Disaster: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis

Abstract

AbstractDisaster is one of those extraordinary phenomena that is ubiquitous yet indescribable. From supernatural occurrence to earthly force finally yielding to its present day configuration as a social event, disaster offers a unique lens with which to examine history. Beginning in the mid‐twentieth century, scholars set out to examine urban life, race, class, and politics through a variety of socially dislocating events. The historical literature is varied and deep. Conceptions of disaster are seldom the same, and often highlight the strained relationship between social and natural configurations. But historians examining disaster have not advocated a common creed of catastrophe, so much as sharing a familiar lexicon. That language is informed by social scientific literature, environmental studies, and topics such as urban life, race, class and politics. To be sure, the discourse of disaster has been quite supple, bridging disparate units of historical manufacture and blurring familiar categories of analysis. This article surveys the evolution of the term, its usage in American historiography and major scholarly trends. The article concludes with a cri de couer to bring greater visibility to disaster studies.