Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America

by Ted Steinberg

As the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain began to pour into New Orleans, people began asking the big question: could any of this have been avoided? How much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina was bad luck, and how much was poor city planning? Steinberg's Acts of God is a provocative history of natural disasters in the United States. This revised edition features a new chapter analyzing the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, a disaster Steinberg warned could happen when the book first was published. Focusing on America's worst natural disasters, Steinberg argues that it is wrong to see these tragedies as random outbursts of nature's violence or expressions of divine judgment. He reveals how the decisions of business leaders and government officials have paved the way for the greater losses of life and property, especially among those least able to withstand such blows: America's poor, elderly, and minorities. Seeing nature or God as the primary culprit, Steinberg explains, has helped to hide the fact that some Americans are simply better able to protect themselves from the violence of nature than others. In the face of revelations about how the federal government mishandled the Katrina calamity, this book is a must-read before further wind and water sweep away more lives. Acts of God is a call to action that needs desperately to be heard.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, School, Nature, Environment, Politics

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Claire Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for class unfortunately but it was actually kind of interesting to see how the government did little to help people affected by natural disasters and how businesses were selfish to say the least 😀 but I had to take excessive notes for this so I also hated it

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a few of Ted Steinberg's books now, and have yet to be disappointed. Acts of God is detailed in its analysis and sharp in its criticisms, and frankly one of the most depressing things I've ever read — the levels of callousness in government, commerce, and media chronicled here, and the tragedies they cause or at least exacerbate are heartbreaking. There's a newer edition of this book, apparently, with an added chapter about hurricane Katrina, but even though I read the original edition Katrina was a constant context. I could see it over the horizon of all the other disasters Steinberg considers, and it seemed increasingly, tragically reducible — if not preventable — as the lessons of history became clear but went unlearned. The one thing I would have liked to learn more about was a shift in media that went unexplored: in earlier disasters, like the earthquakes in Charleston and San Franciso, newspapers made an effort to downplay and deny events, and that continued in other calamities. Today, media seem to err in the other direction: overselling every possible "disaster" to the point we can't take any of there coverage seriously. The outcome seems the same, but I wondered while reading how and when that reversal occurred.

[Steven Hummer · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book that will fascinate you with just unbelievable breath taking amazing tales of humans surviving some of the worst storms, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes Mother Nature can dish out written to be an easy read this is not that book. I read a ton and I always make it a point when I open an ebook or turn on an audio book to start with the preface. The forwards and prefaces can be very interesting especially when they are written by people I like. For example John Stockton wrote the forward to Larry Miller's book and it was nicely done. With Acts of God however I spent more time using the Kindle's built in dictionary than I did reading the actual preface. Things went on this way for four or five of the nine chapters in the book it was just too wordy. Instead of hearing about amazing stories from survivors the author followed a pattern for every chapter. He would mention a disaster, throw in statistics of the death count, damage costs etc. then talk about the government's failure to respond to offer aid to those in need, go on and on about funding, regulations and building codes, throw in a few pictures and repeat the pattern for 211 pages. Oh and he made sure to take a parting shot at former president Bush on page 199 about Katrina. "There is certainly no question that the Bush Administration bears a great deal of blame for the death penalty that unfolded along the Gulf coast." It did after all slash funding in 2003 for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project to finance the war in Iraq. The tone of the book was just very doom and gloom. All this aside however and there were a few good points brought up. The author writes about some of the worst places to live and can't understand why people are buying property in some parts of the world mainly Miami Beach. Everyone from residents to hotel chains just couldn't seem to resist despite the obvious hazards to set up shop right on the water. As you can probably guess this had disastrous consequences. Another structure to steer clear of is the mobile home. It seemed almost every chapter noted that mobile homes while very affordable do not afford its residents with the best protection when Mother Nature strikes.
The book also talked about the naming of storms. I thought it was somewhat interesting and highlighted a portion of it. "What better way to demonstrate the evils of liberated womanhood than to give one of nature’s most destructive and uncontrollable forces a female name?"
Chapter 7 was all about the advancements in technology and the ideas that man could predict the weather and then warn the public of imitate danger and so the National Weather Service was born you know it, that computerized voice you can pick up on your transistor radios today. There was a major drawback at the time that the government felt it could not fund or support the project and the book didn't really note any instances where the NWS saved the day. You'll hear about Doppler radar and how it got it's start as well. All in all the few nuggets of information I took away from reading this book just don't outweigh the negatives. The constant need of having to pause and look up words in the dictionary and then having to look up the words in some of those definitions made for a very tedious reading experience.

