Synopses & Reviews
When Daniel Wolff first headed down to New Orleans five months after the levees breached, he thought he might spend a year reporting on the recovery ahead. He found people desperate to tell their stories; they had lost the documents of their personal history - the photos and diaries - in the flood. They wanted to recover and preserve their stories through telling, and as their recovery dragged on and they struggled to make their government keep its promises, they became desperate about the recorders and cameras turning away. A year of reporting became five.
Wolff follows the inevitable difficulties of rebuilding a city almost from scratch. A quarter of the population chose not to return; those who did had to rebuild not just houses but community. The city of their memory, their model, had one of the worst crime rates and worst school systems in the country; yet an organized plan for a brighter future might eliminate the very neighborhoods they had returned to fight for. The government was incompetent; the contractors were corrupt. In this environment, trust becomes a radical act and hope is its own small miracle.
The Fight for Home introduces an amazing cast of characters: ex-addicts and church women, ex-Black Panthers and Sons of the Confederacy; urban planners and anarchists. As their journeys unfold, Fight for Home becomes a story of surviving not just a flood, but the emergency of the everyday - of surviving in America.
Synopsis
After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became ground zero for the reinvention of the American city, with urban planners, movie stars, anarchists, and politicians all advancing their competing visions of recovery. In this wash of reform, residents and volunteers from across the country struggled to build the foundations of a new New Orleans.
For over five years, author Daniel Wolff has documented an amazing cross section of the city in upheaval: a born-again preacher with a ministry of ex-addicts, a former Black Panther organizing for a new cause, a single mother, "broke as a joke" in a FEMA trailer. The Fight for Home chronicles their battle to survive not just the floods, but the corruption that continues and the base-level emergency of poverty and neglect.
From ruin to limbo to triumphant return, Wolff offers an intimate look at the lives of everyday American heroes. A s these lives play out against the ruined local landscape and an emerging national recession, The Fight for Home becomes a story of resilience and hope.
Synopsis
After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became ground zero for the reinvention of the American city, with urban planners, movie stars, anarchists, and politicians all advancing their competing visions of recovery. In this wash of reform, residents and volunteers from across the country struggled to build the foundations of a new New Orleans.For over five years, author Daniel Wolff has documented an amazing cross section of the city in upheaval: a born-again preacher with a ministry of ex-addicts, a former Black Panther organizing for a new cause, a single mother, "broke as a joke" in a FEMA trailer. The Fight for Home chronicles their battle to survive not just the floods, but the corruption that continues and the base-level emergency of poverty and neglect.From ruin to limbo to triumphant return, Wolff offers an intimate look at the lives of everyday American heroes. A s these lives play out against the ruined local landscape and an emerging national recession, The Fight for Home becomes a story of resilience and hope.
Synopsis
The powerful story of the rebuilding of New Orleans -- of competing visions for one city and for our country.
Synopsis
The powerful story of the rebuilding of New Orleans -- of competing visions for one city and for our country.
Synopsis
After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became ground zero for the reinvention of the American city, with urban planners, movie stars, anarchists, and politicians all advancing their competing visions of recovery. In this wash of reform, residents and volunteers from across the country struggled to build the foundations of a new New Orleans.
For over five years, author Daniel Wolff has documented an amazing cross section of the city in upheaval: a born-again preacher with a ministry of ex-addicts, a former Black Panther organizing for a new cause, a single mother, "broke as a joke" in a FEMA trailer. The Fight for Home chronicles their battle to survive not just the floods, but the corruption that continues and the base-level emergency of poverty and neglect.
From ruin to limbo to triumphant return, Wolff offers an intimate look at the lives of everyday American heroes. A s these lives play out against the ruined local landscape and an emerging national recession, The Fight for Home becomes a story of resilience and hope.
About the Author
Daniel Wolff is the author of How Lincoln Learned to Read, a Chicago Tribune Editor's Choice pick; 4th of July, Asbury Park, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice pick; You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, a national bestseller; and two volumes of poetry, among other books. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from Vogue to Wooden Boat to Education Weekly. He is the co-producer, with Jonathan Demme, of several documentary film projects on New Orleans.