The Upside of America's Fascination With Disasters

By JENNIFER HOWARD

Kevin Rozario, associate professor of American studies at Smith College

In 1906 the American public ate up all the images of the San Francisco earthquake and fire that the media could feed it. Today we still can't look away from scenes of devastation, even as pop culture serves up ever-more-intense fantasies of calamity. In The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America (University of Chicago Press), Mr. Rozario, who dates this