Synopses & Reviews
In the span of five violent hours on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed major Gulf Coast cities and flattened 150 miles of coastline. But it was only the first stage of a shocking triple tragedy. On the heels of one of the three strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States came the storm-surge flooding, which submerged a half-million homes — followed by the human tragedy of government mismanagement, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself.
In The Great Deluge, bestselling author Douglas Brinkley finds the true heroes of this unparalleled catastrophe, and lets the survivors tell their own stories, masterly allowing them to record the nightmare that was Katrina.
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"The Great Deluge captures the human toll of Katrina as graphically as the most vivid newspaper and television accounts" Daily Advertiser
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"More dispassionate and analytical books will be written about Katrina, few will capture the human drama as well as Brinkley's." Gov. Kathleen Blanco
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"Doug Brinkley's chronicle of Hurricane Katrina has a keen sense of history and context." Washington Times
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"[A] riveting story." Graydon Carter
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"If you've grown numb to the horror of Katrina, this will wake you up. It's a stirring and important book." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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"You can call The Great Deluge history, or you can call it journalism. But it's good stuff." Denver Post
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"Written with verve and energy, this is Brinkley's best book to date." Cokie Roberts
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“An important, poignant and often-infuriating look at the tragedy.” Denver Post
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“…likely to be the [account] against which other treatments of the subject will be judged.” Washington Times
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“The first historical book that has researched the available record on Katrina and is the closest to actual fact.” Gov. Kathleen Blanco
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"You can call "The Great Deluge" history, or you can call it journalism. But it's good stuff" St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“[A] riveting story” Cokie Roberts
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“Doug Brinkleys chronicle of Hurricane Katrina has a keen sense of history and context” Graydon Carter
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“An impassioned argument for sustained national interest in the aftermath of a catastrophe.” The Advocate
About the Author
Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him "America's new past master." His most recent books are The Quiet World, The Wilderness Warrior, and The Great Deluge. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.