Jacob Remes, "Disaster Citizenship: Survivors, Solidarity, and Power in the Progressive Era" (U Illinois Press, 2015)

New Books in American Studies · Jan 31, 2020 · 41m

Professor Jacob Remes of SUNY Empire State College discusses his book, Disaster Citizenship: Survivors, Solidarity, and Power in the Progressive Era (University of Illinois Press, 2015), and challenges prevailing assumptions about how ordinary people, governments, and institutions act in the wake of natural disasters. A century ago, governments buoyed by Progressive Era–beliefs began to assume greater responsibility for protecting and rescuing citizens. Yet the aftermath of two disasters in the United States-Canada borderlands--the Salem Fire of 1914 and the Halifax Explosion of 1917--saw…