Erikson (Sociology/Yale) expands his earlier examination of
communities under stress (Everything in Its Path, 1977) in an
attempt to define a new kind of trauma that those victimized by
man-made disasters now face. According to Erikson, what happens
after a disaster such as a dam break or an oil spill is often at
least as traumatic as the primary event itself. He highlights the
plight of the Grassy Knoll Indians in Ontario, who faced both
relocation by the Canadian government and the discovery that
mercury was contaminating their river; the mercury poisoned their
bodies, and being uprooted from their ancestral lands shattered
their culture. Erickson examines a Ft. Collins, Colorado, suburb
threatened by an underground gas leak caused by a Royal Petroleum
service station; he then revisits the nuclear disaster at
Three-Mile Island and the potential consequences of a proposed
nuclear waste-disposal site in California's Yucca Mountains. Among
other cases he discusses are the homeless, the victims of
Hiroshima, and the subject of his original book, the victims of the
Buffalo Creek Flood. In all these instances, Erikson is heading
toward a distinction between natural and unnatural disasters,
arguing that while natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes and
hurricanes) can sometimes build a sense of community, unnatural
disasters usually destroy it along with any collective feeling of
trust and security. These points have been previously made by
sociologists Michael Edelstein and Phil Brown. Unfortunately,
Erikson, who often testifies in litigation cases involving trauma,
leaves the reader frustrated and ultimately dissatisfied by his
failure to bring up to date his report and conclusions on the
communities examined. (Kirkus Reviews)
Unlike earthquakes and other natural catastrophes, this "new
species of trouble" afflicts persons and groups in particularly
disruptive ways. With clear-eyed compassion, in vivid narrative and
in participants' own words, Kai Erikson describes how certain
communities have faced such disasters. He shows conclusively that
new attention must be paid to their experiences if people are to
maintain elementary confidence not only in themselves but in
society, government, and even life itself.
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