Research Catalog

Acts of God : the unnatural history of natural disaster in America

Title: Acts of God : the unnatural history of natural disaster in America / Ted Steinberg.
Author: Steinberg, Theodore, 1961-
Publication: New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.
Supplementary Content: Publisher description

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Request in advance	GB5007 .S74 2006	Off-site

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Details

Description

xxv, 309 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"As the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain began to pour into New Orleans, people began asking the big question - could any of this have been avoided? How much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina was bad luck, and how much was poor city planning?" "Ted Steinberg's Acts of God is a history of natural disasters in the United States. This revised edition features a new chapter analyzing the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, a disaster Steinberg warned could happen when the book first was published. Focusing on America's worst natural disasters, Steinberg argues that it is wrong to see these tragedies as random outbursts of nature's violence or expressions of divine judgment. He reveals how the decisions of business leaders and government officials have paved the way for the greater losses of life and property, especially among those least able to withstand such blows - America's poor, elderly, and minorities. Seeing nature or God as the primary culprit, Steinberg explains, has helped to hide the fact that some Americans are simply better able to protect themselves from the violence of nature than others." "In the face of revelations about how the federal government mishandled the Katrina calamity, this book is a must-read before further wind and water sweep away more lives. Acts of God is a call to action that needs desperately to be heard."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

Note

"This edition first issued in paperback, 2006"--T.p. verso.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-292) and index.

Contents

Introduction : hometown blues -- I. Return of the suppressed -- 1. Last call for judgement day -- 2. Disaster as archetype -- 3. Do-it-yourself deathscape -- Interlude. Body counting -- II. Federalizing risk -- 4. Building for apocalypse -- 5. Uncle Sam - floodplain recidivist -- Interlude. The perils of private property -- III. Containing calamity -- 6. The neurotic life of weather control -- 7. Forecasting at the fair weather service -- 8. Who pays? -- 9. The drowning of America.

ISBN

0195309685

OCLC

ocm70294859
SCSB-5260183

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries