After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina

by David Dante Troutt

Overview

Available for the first time in paperback after selling out its hardcover print run and being frequently named among the best of the Katrina books, After the Storm offers "angry, learned, focused, readable, [and] essential" writing, according to Library Journal, in which contributors face what Ebony magazine calls "questions about poverty, housing, governmental decision-making, crime, community development and political participation, which were raised in the aftermath of the storm."

Featuring the work of leading African American intellectuals, including Derrick Bell, Charles Ogletree, Michael Eric Dyson, Cheryl Harris, Devon Carbado, Adolph Reed, Sheryll Cashin, and Clement Alexander Price, After the Storm suggests "precisely what we must do if we are to both save the planet and create the great towns and cities that we can proudly bequeath to future generations" (Socialist Review).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595582034
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	09/01/2006
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

David Dante Troutt is a professor of law and Justice John J. Francis Scholar at Rutgers University. Author of The Monkey Suit (The New Press), among other books, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

These 10 original, judiciously edited essays-most of them by lawyers-explore the political and social response to Hurricane Katrina. The two opening pieces look back to the historical development of ghetto neighborhoods. Another complementary pair addresses the centrality of race in Louisiana politics and the commonalities of black and white suffering. Among the best are Clement Alexander Price's "Historicizing Katrina," a groundbreaking review of the "close link between natural disaster and black migrations in American history," and Cheryl I. Harris and Devon W. Carbado's "Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?" an eye-opening riff on the way the frame of race filters our perception of fact. Others consider the treatment of the victims as criminal acts, delve into the dispersal of the population and examine the media response. All are succinct and fresh, bound by the common question of whether there will be a new New Orleans, how it will be made and how much of the old New Orleans can be resuscitated. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In many ways, this is the most impressive of the books summarized here, owing to its precision and its refusal to dwell merely on the expected. Most of the contributors are law school faculty. They assess why Katrina was handled as it was (and still is), how inevitable future crises should be handled differently, and how redevelopment of New Orleans should occur. Angry, learned, focused, readable, essential. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"10 original, judiciously edited essays . . . succinct and fresh." —Publishers Weekly

"Among the best. . . . Ten essays by legal scholars cover a tremendous expanse of issues . . . will reverberate for years." —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"In many ways, this is the most impressive of the [Katrina] books . . . owing to its precision and its refusal to dwell merely on the expected." —Library Journal

"The shelves aren't exactly crowded with works by black writers examining the debacle from an African-American perspective . . . [Troutt's offers] sage advice." —Washington Post

"Poignant and provocative." —The City Paper

From the Publisher