Download or read book The Culture of Calamity written by Kevin Rozario and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turn on the news and it looks as if we live in a time and place unusually consumed by the specter of disaster. The events of 9/11 and the promise of future attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans, and the inevitable consequences of environmental devastation all contribute to an atmosphere of imminent doom. But reading an account of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, with its vivid evocation of buildings “crumbling as one might crush a biscuit,” we see that calamities—whether natural or man-made—have long had an impact on the American consciousness. Uncovering the history of Americans’ responses to disaster from their colonial past up to the present, Kevin Rozario reveals the vital role that calamity—and our abiding fascination with it—has played in the development of this nation. Beginning with the Puritan view of disaster as God’s instrument of correction, Rozario explores how catastrophic events frequently inspired positive reactions. He argues that they have shaped American life by providing an opportunity to take stock of our values and social institutions. Destruction leads naturally to rebuilding, and here we learn that disasters have been a boon to capitalism, and, paradoxically, indispensable to the construction of dominant American ideas of progress. As Rozario turns to the present, he finds that the impulse to respond creatively to disasters is mitigated by a mania for security. Terror alerts and duct tape represent the cynical politician’s attitude about 9/11, but Rozario focuses on how the attacks registered in the popular imagination—how responses to genuine calamity were mediated by the hyperreal thrills of movies; how apocalyptic literature, like the best-selling Left Behind series, recycles Puritan religious outlooks while adopting Hollywood’s style; and how the convergence of these two ways of imagining disaster points to a new postmodern culture of calamity. The Culture of Calamity will stand as the definitive diagnosis of the peculiarly American addiction to the spectacle of destruction.
Download or read book Inventing Disaster written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and other disasters strike, we count our losses, search for causes, commiserate with victims, and initiate relief efforts. Amply illustrated and expansively researched, Inventing Disaster explains the origins and development of this predictable, even ritualized, culture of calamity over three centuries, exploring its roots in the revolutions in science, information, and emotion that were part of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and America. Beginning with the collapse of the early seventeenth-century Jamestown colony, ending with the deadly Johnstown flood of 1889, and highlighting fires, epidemics, earthquakes, and exploding steamboats along the way, Cynthia A. Kierner tells horrific stories of culturally significant calamities and their victims and charts efforts to explain, prevent, and relieve disaster-related losses. Although how we interpret and respond to disasters has changed in some ways since the nineteenth century, Kierner demonstrates that, for better or worse, the intellectual, economic, and political environments of earlier eras forged our own twenty-first-century approach to disaster, shaping the stories we tell, the precautions we ponder, and the remedies we prescribe for disaster-ravaged communities.
Download or read book Cultural Calamity written by Joseph W. Mayo and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Culture of Disaster written by Marie-Hélène Huet and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From antiquity through the Enlightenment, disasters were attributed to the obscure power of the stars or the vengeance of angry gods. As philosophers sought to reassess the origins of natural disasters, they also made it clear that humans shared responsibility for the damages caused by a violent universe. This far-ranging book explores the way writers, thinkers, and artists have responded to the increasingly political concept of disaster from the Enlightenment until today. Marie-Hélène Huet argues that post-Enlightenment culture has been haunted by the sense of emergency that made natural catastrophes and human deeds both a collective crisis and a personal tragedy. From the plague of 1720 to the cholera of 1832, from shipwrecks to film dystopias, disasters raise questions about identity and memory, technology, control, and liability. In her analysis, Huet considers anew the mythical figures of Medusa and Apollo, theories of epidemics, earthquakes, political crises, and films such as Blow-Up and Blade Runner. With its scope and precision, The Culture of Disaster will appeal to a wide public interested in modern culture, philosophy, and intellectual history.
Download or read book Disaster Culture written by Gregory Button and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on decades of research on the most infamous human and environmental calamities, Button shows how states, corporations, and other actors attempt to create meaning and control social relations in post-disaster struggles for the redistribution of power.
