Acts of god

318 Pages·2000·1.589 MB·English

by  Steinberg T.

A C T S
G O D
of
Also by Ted Steinberg
Slide Mountain, Or the Folly of Owning Nature
Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the
Waters of New England
A C T S
G O D
of
The Unnatural
History of
Natural Disaster
in America
TED STEINBERG
3
2000
3
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2000by Ted Steinberg
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Portions of chapter six were previously published in Literature and Medicine15, no. 1 (Spring 1996);
a version of chapter three was previously published in Environmental History2, no. 4 (Oct. 1997).
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For the little big men in my life
Nathan and Harry

There are many scapegoats for our blunders, but the
most popular one is Providence.
Mark Twain
We do not see our hand in what happens, so we call
certain events melancholy accidents when they are the
inevitabilities of our projects.
Stanley Cavell

C O N T E N T S
Preface xi
Introduction • Hometown Blues xv
I
RETURN OF THE SUPPRESSED
One • Last Call for Judgment Day 3
Two • Disaster as Archetype 25
Three • Do-It-Yourself Deathscape 47
Interlude • Body Counting 69
II
FEDERALIZING RISK
Four • Building for Apocalypse 79
Five • Uncle Sam—Floodplain Recidivist 97
Interlude • The Perils of Private Property 117
ix
x Contents
III
CONTAINING CALAMITY
Six • The Neurotic Life of Weather Control 127
Seven • Forecasting at the Fair Weather Service 149
Eight • Who Pays? 173
Epilogue • Remembering McKinneysburg 197
Notes 203
Bibliography 265
Index 281