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Chargement... Galveston and the 1900 Storm (2000)par Patricia Bellis Bixel
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. 1   waltzmn | Jun 8, 2021 |    ) Pamici | May 25, 2013 | aucune critique | ajouter une critique
The Galveston storm of 1900 reduced a cosmopolitan and economically vibrant city to a wreckage-strewn wasteland where survivors struggled without shelter, power, potable water, or even the means to summon help. At least 6,000 of the city's 38,000 residents died in the hurricane. Many observers predicted that Galveston would never recover and urged that the island be abandoned. Instead, the citizens of Galveston seized the opportunity, not just to rebuild, but to reinvent the city in a thoughtful, intentional way that reformed its government, gave women a larger role in its public life, and made it less vulnerable to future storms and flooding. This extensively illustrated history tells the full story of the 1900 Storm and its long-term effects. The authors draw on survivors' accounts to vividly recreate the storm and its aftermath. They describe the work of local relief agencies, aided by Clara Barton and the American Red Cross, and show how their short-term efforts grew into lasting reforms. At the same time, the authors reveal that not all Galvestonians benefited from the city's rebirth, as African Americans found themselves increasingly shut out from civic participation by Jim Crow segregation laws. As the centennial of the 1900 Storm prompts remembrance and reassessment, this complete account will be essential and fascinating reading for all who seek to understand Galveston's destruction and rebirth. .Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires 
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)976.4History and Geography North America South Central U.S. TexasClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3)
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You might be able to tell that just from the title, which is about as pedestrian as it can be. The classic book on the Galveston Hurricane and Flood is John Edward Weems's A Weekend in September. By telling the individual stories of a number of Flood victims, it brings the Flood home. But Weems doesn't always tell the whole story. Case in point: After the storm, there were so many corpses on Galveston Island that people had to be forced by armed soldiers to gather up the bodies.
What Weems did not say was that the people who were forced, by armed might, to do the cleaning up, were Black.
Similarly, there were charges of looting. What Weems does not say is that most of those charged were Black, even though there is every reason to think that all races were involved -- both Blacks and whites had lost their homes, and they did what they had to to survive.
So Bixel and Turner draw back the curtain on the horrid injustices in the wake of the Galveston Flood. And that is good. But they're so earnest that the result is just plain dull. And not really helpful. How bad was the storm? How many were the casualties? Where was the damage greatest and least? Some -- not all -- of that information is here, but it's much easier to get it from Weems. In Bixel and Turner, the story of the Flood feels like a footnote to the story of the injustice -- a useful corrective, but if you don't know how bad the disaster was, you don't really know how bad the injustice was.
And it's a dreadfully flat read.
Apart from the racial aspect, the best part of this is the coverage of how the city changed its governance system (from elective to appointive) to get the repair work done, plus the coverage of the rebuilding. Plus there are many, many photos of the city before, during, and after -- as a picture book, this is great. But I'd rather have the facts.
There is a racial tragedy here, and it ought to be told. But this book, between its intensity and its monotony, fails to tell it convincingly. (