jimijr
Member
The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America
by Kevin Rozario
Modern America: Disaster In The Making?, March 4, 2008
This is re-drafting of Dr Rozario's PhD thesis, he tells us. As such it strives to be complete and there is more here than I expected. In fact it is subversive. Cool!
The author draws a line that seems unlikely at first. He tracks the growth of our emergency management system from the colonial days through the San Francisco earthquake and fire, to 9-11 and Katrina. An important stop along the way is the period immediately after WWII when our civil defense requirements suddenly mushroomed, heh.
He shows that with each disaster, new powers were assumed by the central government. At first, state authorities were reluctant even to accept federal assistance because of the strings attached. Sometimes they had good reason, just look at the 1927 flood: In the delta region they were conscripting black labor and keeping them on the levees at gunpoint. Who wants government agents poking around in situations like that?
Gradually the national government has taken over disaster planning. A big part of it stems from the civil defense requirements first of the cold war and now of the war on terror. with these responsibilities has come authority. The president has the power to declare an emergency, suspend the government and rule by executive authority. He has the apparatus in the Dept of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act, etc.
In other words we have sacrificed a great deal of our freedom for the sake of security. Unfortunately, 9-11 and Katrina showed that this security is sort of thin and not to be relied upon. Katrina gave the impression that there were too few lifeboats and the people in charge didn't know what they're doing -- New Orleans struck an iceberg and went down like the Titanic.
Past disasters have paved the way for this fiasco and future disasters will probably make it worse. In other words I am now a believer in Dr Rozario's thesis. He has shown us a new way of looking at these things.
Which, he proves, is also a national pasttime. We love to watch disasters so long as we are safe personally. The 24/7 news coverage now in place makes it all so easy. We can even watch our army go to war live and in color. When a hurricane hits someplace we can be certain that Jim Cantore will be there! And we do watch, we can't help it.
You can see why I say there is more to this book than I expected. I witheld a 5th star because it could have used some tables and graphs and some maps. I no longer have the book so I cannot check the acknowledgements to see who supported his research. Probably it was departmental funds from within the university where he was getting his degree. I doubt that money originated in the Dept of Defense or DHS!
by Kevin Rozario
Modern America: Disaster In The Making?, March 4, 2008
This is re-drafting of Dr Rozario's PhD thesis, he tells us. As such it strives to be complete and there is more here than I expected. In fact it is subversive. Cool!
The author draws a line that seems unlikely at first. He tracks the growth of our emergency management system from the colonial days through the San Francisco earthquake and fire, to 9-11 and Katrina. An important stop along the way is the period immediately after WWII when our civil defense requirements suddenly mushroomed, heh.
He shows that with each disaster, new powers were assumed by the central government. At first, state authorities were reluctant even to accept federal assistance because of the strings attached. Sometimes they had good reason, just look at the 1927 flood: In the delta region they were conscripting black labor and keeping them on the levees at gunpoint. Who wants government agents poking around in situations like that?
Gradually the national government has taken over disaster planning. A big part of it stems from the civil defense requirements first of the cold war and now of the war on terror. with these responsibilities has come authority. The president has the power to declare an emergency, suspend the government and rule by executive authority. He has the apparatus in the Dept of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act, etc.
In other words we have sacrificed a great deal of our freedom for the sake of security. Unfortunately, 9-11 and Katrina showed that this security is sort of thin and not to be relied upon. Katrina gave the impression that there were too few lifeboats and the people in charge didn't know what they're doing -- New Orleans struck an iceberg and went down like the Titanic.
Past disasters have paved the way for this fiasco and future disasters will probably make it worse. In other words I am now a believer in Dr Rozario's thesis. He has shown us a new way of looking at these things.
Which, he proves, is also a national pasttime. We love to watch disasters so long as we are safe personally. The 24/7 news coverage now in place makes it all so easy. We can even watch our army go to war live and in color. When a hurricane hits someplace we can be certain that Jim Cantore will be there! And we do watch, we can't help it.
You can see why I say there is more to this book than I expected. I witheld a 5th star because it could have used some tables and graphs and some maps. I no longer have the book so I cannot check the acknowledgements to see who supported his research. Probably it was departmental funds from within the university where he was getting his degree. I doubt that money originated in the Dept of Defense or DHS!
