Disasters and the American State:
How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected
“The federal government is not prepared to prevent or reduce the damage caused by disasters,” says disaster expert Patrick S. Roberts, author of DISASTERS AND THE AMERICAN STATE: How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected (Cambridge University Press). “And the public’s expectations that the government is prepared are unrealistically inflated by the media,” adds Roberts.
The book explains:
· Why the bold claims of the federal government are disproportionate its ability to prevent or reduce the damage caused by disaster
· Why the public expects the government to provide more security from disasters
· How Teddy Roosevelt and the history and origins of the disaster state in the 19th and early 20th century set precedents for today
· How politicians stoked the flames of the public’s expectations regarding disaster relief and how those expectations outstripped the government’s capacity for meeting those expectations
· Why governments should choose the types of disasters that they provide relief for and how the public can participate in that choice
Booksellers:
Reviews and Endorsements
"Roberts' balanced handling of the much misunderstood response to Katrina is magisterial ...This is not only a powerfully argued, relentlessly fair account of the troubles that plague the federal management of disaster, but also an edifying comment on the limits any modern democracy faces in acting swiftly and effectively." -- Kirkus Reviews
"... [Roberts] develops a thoroughly persuasive historical and institutional explanation for how FEMA came to be a byword for bureaucratic incompetence - first, at the turn of the 1990s, then, more spectacularly, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." -- The Forum
“Patrick Roberts’s Disasters and the American State shows how our expectations for the federal government’s role in disaster response and management have shifted tremendously over time.” --Perspectives on Politics
“Roberts’s book demonstrates the source of our over-reliance on federal agencies like FEMA…”--Perspectives on Politics
"All in all, Patrick Roberts' Disaster and the American State is excellent - imminently readable, well sourced, and compelling; it is must-reading for individuals interested in disaster politics and policy, state capacity, or American political development."--Disasters, Property, and Politics
"Professor Patrick S. Roberts has written an informative and sometimes provocative text raising issues about the complexity of the American disaster system and the challenges for creating a disaster-resilient nation. It is clear that this is not just an academic treatise. It provides a contextual format for young professionals entering the emergency management field as to the difficulties they will face. For the experienced emergency manager it is a 'milepost marker' to help understand how we arrived at this point in our history and their own role in shaping the future of the American disaster experience."
Eric E. Holdeman, columnist, Emergency Management Magazine, and blogger, Disaster-Zone
"In this lively book, Roberts lays out the fascinating history of government's growing role in dealing with disasters. His analysis of the change from a government in transition - from responding to events to trying to manage them - is a tremendously important and pathbreaking contribution to a question that increasingly, and inevitably, demands the best thinking we can bring. Roberts has done just that."
Donald F. Kettl, University of Texas at Austin
"How did the United States end up with the unwieldy homeland security apparatus it finds itself with today? Professor Roberts' masterly account of the development of disaster politics provides the definitive answer. Historically detailed, theoretically rich, and eminently readable, Disasters and the American State traces the social construction of the idea of disaster and the state's role in response. It is an important contribution for anyone interested not just in disaster, but more broadly in the historical development of the American state."
Donald Moynihan, Georgetown University
Media
Interviewed for NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, the Washington Post, USA Today, and National Conference of State Legislatures Podcast,
