California earthquakes
Subtitle: science, risk, and the politics of hazard mitigation
By: Carl-Henry Geschwind.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 337
Subjects: Earthquake hazard analysis -- California -- History.; Earthquakes -- California -- Safety measures -- History.; Hazard mitigation -- California.
Description: "In 1906, after an earthquake wiped out much of San Francisco, leading California officials and scientists described the disaster as a one-time occurrence and assured the public that it had nothing to worry about. California Earthquakes explains how, over time, this attitude changed, and Californians came to accept earthquakes as a significant threat, as well as to understand how science and technology could reduce this threat.".

"Tracing the history of seismology and the rise of the regulatory state and environmental awareness, California Earthquakes examines how earthquake-hazard management came about, why some groups assisted and others fought it, and how scientists and engineers helped shape it."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-316) and index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Reactions to the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906; title: Setting up a scientific infrastructure : seismology California style, 1910-1925; title: Bailey Willis and the promotion of earthquake safety in the mid-1920s; title: Engineering a regulatory state apparatus : seismic safety in the 1930s; title: Earthquake experts and the Cold War state; title: New initiatives for earthquake preparedness, 1964-1971; title: Seismic politics: responses to the San Fernando earthquake; title: Pushing prediction: the establishment of the national earthquake hazards reduction; title: Program; title: The regulatory state apparatus in action.