Pre-Modern Disaster Politics: Combating Catastrophe in the 1950s

In this essay, I investigate how the U.S. responded to disasters during the first decade after passage of the Federal Disaster Act of 1950. I examine mid-twentieth century disaster politics in relation to Martha Derthick’s observations about federalism during the Eisenhower era, drawing on a characterization of contemporary emergency management derived in part from her writings on the subject. Focusing on the Eisenhower Administration’s efforts to contain growing expectations regarding relief, I explain why, as late as the 1950s, a president could make that effort without incurring any political cost. Federal disaster politics in the 1950s was fundamentally different than in the contemporary era, and therefore it makes only limited sense to view the 1950 federal disaster act as marking the origin of contemporary disaster politics. The modern regime of disaster politics emerged afterward.