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What Lies Beneath | Advance Praise
“What Lies Beneath is a book that will keep alive the memory of one of the most dramatic and terrible events of the new millennium—the catastrophe of the Katrina hurricane and its aftermath.… At the center of story are the unavoidable issues of race, class, and the shameful callousness of officialdom. The book will keep us thinking for a long time about what happened, why it happened, and provoke us to examine honestly the nature of the society in which we live.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
“Here, finally, is clear-eyed and fascinating analysis of what Hurricane Katrina has to teach us about politics, power, human connection, and working for justice. What Lies Beneath is crucial reading—an organizer’s handbook for the 21st century.”
—Hon. Barbara Smith, co-founder, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, Member, City Council, Albany, New York
“What Lies Beneath reveals how ‘natural’ disasters like Katrina are increasingly man-made and caused by corporate greed, how those who have no role in creating climate chaos bear its worst burden, and how those involved in the crime of climate catastrophes use the disasters they have created to dispossess the poor, women, and people of color in the name of a ‘cleanup.’”
—Vandana Shiva, author of Earth Democracy
“What Lies Beneath is a work of fury spawned not by the inchoate forces of nature, but by activists, poets, organizers, and scholars. This brilliant little book is a written response to the forces of state, corporate, and media power which converged to isolate, demonize, destroy, and finally forget those many black and poor people who found themselves bitterly alone in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”
—Mumia Abu-Jamal, author of Live From Death Row
“What Lies Beneath tells the real story of those abandoned to face Hurricane Katrina, and reveals the people’s uprising that provided shelter, aid, and comfort where there would be none. Their urgent voices tell us: never forget, never surrender.”
—Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop, Won't Stop
“We never know enough about our enemies. That’s why they do so well. Katrina was a cover and an exposer of Bush Fascism. This book helps us understand this. Understand or die!”
—Amiri Baraka, former Poet Laureate of the State of New Jersey
“What Lies Beneath comes from the heart. Visions of devastation combine with the praxis of reconstruction: people whose sweat reclaims New Orleans tell us how corporate power uses Katrina as slum clearance. The common ground of community socialism goes toe-to-toe with disaster capitalism.”
—Vijay Prashad, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting
“The suffering that continues in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is not accidental. It results from years of intentional, planned wrongdoing committed by powerful economic and political interests. Future human-made disasters will only be prevented if the prophetic voices presented in What Lies Beneath are heeded.”
—Margaret Kimberley, Freedom Rider blog
“This volume is wide-ranging in style as it narrows in on its subject—the truth about race in the United States that is revealed in the events around Hurricane Katrina. The combination of on-the-ground reporting and analysis placing events in their wider context helps readers untangle the ways in which race, gender, and class affected the outcome of that most unnatural disaster. The book bristles with the anger we should all feel, and offers the critical self-reflection we should all engage in.”
—Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin, author of The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege
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