She applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century, and reported the following:
Page 99 of my book recounts a major and highly destructive disaster in Guatemala City, triggered by a series of earthquakes during December 1917 and January 1918. After briefly narrating the onset of this catastrophe, page 99 goes to describe the initial U.S. response to the crisis, including the reactions of U.S. diplomats in Guatemala City and U.S. State Department officials in Washington. The U.S. relief effort that subsequently unfolded in Guatemala, I argue, was not simply a benevolent response to Guatemalan suffering. It was also motivated by U.S. strategic, diplomatic, and economic interests in the country, which were heightened due to U.S. involvement in the First World War.Learn more about Catastrophic Diplomacy at the University of North Carolina Press website.
In this case, the Page 99 Test offers a fairly good indication of the major themes and arguments that lie at the heart of Catastrophic Diplomacy. The one potential snag is that a reader might come away thinking this book is about U.S.—Guatemalan relations or the First World War; in reality, the U.S. response to the disaster in Guatemala is just one of many case studies I cover in my book. Where the Page 99 Test does succeed is in providing a snapshot of the political motivations driving U.S. humanitarian actions, a central point of my book. These sorts of motivations were by no means unique to Central America in 1917–18. To the contrary, as the rest of my book argues, U.S. foreign disaster assistance has always been a political act in some way, shape, or form. Throughout the 20th century, my book demonstrates, U.S. humanitarian operations were guided by a complex mixture of strategic, diplomatic, and moral concerns. Their goal was not only to ameliorate the suffering of disaster survivors, but also – and often, more importantly – to promote U.S. interests in other nations and empires. To support these arguments, my book examines the history of U.S. responses to dozens of disasters in all parts of the 20th century world. Focusing on sudden catastrophes caused by earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards, it examines how and why the U.S. government embraced foreign disaster aid as an instrument of its foreign policy. In the process, it shows the importance of humanitarian assistance to the history of U.S. international relations.
--Marshal Zeringue
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