Reviews
California Earthquakes is a provocative and accessible history of science, technology, and politics in a particular natural environment.
Highly recommended to a wide variety of readers. In a broader sense than its earthquake theme, it is an absorbing account of an important component of the development of California. Geschwind writes with an attractive style, some humor, and knows how to thread intriguing anecdotes.
Geschwind, like no other, tells the story of a full spectrum of human responses to earthquakes in California. Topics are seamlessly interwoven in historical context... Dealing constructively with California earthquakes in the future should be enhanced through the understanding and appreciation of the historical aspects so well presented in this book.
This carefully researched book provides new knowledge about a group of scientific experts who are not normally associated with Progressivism. In the process of examining the history of this group of technocratic reformers, Geschwind persuasively shows how the regulatory state has come to play the single greatest role in insulating Californians from the risk of seismic disaster.
[A] thorough and well-documented study... This book is an important benchmark for understanding the historical context of [the scientific community's] work, and provides insights into how scientific policy and funding programs are formed.
Well written, tightly structured, and carefully researched.
California Earthquakes is an interesting, informative book about the evolution of public policy toward earthquake hazards. I recommend this book to seismologists, scientific historians, earthquake engineers, and the growing community of readers interested in general issues of disaster mitigation.
Book Details
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Reactions to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
Chapter 2. Setting Up a Scientific Infrastructure - Seismology California Style, 1910-1925
Chapter 3
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Reactions to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
Chapter 2. Setting Up a Scientific Infrastructure - Seismology California Style, 1910-1925
Chapter 3. Bailey Willis and the Promotion of Earthquake Safety in the Mid-1920s
Chapter 4. Engineering a Regulatory-State Apparatus - Seismic Safety in the 1930s
Chapter 5. Earthquake Experts and the Cold War State
Chapter 6. New Initiatives for Earthquake Preparedness, 1964-1971
Chapter 7. Seismic Politics - Responses to the San Fernando Earthquake of 1971
Chapter 8. Pushing Prediction - Establishment of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program
Chapter 9. The Regulatory-State Apparatus in Action
Abbreviations
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index