The Bookshelf: Aug. 26, 2015

Trib+Water is joining with respected books authority Kirkus Reviews to bring you select reviews of books of note in the field of water studies. For more book reviews and recommendations, visit Kirkus.com.

THE DISASTER PROFITEERS: How Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even Poorer

by John C. Mutter

The author examines the intersection of the tragic loss of life and livelihood with civic irresponsibility and personal/institutional venality, played out through ill-preparedness and opportunistic aftermaths of the event. ... Think of the former vice president, Dick Cheney, who ran “Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which...received tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts for reconstruction work” after Hurricane Katrina. … [Mutter] concludes that post-disaster risk reduction must be realistic, that reconstruction must be inclusive, and that neutral parties must ensure the appropriate use of relief funds: obvious, yes; practiced, rarely. A hackle-raising book about nature and human nature, venality and justice, and how disasters—before, during, and after—sharply mirror society.

For the full review, visit kirkus.com.