ISBN:
9780691199283
,
9780691199276
Language:
English
Pages:
xxi, 447 Seiten
,
Illustrationen, Karten, Diagramme
,
24 cm
Series Statement:
Princeton studies in culture and technology
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Collier, Stephen J. The government of emergency
DDC:
353.95
Keywords:
Geschichte 1900-2000
;
Katastrophenmanagement
;
USA
;
Emergency management / United States / History / 20th century
;
Disaster relief / United States / History / 20th century
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
;
Disaster relief
;
Emergency management
;
United States
;
1900-1999
;
History
;
USA
;
Katastrophenmanagement
;
Geschichte 1900-2000
Abstract:
"In the middle decades of the twentieth century, in the wake of economic depression, war, and in the midst of the Cold War, an array of technical experts and government officials developed a substantial body of expertise to contain and manage the disruptions to American society caused by unprecedented threats. Today the tools invented by these mid-twentieth century administrative reformers are largely taken for granted, assimilated into the everyday workings of government. As Stephen Collier and Andrew Lakoff argue in this book, the American government's current practices of disaster management can be traced back to this era. Collier and Lakoff argue that an understanding of the history of this initial formation of the "emergency state" is essential to an appreciation of the distinctive ways that the U.S. government deals with crises and emergencies-or fails to deal with them-today. This book focuses on historical episodes in emergency or disaster planning and management. Some of these episodes are well-known and have often been studied, while others are little-remembered today. The significance of these planners and managers is not that they were responsible for momentous technical innovations or that all their schemes were realized successfully. Their true significance lies in the fact that they formulated a way of understanding and governing emergencies that has come to be taken for granted"--
Description / Table of Contents:
List of illustrations -- Preface : a vulnerable world -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction : the new normalcy -- Part I. crisis government in the great depression and world war II -- Vital systems -- Emergency government -- Part II. demobilization and remobilization -- Vulnerability -- Preparedness -- Part III. cold war planning for national survival -- Enacting catastrophe -- Survival resources -- Epilogue : from nuclear war to climate change
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