Brecht in Los Angeles—“in this mausoleum of easy going”

Abstract

In his book City of Quartz from 1990, the urban theorist Mike Davis criticized Bertolt Brecht for having failed to explore the “real-life Mahagonny” and “thriving local labor movement” of Los Angeles while he lived there from 1941 to 1947. For someone who considered himself a dialectical thinker, Brecht showed surprisingly little interest in the specific historical dialectic that had shaped Los Angeles. Shortly after moving there, he had already accepted the myth of the “City of Angels” as a hellish materialization of advanced capitalism. The purpose of this essay, which mostly draws upon Brecht’s journal entries, is not to refute Davis’s assessment but to take a closer look at Brecht’s preconceptions and perceptions of American culture and politics to better grasp why he largely ignored, or refused to engage with, the politically progressive developments and working-class movement in a place where he spent six years of his life.