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and eye-opening. Sheds light on what really constitutes a "natural disaster".

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

informative and intersectional but the thesis seems a bit self-evident

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my bible for the semester. Very compelling though at times one sided. Going to devote the rest of my academic career to this I think.

[Lance Charnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's very little "natural" about the human toll of natural disasters -- so goes Ted Steinberg's thesis in Acts of God, a decidedly ironic title. Unrestrained development, clueless urban planning, greed and class warfare conspire to place mostly poor and powerless people in the path of entirely predictable catastrophe.

Steinberg reviews a century of American disasters, starting with the ill-remembered Charleston earthquake of 1886 and proceeding through Hurricane Andrew and the Chicago heat wave of the mid-1990s, tracing how very human decisions have led to the deaths of tens of thousands. He reserves special contempt for floodplain mismanagement, especially along the Mississippi and Missouri River valleys. The heavily footnoted text documents how time and time again, poor people, minorities and the elderly end up warehoused in known active floodplains, often unprotected by levees or other mitigating measures, while measures taken to protect business and richer areas make the inevitable floods bigger and more destructive.

If you work in emergency management, you already know a lot of this. If you don't, you might find some of it heavy going, especially when Steinberg delves into the thickets of laws and regulations meant to address these problems (and sometimes aggravate them). The author’s passion is evident in his often caustic prose; this book is about as fair and balanced as Fox News.

Acts of God is a book more to be admired (for its passion and the service it provides exposing in an accessible manner the roots of human misery in disasters) than loved. The uninterrupted parade of human folly and malice wears after a while, and Steinberg puts forth little hope for a better world. If you’re in emergency management, disaster response, urban planning or land-use policymaking, you should read this book; if not, proceed with your antidepressants in hand.

[Tippy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off pretty slow, but then picked up big time. By the end all I could think was "What the fuck" and "how did I not know about this?" This book goes through building in known dangerous areas, subsidizing building in dangerous areas and government insurance for those building/living in dangerous areas, the development of land that protects our coasts (i.e. mangrove swamps and wetlands), the forgetfulness of past natural disasters and the continual relaxing of safety codes and the most surprising part to me, the horrid monitoring of weather, warning systems and the ridiculously unjust relief systems. Okay, so of course I knew about Katrina (which occurred after this book was written, however the author mentions Louisiana and how it is a death trap waiting to happen) but this book goes way back and in particular discusses some things from the sixties and seventies that I was most definitely not familiar with. For example, the government offering repayment of loans to victims, effectively making the loans a grant. However, because they were still technically loans, the SBA only gave it to those whose credit met with approval. This and dozens more things that show how the relief goes to the rich and middle class while the poor get left behind. Other things such as only giving people living in single-room hotels one months living expenses while giving home owners 3 months living expenses. And where does the money for these relief packages come from? Other social services-again a hit to the poor. Very slow in the beginning, I almost put it down and there was a lot of stuff I did know before hand early on. But it is well organized and I ended up learning a lot.

[Morrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good argument regarding what is a "natural disaster". The question being that if we build our homes and business in flood plains, seismic areas, tornado alley's and then we live in mobile homes in these areas how natural is that disaster? The earth does what it does and if we build there or make those areas the only affordable place to live the disaster part is our fault.

[Erik Loomis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am developing half a course around this book if that gives you any idea how good it is. Steinberg looks at so-called natural disasters and who is effected by them. Awesome.

[Merinda Brayfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts out slow, then gains moment until it turns into a roaring condemnation of the way disaster is handled in America.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

damning evidence against deregulation and privatization in the sphere of emergency management

[Gina Imperiale]

Stop blaming “natural” disasters on nature.

[Loret Steinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this one first, then The Worst Hard Time.