The Sociology of Katrina

Book excerpt: A second edition of this textbook is now available. As a disaster, Hurricane Katrina logs in as both the most destructive and instructive when considering the cataclysmic effects, as well as the magnitude of knowledge, that can be drawn from it. This meteorological event became the stimulus for devastating technological failures and widespread toxic contamination, causing the largest internal diaspora of displaced people in recent U.S. history. This book brings together the nation's top sociological researchers in an effort to catalogue the modern catastrophe that is Hurricane Katrina. The chapters in this volume discuss sociological perspectives of disaster literature, provide alternative views and analyses of early post-storm data collection efforts, and examine emerging social questions that have surfaced in the aftermath of Katrina.