Description
Book SynopsisInvestigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. In this book, the 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes.
Trade Review"Simon’s book will only become more and more important as our reckoning with climate change becomes more urgent." * U.S. Studies Online *
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I FLAME AND FORTUNE IN THE AMERICAN WEST: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INCENDIARY 1. The 1991 Tunnel Fire: The Case for an Affluence-Vulnerability Interface 2. The Changing American West: From "Flammable Landscape" to the "Incendiary" PART II ILLUMINATING THE AFFLUENCE VULNERABILITY INTERFACE IN THE TUNNEL FIRE AREA 3. Trailblazing: Producing Landscapes, Extracting Profits, Inserting Risk 4. Setting the Stage for Disaster: Revenue Maximization, Wealth Protection, and Its Discontents 5. Who's Vulnerable? The Politics of Identifying, Experiencing, and Reducing Risk PART III HOW THE WEST WAS SPUN: DEPOLITICIZING THE ROOT CAUSES OF WILDFIRE HAZARDS 6. Smoke Screen: When Explaining Wildfires Conceals the Incendiary 7. Debates of Distraction: Our Inability to See the Incendiary for the Spark PART IV AFTER THE FIRE: THE CONCOMITANT EXPANSION OF AFFLUENCE AND RISK 8. Dispatches from the Field: Win-Win Outcomes and the Limits of Post-Wildfire Mitigation 9. Out of the Ashes: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and Financial Opportunism Conclusion: From Excavating to Treating the Incendiary Notes References Index
