Fritz was arguing that disasters may bring out the best in human beings, rather than liberating some essential darkness in their nature. But at the time of the Good Friday Earthquake, Quarantelli was one of only a few people, even within the field of sociology, who would have been aware of that possibility. Fritz had written “Disasters and Mental Health” three years before the quake, as a chapter for an upcoming textbook. The book’s editors rejected it. The essay would not be published for another thirty-five years.
