Claire Rubin, who I often cite here in this blog, has a new book hitting the street this week, Emergency Management: The American Experience.
The book documents these changes and their implications. This journey of change is not over yet. We are close to a dramatic era of climate-change-induced disasters and ramifications that will alter the profession even more because of the size and frequency of these events. See below for a summary of the book's contents.
Summary
The spate of disaster events ranging from major to catastrophic that have occurred in recent years raises a lot of questions about where and why they happened. Understanding the history of emergency management policies and practice is important to an understanding of current and future policies and practice.
Continuing in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, the new edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides the background to understand the key political and policy underpinnings of emergency management, exploring how major "focusing events" have shaped the field of emergency management. This edition builds on the original theoretical framework and chronological approach of previous editions, while enhancing the discussions through the addition of fresh information about the effects and outcomes of older events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The final chapters offer insightful discussion of the public administration concepts of emergency management in the U.S. and of the evolving federal role in emergency management.
Like its predecessors, the third edition of Emergency Management is a trusted and required text to understand the formation and continuing improvement [Is it improvement or evolution?] of the American national emergency management system.
