Shall We Wake the President? : Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office.

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword. Presidents and Disasters by the Honorable Joseph Lieberman, former US Senator for Connecticut -- Introduction -- Section One: Acts of God -- Chapter One. The Pandemic Threat -- Chapter Two. Food and Water Crisis -- Chapter Three. Weather: A Growing Federal Role -- Chapter Four. Economic Collapse -- Chapter Five. How to Prepare for Acts of God -- Section Two: Acts of Man -- Chapter Six. Terror Attacks -- Chapter Seven. The Bioterror Threat -- Chapter Eight. Loss of the Power Grid -- Chapter Nine. Civil Unrest -- Chapter Ten. How to Prepare for Acts of Man -- Conclusion -- Appendix One. Presidential Lessons Learned -- Appendix Two. When Presidents Should Get Involved: A Checklist -- Appendix Three. Five Best and Five Worst Presidents at Dealing with Disaster -- Appendix Four. Individual Lessons Learned -- Acknowledgments -- Endnotes -- Index.

The history of presidential dealings with disasters shows that whatever their ideology, presidents need to be prepared to deal with unexpected crises. In recent years, the expectations have grown as the disasters seem to appear to be coming more frequently. Since 2001, numerous unpredictable crises, including terror attacks, massive storms, and an economic collapse, have shaken Americans to their core. It seems as if technology, for all of its beneficences, also provides mankind with increasingly powerful ways to wreak destruction, including nuclear explosions, bioterror attacks, and cyber-attacks. In addition, instantaneous and incessant communications technologies send us word of disasters taking place anywhere in the nation far more rapidly, giving disasters an immediacy that some may have lacked in the past. In Shall We Wake the President?, Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former senior White House aide and deputy secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services, looks at the evolving role of the president in dealing with disasters, and looks at how our presidents have handled disasters throughout our history. He also looks at the likelihood of similar disasters befalling modern America, and details how smart policies today can help us avoid future crises, or can best react to them should they occur.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.