Download or read book Man and Society in Calamity written by Pitirim A. Sorokin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an age of great calamities. War and revolution, famine and pestilence, are again rampant on this planet, and they still exact their deadly toll from suffering humanity. Calamities influence every moment of our existence: our mentality and behavior, our social life and cultural processes. Like a demon, they cast their shadow upon every thought we think and every action we perform. In this classic volume, Sorokin attempts to account for the effects these calamities exert on the mental processes, behavior, social organization, and cultural life of the population involved. In what way do famine and pestilence, war and revolution tend to modify our mind and conduct, our social organization and cultural life? To what extent do they succeed in this, and when and why do they prove less effective? What are the causes of these calamities, and what are the ways out? In dealing with these problems Sorokin tries to give a detailed description of the typical effects of famine and pestilence, war and revolution, such as have repeatedly occurred in all major catastrophes of this kind. To use academic language, he attempts to formulate the principal uniformities regularly manifested during such calamities. This book is a forgotten masterpiece of explanation and prediction. It opened new fields of study and broadened the scope of existing specialties.
Download or read book Imaging Disaster written by Gennifer Weisenfeld and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-11-14 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on one landmark catastrophic event in the history of an emerging modern nation—the Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and surrounding areas in 1923—this fascinating volume examines the history of the visual production of the disaster. The Kanto earthquake triggered cultural responses that ran the gamut from voyeuristic and macabre thrill to the romantic sublime, media spectacle to sacred space, mournful commemoration to emancipatory euphoria, and national solidarity to racist vigilantism and sociopolitical critique. Looking at photography, cinema, painting, postcards, sketching, urban planning, and even scientific visualizations, Weisenfeld demonstrates how visual culture has powerfully mediated the evolving historical understanding of this major national disaster, ultimately enfolding mourning and memory into modernization.
Download or read book America s Disaster Culture written by Robert C. Bell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are we inside the era of disasters or are we merely inundated by mediated accounts of events categorized as catastrophic? America's Disaster Culture offers answers to this question and a critical theory surrounding the culture of "natural†? disasters in American consumerism, literature, media, film, and popular culture. In a hyper-mediated global culture, disaster events reach us with great speed and minute detail, and Americans begin forming, interpreting, and historicizing catastrophes simultaneously with fellow citizens and people worldwide. America's Disaster Culture is not policy, management, or relief oriented. It offers an analytical framework for the cultural production and representation of disasters, catastrophes, and apocalypses in American culture. It focuses on filling a need for critical analysis centered upon the omnipresence of real and imagined disasters, epidemics, and apocalypses in American culture. However, it also observes events, such as the Dust Bowl, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11, that are re-framed and re-historicized as "natural†? disasters by contemporary media and pop culture. Therefore, America's Disaster Culture theorizes the very parameters of classifying any event as a "natural†? disaster, addresses the biases involved in a catastrophic event's public narrative, and analyzes American culture's consumption of a disastrous event. Looking toward the future, what are the hypothetical and actual threats to disaster culture? Or, are we oblivious that we are currently living in a post-apocalyptic landscape?
Download or read book The Culture of Calamity written by Immanuel Colin and published by . This book was released on 2010-04-02 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attention: After Reading This, You Might Be The Most Sane Person Helping Around In Case Of Any Calamity...!Discover How You Can Emerge As A Hero In Case Of Any Calamity And How You Can Save Your Family Members, As Well As Others During Any Kind Of Disaster...! Win The Admiration Of Everyone With Your Presence Of Mind And Bravado!Finally, A Complete Survival Guide That Makes You Almost As Good As A Professionally Trained Disaster Management Individual! Our Tips And Tricks Will Surely Help You Save Lives And Property During The Time Of Disaster... You cannot always predict the moods of nature, and it is wise to be well prepared for any calamity. But how can you survive natural calamities? The book, The Culture of Calamity," teaches you exactly what you have to do in case a natural calamity strikes. Loaded with simple, practical tips that you can definitely use in case of emergencies, this book is a must for your library.
