Hurricane Katrina in Transatlantic Perspective - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807158437 ISBN 13: 9780807158432

Publisher: LSU Press, 2014

Synopsis

"There is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster," writes Romain Huret in his introduction to this multidisciplinary study of the events surrounding and the legacy of Hurricane Katrina. Though nature produced Katrina's rising waters and destructive winds, a vast array of manmade factors shaped the scope of the storm's impact as well as the local and national response to it. In Hurricane Katrina in Transatlantic Perspective, American and European scholars approach this infamous storm and its aftermath through a variety of disciplines, from music to geography to anthropology, creating a nuanced understanding of how society reacts to and later remembers times of disaster.

Richard Campanella and Romain Huret examine the particular geographical and political mix that set the stage for Katrina's devastation, especially among the poorest populations of New Orleans and the Gulf South. Jean Kempf, James Boyden, Andrew Diamond, and Thomas Jessen Adams address the ideological biases and racial stereotypes that infused local and national commentary in the days and weeks after the storm. Finally, Bruce Raeburn, Sara Le Menestrel, Anne M. Lovell, and Randy J. Sparks explore the impact of this powerful tropical event on the city's institutions and cultural organizations.

Hurricane Katrina in Transatlantic Perspective offers a profound and innovative collection of insights on one of the most significant environmental catastrophes in U.S. history, forcing us to examine the cultural actors that transformed a natural disaster into a humanitarian crisis.

About this title

About the Author:

Romain Huret is professor of American history at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. He is the author of American Tax Resisters.

Randy J. Sparks is professor of history at Tulane University. He is the author of several books, most recently The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey and Where the Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade.

Review:

"This lively collection of essays moves breezily through a variety of topics (...) to build a rich and convincing account of the structural conditions that turned Hurricane Katrina into such a devastating, and enduring, disaster for minorities and the poor. The volume showcases the merits of an international perspective and an interdisciplinary approach for anyone who wishes to understand one of the most significant catastrophes in recent times." (Kevin Rosario, author of The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America)

"What resulted is this collection of essays that looks both forward and backward, turning the storm over and over like a Rubik's cube.(...) This collection of fascinating essays plucks out threads of life, suffering and recovery in an effort to understand those networks, their development and their postdiluvian metamorphosis.(...) This book, with its familiar ties to France and global worldview, reminds us that we were never alone and aren't likely to be again." (Beth Colvin, The New Orleans Advocate, February 8, 2015.)

About this edition

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0807158437
• ISBN 13: 9780807158432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216
• Editor: Huret Romain, Sparks Randy J.