When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands were left behind to
suffer the ravages of destruction, disease, and even death. The majority of these people were black; nearly all
were poor.
Displaying the intellectual rigor, political passion, and personal empathy that have won him acclaim and fans all
across the color line, Michael Eric Dyson offers a searing assessment of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina. With
this clarion call Dyson warns us that we can only find redemption as a society if we acknowledge that Katrina was
more than an engineering or emergency response failure. What's at stake is no less than the future of democracy.