Disaster Book Club: A Paradise Built in Hell

From the Seattle Office of Emergency Management:

Join us for our May 2019 Disaster Book Club event! In April, we will be reading Rebecca Solnit’s “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster.” Using case studies and personal experiences, Melanie Cole from the Seattle Office of Emergency Management will be there to lead a presentation on community building post-disaster.

About the Book: The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster’s grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.