Publication

2009 - Viking, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

92,000 words, Guess

Page Count

368 pages

Identifiers

and 6 more
  • Goodreads6444492
  • LibraryThing8610475
  • Library of Congress Control Number2009004101
  • OCLC Control Number303896716
  • Better World Books9780670021079
  • Open LibraryOL23079521M

Classifications

  • DDC303.48/5
  • LCCHV553 .S59 2009
  • LCCHV553.S59 2009

Description

A startling investigation ofwhat people do in disastersand why it mattersWhy is it that in the aftermath of a disaster—whether manmade or natural—people suddenlybecome altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makesthe newfound communities and purpose many findin the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? Andwhat does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet socialdesires and possibilities?In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning authorRebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, lookingat major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in SanFrancisco through the 1917 explosion that tore upHalifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake,9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Sheexamines how disaster throws people into a temporaryutopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities,as well as looking at the cost of the widespread mythsand rarer real cases of social deterioration during...

Subjects

Other Editions

  • A paradise built in hell: the extraordinary communities and strange joys that arise in disastersViking2009-01-01

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