jon Wiener’s new nonfiction book co-authored with Professor Mike Davis, Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties published by Verso Books on April 14, 2020. All efforts below were reached in coordination with Professor Wiener’s in-house publicist and publisher.

Events

April 14, 2020, Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, Book Launch, Youtube Live hosted by Verso Books.

May 12, 2020, Red May Virtual Discussion About Set the Night on Fire: Los Angeles in the Sixties, Book Discussion with Magally Miranda Alcazar, Youtube Live hosted by Red May TV.

June 8, 2020, Virtual Discussion Hosted by LSE About Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, Youtube Live Event hosted by LSE Department of Sociology.

July 2, 2020, Set the Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties: A Conversation with Mike Davis and Jon Wiener, moderated by Meagan Day, Zoom Live hosted by DSA-LA.

July 7, 2020, L.A. Protest, Past and Present: From the Watts Rebellion to the #BlackLivesMatter Movement Today, moderated by Josh Kun, Youtube Live hosted by USC Annenberg Center.

July 20, 2020, Los Angeles Protest: Past and Present, Youtube Live hosted by The Nation Magazine.

August 11, 2020, Writers Bloc Presents Mike Davis, Jon Wiener & Robin Kelley: Watts Rebellion, Youtube Live hosted by Writers Bloc.

August 13, 2020, Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, in conversation with Harold Meyerson and Melina Abdullah, Zoom Live hosted by The American Prospect.

August 14, 2020, A Conversation on the 55th Anniversary of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, Crowdcast Live hosted by Skylight Books.

August 24, 2020, Set the Night on Fire: L.A. from the ’60s to Today: Protest and Resistance, YouTube Live hosted by Chevalier’s Books.

August 28, 2020, Jon Wiener discusses “Set the Night on Fire” with Harry Gamboa Jr. & Devra Weber, Crowdcast Live hosted by Vroman’s Bookstore.

September 17, 2020, East L.A. Blowouts and the Chicano Moratorium: Set the Night on Fire: L. A. in the Sixties and What We Can Learn From it Today, Zoom Live hosted by Liberty Hill Foundation.

October 14, 2020, Explore 1960s Los Angeles with Faculty Author Jon Wiener, Zoom Live hosted by UCI Illuminaries.

October 23, 2020, L.A. in the Sixties: L.A. Institute for the Humanities Talk, Zoom Live hosted by Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities.

January 22, 2021, In Virtual Conversation: California-based Radical Historians Daniel Widener and Jon Wiener, Zoom Live hosted by Flintridge Bookstore.

January 31, 2021, The Chicano Revolt from 1969-1971, Facebook Live hosted by Centro Cultural de la Raza.

February 17, 2021, The Pfau Library’s Conversations on Race and Policing Presents: Set the Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties, Zoom Live hosted by California State University San Bernardino.

Interviews

Print Interview

August 20, 2020, “Interview With an Author: Jon Wiener” with Librarian Daryl Maxwell on the Los Angeles Public Library blog

May 28, 2020, “Jacobin Radio: Set the Night on Fire with Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” with Suzi Weissman, Jacobin Radio

July 15, 2020, “Set the Night on Fire and an Interview with Jon Wiener” with Robert Petersen, The Hidden History of Los Angeles podcast

September 10, 2020, “Episode 215: I Hope Someday You’ll Join Us” with David Parsons, Nostalgia Trap

September 17, 2020, “How Today’s Uprisings Compare to the 1960s Rebellions” with Robert Scheer, Scheer Intelligence

Reviews

Trade Reviews

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” review in Publishers Weekly

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” review in Kirkus

“Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener review – the real LA in the 1960s” review in The Guardian by Ben Ehrenreich

“Fire and Frizzle” review in the Los Angeles Review of Books by Jerald Podair

“Los Angeles Is Burning: A new history of ’60s radicalism on the West Coast” review in Bookforum by Sasha Frere-Jones

“True Stories in L.A. in the 1960s” review in Alta by William Deverell

“How L.A.’s ’60s movements fought for justice — and sometimes even achieved it” review in The Los Angeles Times by Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein

“Making Los Angeles” review in the Tribune, reprinted in People’s World by Glyn Robbins

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” review in Lit Hub by John Freeman

“The Sixties in the City of the Fallen Angels” review in CounterPunch by Ron Jacobs

“Review: Exploring the radical politics of Los Angeles in the 1960’s” review in America the Jesuit Review by Sean Dempsey, S.J.

“Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” review in The Guardian by Sean O’Hagan

“Book Review: Set The Night On Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” review in The Slums Off Hollywood Boulevard

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” review in The Fiction Addiction

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” review in The Rag Blog by Jonah Raskin

“Book Review: Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” in the LSE Book Review by Jeff Roquen

“The Many Explosions of Los Angeles in the 1960s” in Jacobin by Samuel Farber

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” in KCW London by Don Grant

“No Time to Wallow in the Mire” in the Tribune by Ben Thompson

“Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” on The VVA Veteran by Bob Carolla

“Book Review: Set the Night on Fire” in Artillery by Lane Barden

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener” in Rain Taxi by Paul Buhle

“Getting to Freedom City” in Boston Review by Robin D.G. Kelley

“The fire last time Looking back at a decade of riot and revolt in Los Angeles” in The Times Literary Supplement by Robert Edward Anasi

“Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” by Andrew Baer Criminal Law Criminal Justice Books Rutgers University

“Radical Movements In 1960s L.A. — A Review Of Set The Night On Fire” by Ryan Reft on The Metropole

“Motorised Youth Rebellion” by Andy Beckett in the London Review of Books

Customer Reviews

21 Amazon reviews, 166 ratings, and 4.7 stars

72 Goodreads reviews, 279 ratings, and 4.39 stars

Op-Eds and Features

April 14, 2020, “A Quarter of a Million Readers: The LA Free Press (1964–70)” by Mike Davis and Professor Jon Wiener in the Los Angeles Review of Books

April 15, 2020, “Erased from utopia: the hidden history of LA’s black and brown resistance” by Mike Davis and Professor Jon Wiener in The Guardian

April 21, 2020, “Things to Do in Self-Isolation: Hannah Lack’s Guide” in Another

May 24, 2020, “How well do you know your L.A. history? Take our 1960s quiz” by Professor Jon Wiener in the Los Angeles Times

May 31, 2020, “Fresh Prints” in the Los Angeles Daily News

June 1, 2020, “New books just in time for summer reading” in The Orange County Register

June 4, 2020, “Lez Liberty Lit: The Work Is Bigger than Backorder” in Autostraddle

June 10, 2020, “Bestsellers List Sun., June 14, 2020” in the Los Angeles Times

June 15, 2020, “The History of the ‘Riot’ Report” in The New Yorker

June 18, 2020, “The Freedom Rides Made the Most of a Multiracial Activist Base” in Jacobin

June 18, 2020, “How LAPD chief William H. Parker influenced the depiction of policing on the TV show Dragnet” on Monthly Review Online

June 28, 2020, “Valley Voice: Recalling the Century City demonstration of 1967” in The Desert Sun

June 29, 2020, “Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” in KCW London