Download or read book Calamity Theory written by Joshua Schuster and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the implications of how we talk about apocalypse? A new philosophical field has emerged. “Existential risk” studies any real or hypothetical human extinction event in the near or distant future. This movement examines catastrophes ranging from runaway global warming to nuclear warfare to malevolent artificial intelligence, deploying a curious mix of utilitarian ethics, statistical risk analysis, and, controversially, a transhuman advocacy that would aim to supersede almost all extinction scenarios. The proponents of existential risk thinking, led by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, have seen their work gain immense popularity, attracting endorsement from Bill Gates and Elon Musk, millions of dollars, and millions of views. Calamity Theory is the first book to examine the rise of this thinking and its failures to acknowledge the ways some communities and lifeways are more at risk than others and what it implies about human extinction. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
Download or read book Cultural Emergency in Conflict and Disaster written by Berma Klein Goldewijk and published by Nai010 Publishers. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The guiding principle of "Cultural emergency in conflict and disaster" is that culture is a basic need. International heritage specialists, relief workers and politicians discuss the importance of protecting cultural heritage that is threatened by war and calamity, as well as thesignificance of culture as a positive force in the process of recovering from catastrophes and the rebuilding of the communities affected. Reports about projects in conflict zones are alternated with contributions about international administrative and legal aspects, political dimensions and sociocultural perspectives. The result is both an indictment of the senseless destruction of cultural heritage and an unflinching argument for culture as a fundamental factor in the rebuilding and restoration of societies that have been afflicted by conflict and catastrophe.
Download or read book Inventing Disaster written by Cynthia A. Kierner (author) and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Paradise Built in Hell written by Rebecca Solnit and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Men Explain Things to Me explores the moments of altruism and generosity that arise in the aftermath of disaster Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster? whether manmade or natural?people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.
Download or read book Special Topics in Calamity Physics written by Marisha Pessl and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mesmerizing bestseller that combines the storytelling gifts of Donna Tartt and the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock—A New York Times Ten Best Book of the Year Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age tale and a richly plotted suspense story, told with dazzling intelligence and wit. At the center of the novel is clever, deadpan Blue van Meer, who has a head full of literary, philosophical, scientific, and cinematic knowledge. But she could use some friends. Upon entering the elite St. Gallway School, she finds some—a clique of eccentrics known as the Bluebloods. One drowning and one hanging later, Blue finds herself puzzling out a byzantine murder mystery. Nabokov meets Donna Tartt (then invites the rest of the Western Canon to the party) in this novel—with visual aids drawn by the author—that has won over readers of all ages.
Download or read book Wild Bill Hickok Calamity Jane written by James D. McLaird and published by SDSHS Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: bibliography, index, eight-page photo essay
Download or read book Man and Society in Calamity written by Pitirim A. Sorokin and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint. Originally published: New York: E.P. Dutton, 1942.
Download or read book The Cure for Catastrophe written by Robert Muir-Wood and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We can't stop natural disasters but we can stop them being disastrous. One of the world's foremost risk experts tells us how. Year after year, floods wreck people's homes and livelihoods, earthquakes tear communities apart, and tornadoes uproot whole towns. Natural disasters cause destruction and despair. But does it have to be this way? In The Cure for Catastrophe, global risk expert Robert Muir-Wood argues that our natural disasters are in fact human ones: We build in the wrong places and in the wrong way, putting brick buildings in earthquake country, timber ones in fire zones, and coastal cities in the paths of hurricanes. We then blindly trust our flood walls and disaster preparations, and when they fail, catastrophes become even more deadly. No society is immune to the twin dangers of complacency and heedless development. Recognizing how disasters are manufactured gives us the power to act. From the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 to Hurricane Katrina, The Cure for Catastrophe recounts the ingenious ways in which people have fought back against disaster. Muir-Wood shows the power and promise of new predictive technologies, and envisions a future where information and action come together to end the pain and destruction wrought by natural catastrophes. The decisions we make now can save millions of lives in the future. Buzzing with political plots, newfound technologies, and stories of surprising resilience, The Cure for Catastrophe will revolutionize the way we conceive of catastrophes: though natural disasters are inevitable, the death and destruction are optional. As we brace ourselves for deadlier cataclysms, the cure for catastrophe is in our hands.
