Abstract
In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina touched down in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. This massive storm left in its wake death, destruction, and human suffering on a scale and scope that will no doubt make it one of the largest social catastrophes of twenty-first-century American urban history. This disaster soon ignited widespread popular and academic debates over domestic policies dealing with questions of race and class, individual and government responsibility and accountability, and the relationship among society, technology, and the environment. Yet what is too often absent from such discussions are systematic historical perspectives on the role of human decisions in shaping the outcome of so-called “natural disasters.” Accordingly, this essay explores overlapping developments in U.S. and African American urban, social, and environmental history and underscores the significance of history for advancing contemporary debates about the meaning of Katrina and the future of New Orleans and the Gulf States.
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