The Resilient City How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster

by Vale, Lawrence J.; Campanella, Thomas J.

• ISBN13: 9780195175837
• ISBN10: 0195175832
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In 1871, the city of Chicago was almost entirely destroyed by what became known as The Great Fire. Thirty-five years later, San Francisco lay in smoldering ruins after the catastrophic earthquake of 1906. Or consider the case of the Jerusalem, the greatest site of physical destruction andrenewal in history, which, over three millennia, has suffered wars, earthquakes, fires, twenty sieges, eighteen reconstructions, and at least eleven transitions from one religious faith to another. Yet this ancient city has regenerated itself time and again, and still endures. Throughout history, cities have been sacked, burned, torched, bombed, flooded, besieged, and leveled. And yet they almost always rise from the ashes to rebuild. Viewing a wide array of urban disasters in global historical perspective, The Resilient City traces the aftermath of such cataclysms as:--the British invasion of Washington in 1814 --the devastation wrought on Berlin, Warsaw, and Tokyo during World War II --the late-20th century earthquakes that shattered Mexico City and the Chinese city of Tangshan --Los Angeles after the 1992 riots --the Oklahoma City bombing --the destruction of the World Trade Center Revealing how traumatized city-dwellers consistently develop narratives of resilience and how the pragmatic process of urban recovery is always fueled by highly symbolic actions, The Resilient City offers a deeply informative and unsentimental tribute to the dogged persistence of the city, andindeed of the human spirit.

Author Biography

Lawrence J. Vale is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of From the Puritans to the Projects: A History of Public Housing in America, among other titles. Thomas J. Campanella is Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of Republic of Shade and Cities from the Sky.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
Introduction: The Cities Rise Again	3	(24)
Lawrence J. Vale
Thomas J. Campanella
PART I Narratives of Resilience
Making Progress: Disaster Narratives and the Art of Optimism in Modern America	27	(28)
Kevin Rozario
``The Predicament of Aftermath'': Oklahoma City and September 11	55	(20)
Edward T. Linenthal
The City's End: Past and Present Narratives of New York's Destruction	75	(22)
Max Page
PART II The Symbolic Dimensions of Trauma and Recovery
Patriotism and the Reconstruction of Washington, D.C., after the British Invasion of 1814	97	(20)
Anthony S. Pitch
Double Restoration: Rebuilding Berlin after 1945	117	(18)
Brian Ladd
Warsaw: Reconstruction as Propaganda	135	(24)
Jasper Goldman
A Delayed Healing: Understanding the Fragmented Resilience of Gernika	159	(22)
Julie B. Kirschbaum
Desiree Sideroff
Resurrecting Jerusalem	181	(32)
Julian Beinart
PART III The Politics of Reconstruction
Resilient Tokyo: Disaster and Transformation in the Japanese City	213	(22)
Carola Hein
``Resist the Earthquake and Rescue Ourselves'': The Reconstruction of Tangshan after the 1976 Earthquake	235	(20)
Beatrice Chen
Reverberations: Mexico City's 1985 Earthquake and the Transformation of the Capital	255	(26)
Diane E. Davis
A Vital Void: Reconstructions of Downtown Beirut	281	(18)
Hashim Sarkis
After the Unrest: Ten Years of Rebuilding Los Angeles following the Trauma of 1992	299	(14)
William Fulton
Cyborg Agonistes: Disaster and Reconstruction in the Digital Electronic Era	313	(22)
William J. Mitchell
Anthony M. Townsend
Conclusion: Axioms of Resilience	335	(22)
Lawrence J. Vale
Thomas J. Campanella
Appendix: Suggestions for Further Reading on Urban Disasters and Recovery	357	(6)
Index	363