Emergency Management The American Experience Book Review (1)
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Book Review: Emergency Management: The American Experience 1900-2010
Rubin, C. B. (Ed.). (2012). Emergency management: The American Experience, 1900-2010
(2nd ed., 314). New York, USA. CRC Press. Introduction
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Emergency management is a constantly changing field. It has especially undergone several changes over the last hundred years. It plays a pivotal role in shaping societal responses to disasters and crises by providing structured frameworks, strategies, and coordination mechanisms to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse events. Emergency Management: The American Experience 1900-2010
by Claire B. Rubin dives into these changes in emergency management and the disasters that have led to these changes from the beginning of
the 20th century to the early 21st century. The book's editor, Claire B. Rubin, is an expert in emergency management and the president of Claire B. Rubin & Associates LLC, specializing in disaster research and consulting.
The book’s second edition follows the first edition, which talks about emergency management in the United States in the 21st century. In contrast, the second edition follows a broader timeline and highlights more extensive changes in the field. The book intends to highlight “the changes in public policies, administration, and organization in response to major disasters and to identify the implications of those changes for emergency management today.” The book is composed of 10 chapters. A different expert in the field wrote each chapter - Claire B. Rubin, David Butler, Keith Bea, Susan L. Cutter, Melanie Gall, John R. Harrald, Patrick S. Roberts, and Richard T. Sylves - and highlights different periods of the 110 years the books cover and the changes emergency management went through during that time. The book was published in the early 2010s, limiting the scope of the 2010s it covered and the changes emergency management went through during this time. Description
The first chapter of Emergency Management: The American Experience 1900-2010
introduces the thesis, methods, and a brief description of every chapter. The first chapter also
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includes the thesis stating that emergency management policies, processes, and authority changes
are event-driven. The method used to do this is a deep dive with case studies of the disasters that have shaped emergency management to what it was in 2012. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the period from 1900-1950. In Chapter 2, several of the catastrophic events of the early 1900s, like the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, talk about the federal response to them and the foundation of what eventually would be a more sustained involvement in emergency management. Chapter 3 continues expanding in this period, covering events like the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the explosions in Texas after WWII. The two chapters cover how emergency management went from being an unorganized effort to eventually leading to the Disaster Relief Act of 1950. The period from 1950 to 1978 is covered in Chapter 4, covering the evolution of emergency management throughout this period from the expansion of the federal government's involvement to the eventual dominant role policymakers and administrators had over emergency management by the end of the 1970s as new threats to the nation surfaced. Chapter 4 covers a period that saw more presidential involvement, 1979-2001, starting with the creation of FEMA in 1979 and ending with the 9/11 attacks, which led to a massive change in emergency management. This leads into Chapter 6, which covers the changes that occurred, particularly at the federal level, regarding policy, authority, and organization after the 9/11 attacks. 2005 is the main focus of Chapter 6, which covers the three catastrophic hurricanes, one of them being Hurricane Katrina, which showed the problems and flaws of the national, state, and local systems regarding disasters. It is important to note that this chapter was revised with the authors Melanie Gall and Susan Cutter offering their perspectives on the changes that have happened and those that have not. The next chapter, chapter 8, discusses the BP oil spill, whose response differentiated
from the usual response to declared natural disasters
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and managed by FEMA under the Stafford Act. Finally, over the last two chapters, the authors provide a summary and comment on what the history of disasters mentioned in the previous chapters means for the future of emergency management. They also discuss emergency management in a larger context by touching on public administration teaching points for the readers and highlighting lessons that offer insight into emergency management practices. Evaluation
The author’s method is an effective way to talk about how emergency management has evolved over the last 110 years, especially with case studies being included, which help have an overall more profound understanding of what led to changes happening and why these changes happened. While disasters different than those discussed in the book could have been chosen, they would not have highlighted the significant changes in the field of emergency management like the ones chosen, like the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina did. The disasters chosen also help prove the thesis
that the changes in emergency management policies, processes,
and authority are event-driven, as with each chapter and each disaster discussed, the changes in emergency management can be seen. The evidence presented throughout the book helps support the conclusion drawn about the considerable changes in the field. However, the book could have been made stronger by including disasters that led to small but essential changes in the field. Unfortunately, there are few reviews of the book by those in the field; the one review found in the FSU Library is inaccessible to FSU students. Summary
The book does a great job of highlighting how far emergency management has come in the last 110 years. Using case studies helps paint a picture of why these changes were needed
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while also giving more information about them to readers who do not have an extensive emergency management background or simply do not know these cases in-depth. Different authors writing different chapters also bring different perspectives on the evolution of emergency
management. The amount of research is also shown throughout the book, with every case study being discussed in depth. The book falls short of covering the years between 2005 and 2010; it was mentioned that Hurricane Katrina highlighted the shortcomings at all government levels, but
the changes made in the years after are not talked about, and instead, they jump straight into the BP Oil spill of 2010. Additionally, as mentioned above, more details of minor disasters that resulted in small but essential details could have been mentioned. Overall, the book is an excellent contribution to emergency management as it can help educate those with little to no knowledge or those interested in the field on how emergency management as we know it today came to be and the disasters that led to significant changes. References
Rubin, C. B. (Ed.). (2012). Emergency management: The American Experience, 1900-2010
(2nd ed., 314). New York, USA. CRC Press.