Given the horrific scenes we are all watching in the Gulf States, these five books from the Vairo Library collection might help us understand the dimensions of the trauma. They bring various disciplinary perspectives to coping with disaster.
Allen Barton's classic, Communities in Disaster ( HM291.B317 1970)
Lewis Aptekar's Environmental Disasters in Global Perspective (HV551.2.A64 1994)
Robert Ursano's Individual and Community Responses to Trauma and Disaster (BF789.D5I63 1994)
Anand Pandya's Disaster Psychiatry: intervening when nightmares come true. (RC552.P67D528 2004)
Beverley Raphael's When Disaster Strikes: how individuals and communities cope with catastrophe. (HV553.R34 1986)
The Whale and the Supercomputer is not a science book, but it offers insights into how nature works. Charles Wohlforth, an Alaskan resident, talks with the indigenous people of Alaska to learn their experience of climate change. When you remember how some native stories helped people escape the ravages of the tsunami, you realize how important local stories are to understanding science. This is a very readable account of why climate is so critical in our lives. (Vairo Library E99.E7W777 2005)
Austin Peay University's Bruce Speck and Sherry Hoppe have edited this anthology of essays on the history, theoretical models, and related ethical issues involving service-learning. There are critiques and justifications of the philanthropic, civic engagment and communitarian models of service-learning. The essay on the ethics of classroom advocacy looks at each of these models, and offers insights that may be of value even if service learning is not part of your course. (Vairo Library LC220.5.S4583 2004)