State of Disaster

State of Disaster: A Historical Geography of Louisiana's Land Loss Crisis explores Louisiana's protracted efforts to restore and protect its coastal marshes, nearly always with minimal regard for the people displaced by those efforts. As Craig E. Colten shows, the state's coastal restoration plan seeks to protect cities and industry but sacrifices the coastal dwellers who have maintained their presence in this perilous place for centuries.This historical geography examines in turn the adaptive capacity of those living through repeated waves of calamity; the numerous disjointed environmental management regimes that contributed to the current crisis; the cartographic visualizations of land loss used to activate public coastal policy; and the phases of public input that nevertheless failed to give voice to the citizens most impacted by various environmental management strategies. In closing, Colten situates Louisiana's experience within broader discussions of climate change and recovery from repeated crises.

Meticulously researched and sensitively argued, State of Disaster paints a lesson for all who may confront subsiding lands, rising seas, and disappearing coastal heritage. In our age of accelerating global change, the contested and dynamic Mississippi Delta becomes an evocative case study for finding better ways to manage the planet's irreplaceable cultural and natural treasures.-- "Marcus Hall, author of "Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration""

Craig E. Colten is the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University. He is the author of An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature; Perilous Place, Powerful Storms: Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana; and Southern Waters: The Limits to Abundance.