Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability (Radical Imagination Series) [Paperback]

Henry A. Giroux (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1594513295 | ISBN-13: 978-1594513299 | Publication Date: September 30, 2006

In his newest provocative book, prominent social critic Henry A. Giroux shows how the tragedy and suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals a much larger crisis in the United States one that threatens the very nature of individual freedom and inclusive democracy. This crisis extends far beyond matters of leadership, governance, or the Bush administration. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart of democracy and must be understood within a broader set of antidemocratic forces that not only made the social disaster underlying Katrina possible, but also contribute to an emerging authoritarianism in the United States. Questions regarding who is going to die and who is going to live are driving a new form of authoritarianism in the United States. Within this form of dirty democracy a new and more insidious set of forces embedded in our global economy have largely given up on the sanctity of human life, rendering some groups as disposable and privileging others. Giroux offers up a vision of hope that creates the conditions for multiple collective and global struggles that refuse to use politics as an act of war and markets as the measure of democracy. Making human beings superfluous is the essence of totalitarianism, and democracy is the antidote in urgent need of being reclaimed. Katrina will keep the hope of such a struggle alive because for many of us the images of those floating bodies serve as a desperate reminder of what it means when justice, as the lifeblood of democracy, becomes cold and indifferent.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Henry Giroux here presents a powerful portrait. Read this book, and join its encomia to think and to act! -- Lewis R. Gordon, author of Disciplinary Decadence: Living Thought in Trying Times Henry Giroux is one of the country's most astute social and cultural critics. In this meditation on the Katrina catastrophe he takes us beyond that event to give us a brilliant analysis of what Katrina reveals about our society and how we might change the way we live in the world. His book is profound, disturbing, provocative. I hope it will be widely read. -- Howard Zinn Henry Giroux's Stormy Weather provides a brilliant study of how Hurricane Katrina unmasked the Bush administration's "politics of disposability," showing how its policies are anti-life in the deepest sense while maintaining a pro-life rhetoric. Strongly argued and well-documented, Giroux provides a rigorous analysis of growing authoritarianism, militarism, hypocrisy and un-benign neglect in US politics, counterposed to an oppositional biopolitics aiming to enhance human life and struggle towards a more robust U.S. democracy and global cosmopolitanism. -- Douglas Kellner, UCLA It takes a shock, like Katrina, to tear up the veil that on 'normal' days hides from view the deep wounds carved upon our society by poverty, humiliation, and denial of human dignity. It takes another, no lesser if not yet greater shock, like reading Henry Giroux's cool, thoroughly researched and meticulously balanced account of what Katrina has unveiled and brought into view, to grasp the enormity of pain and the magnitude of misery suffered by the wounded; and to shake off the slumber so that Katrinas be no longer needed to stay awake to the wrongdoing and its victims. -- Zygmunt Bauman

From the Publisher

"By far the single most important account and analysis of the Katrina catastrophe."

David L. Clark, McMaster University --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Paradigm Publishers (September 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594513295
• ISBN-13: 978-1594513299
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy, January 9, 2007

By 

Malvin (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability (Radical Imagination Series) (Paperback)

"Stormy Weather" by Henry A. Giroux is a penetrating and compelling analysis of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Mr. Giroux places the event within its historical context in order to illuminate how the U.S. has been digressing away from democracy and towards authoritarianism. Intelligently applying Michel Foucault's concept of 'biopower' to discuss how the state chooses to exercise sovereign control over its citizens, Mr. Giroux presents an exceptionally powerful deconstruction and critique of the frightening world that neoliberalism has spawned. Mr. Giroux's erudite and passionate commentary also proposes how we might begin to reclaim our lost democracy.

The book has two chapters. The first discusses how the suffering of the poor in New Orleans underscores how neoliberalism has found it more convenient to dispose of populations considered to be economically unproductive than to care for them. Mr. Giroux contends that the media images of the poor, sick and elderly among the predominantly African-American populations who were left to fend for themselves exposed the persistence of racism. Mr. Giroux suggests that neoliberal policies that sacrifice the public interest in favor of privatization schemes and tax cuts for the wealthy are to blame for eroding the social compact where public works projects are gutted and large sectors of the population are marginalized, inlcuding those who were simply unable to leave New Orleans without access to private transportation. Suggesting that the government's response to the disaster was not simply a matter of incompetence but "malign neglect", Mr. Giroux discusses how security forces later cleansed the city of its poor in order to allow redevelopment for the benefit of corporate interests.

While much of this has been commented upon by others, a distinguishing characteristic of Mr. Giroux's work is his methodical peeling of the layers of the onion to connect the Katrina tragedy with the inner logic of the neoliberal economic system. To that end, the second chapter discusses the increasingly authoritarian practices of the U.S. government under the Bush administration. Mr. Giroux believes that preemptive war, spying, torture and illegal detentions are proof that the U.S. has embraced militarization as a domestic and foreign policy solution; this is intended to quell dissent and promote a market fundamentalism dedicated to consumerism and free markets where the rich are rewarded and the poor are punished. However, the author hopes that the outrage stirred by the Katrina disaster will compel citizens to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy and work cooperatively to restore justice and democracy.

I highly recommend this insightful, timely and powerful book to everyone.

1.0 out of 5 stars Should be called: Why America Sucks...and It's all Bush's Fault, December 8, 2011

By 

Concernicus - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Stormy Weather: Katrina and the Politics of Disposability (Radical Imagination Series) (Paperback)

I don't often write reviews but felt I had to for this. This book is a complete debacle. It is a prime example of what happens when someone on the extreme political left uses a national disaster to fuel their own agenda and opinion. Or rather I should say it is what happens when someone tries to write an entire book based around the ignorant, self-loathing comment of one Kanye West, "George Bush does not care about black people." Haha. The author has trouble actually writing anything in the novel (more like a long essay) that is genuinely original or thought-provoking. Literally every two or three paragraphs are punctuated by half a page of quotes dialogue from a pundit or liberal publication that just explains again everything he took 3 pages to already tell us. His sources are neither scholarly or reputable. Not to mention the fact that this is a novel written about race relations and politics in America by a WHITE CANADIAN. I could go on for pages upon pages about how much of an atrocity the writing style but won't here for the sake of clarity. Let's just say that Mr. Giroux's pocket thesaurus must have been working double duty. Also, it is apparent he lacks even the grammatical understanding of a 3rd grader as his use of run on sentencing borders on the absurd. I am looking as I type this at once sentence that goes on (without exaggeration) for about 3 pages, restating 4 times the same opinion. And THAT my friends is what this is: a work of fiction, hearsay, and bias. Please do not read it as fact. If I was not forced to read this sorry excuse for writing for a class I don't think I could truly appreciate how warped the far left has become. The author is a puppet and this is just one of his many works that uses an event to fuel his agenda. Read if you want an understanding at how far our country has fallen because of social dependence on the government and the gimme attitude that shapes the left. Read it if you are done figuring out how to help yourself and others and just want the government to provide everything for you and control your life. Read it if your an ignorant, politically blind, socially unaware person.