Book description
In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, many are asking what, if
anything, can be done to prevent large-scale disasters. How is it that
we know more about the hazards of modern American life than ever
before, yet the nation faces ever-increasing losses from such events?
History shows that disasters are not simply random acts. Where is the
logic in creating an elaborate set of fire codes for buildings, and
then allowing structures like the Twin Towers-tall, impressive, and
risky-to go up as design experiments? Why prepare for terrorist
attacks above all else when floods, fires, and earthquakes pose far
more consistent threats to American life and prosperity?
The Disaster Experts takes on these questions, offering
historical context for understanding who the experts are that
influence these decisions, how they became powerful, and why they are
only slightly closer today than a decade ago to protecting the public
from disasters. Tracing the intertwined development of disaster
expertise, public policy, and urbanization over the past century,
historian Scott Gabriel Knowles tells the fascinating story of how
this diverse collection of professionals-insurance inspectors,
engineers, scientists, journalists, public officials, civil defense
planners, and emergency managers-emerged as the authorities on risk
and disaster and, in the process, shaped modern America.
"Shows how a cadre of professionals-engineers, scientists,
journalists, insurance inspectors, public officials, civil defense
planners and emergency managers-have ill-prepared us for disasters
from 9/11 to Katrina."-Washington Post
Scott Gabriel Knowles is Associate Professor of History at Drexel
University and is the editor of Imagining Philadelphia: Edmund Bacon and
the Future of the City, also available from the University of
Pennsylvania Press.
