Disaster: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis
Disaster is one of those extraordinary phenomena that is ubiquitous yet indescribable. From supernatural occurrence to earthly force finally yielding to its present day configuration as a social event, disaster offers a unique lens with which to examine history. Beginning in the mid-twentieth centur...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Tipo de documento: | Recurso Electrónico Artigo |
| Idioma: | Inglês |
| Verificar disponibilidade: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Carregar...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Publicado em: |
2008
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| Em: |
History compass
Ano: 2008, Volume: 6, Número: 3, Páginas: 934-946 |
| Acesso em linha: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Resumo: | Disaster is one of those extraordinary phenomena that is ubiquitous yet indescribable. From supernatural occurrence to earthly force finally yielding to its present day configuration as a social event, disaster offers a unique lens with which to examine history. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, scholars set out to examine urban life, race, class, and politics through a variety of socially dislocating events. The historical literature is varied and deep. Conceptions of disaster are seldom the same, and often highlight the strained relationship between social and natural configurations. But historians examining disaster have not advocated a common creed of catastrophe, so much as sharing a familiar lexicon. That language is informed by social scientific literature, environmental studies, and topics such as urban life, race, class and politics. To be sure, the discourse of disaster has been quite supple, bridging disparate units of historical manufacture and blurring familiar categories of analysis. This article surveys the evolution of the term, its usage in American historiography and major scholarly trends. The article concludes with a cri de couer to bring greater visibility to disaster studies. |
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| ISSN: | 1478-0542 |
| Obras secundárias: | Enthalten in: History compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00519.x |
