Changes in the Air

Hurricanes in New Orleans from 1718 to the Present

Eleonora Rohland

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781800733701, 9781785339318
• eBook ISBN: 9781785339325
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Hurricanes have been a constant in the history of New Orleans. Since before its settlement as a French colony in the eighteenth century, the land entwined between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River has been lashed by powerful Gulf storms.  Time and again, these hurricanes have wrought immeasurable loss and devastation, spurring reinvention and ingenuity on the part of inhabitants. Changes in the Air offers a rich and thoroughly researched history of how hurricanes have shaped and reshaped New Orleans from the colonial era to the present day, focusing on how its residents have adapted to a uniquely unpredictable and destructive environment across more than three centuries.

Table of contents

• Changes in the Air
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures and Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction — Hurrican Katrina and the Future of the Past
• Chapter 1 — Adaptation, Knowledge, and Hurricanes in History
• Chapter 2 — Environmental Learning and Path Dependence
• Chapter 3 — Moving out of Harm’s Way
• Chapter 4 — Disaster and Social Order
• Chapter 5 — Hurricanes vs. “Mass Idleness”
• Chapter 6 — To Mandate or Not to Mandate . . .
• Chapter 7 — Adaptive Practices, Past and Present
• Bibliography
• Index