"Claire Rubin’s third edition is essential reading for students and scholars in emergency management and an excellent introduction to the history of American emergency management for other interested readers. The earlier editions have served as core texts in introductory and advanced classes and the new edition brings the history of the field up to date with new chapters by leading scholars." —William L. Waugh, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University"Emergency Management: The American Experience is an essential book in the field. The updated third edition adds important analyses of recent disasters and policy trends. This book continues to be essential reading for scholars of disaster policy as well as for anyone who wishes to understand the historical and political contexts of emergency management and disaster policy in the United States." —Thomas Birkland, Department of Public Administration, North Carolina State University"The third edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides a rich account of disaster policy, to include important historical, social, and administrative issues that underpin our largely reactionary approach to emergency management. Claire Rubin and her colleagues adroitly describe the multitude of lessons learned and not learned following seminal disasters over time across the United States. This book provides crucial insights for both seasoned emergency managers seeking to develop more informed, proactive policy as well as educators who strive to teach the next generation of emergency managers how to more effectively plan for a more resilient future. Given the continued rise in disaster losses, including those exacerbated by a changing climate, the lessons derived from this text are more prescient than ever before and I look forward to further lessons drawn from the compendium book The U.S. Emergency Management System in the Twenty-first Century: From Disaster to Catastrophe." —Gavin Smith, PhD, AICP, Professor, North Carolina State University