From the Publisher
It Takes a Nation tells the extraordinary story of how thousands of Americans came together to provide shelter, sustenance, and hope to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina through MoveOn.org's Hurricane Housing website. Volunteers brought aid to evacuees by providing much needed housing, cars, jobs, clothes, health care, and most importantly, community and offering a positive contrast to the national shame that was widely felt about the Bush administration's handling of the Katrina crisis. It Takes a Nation presents candid, first-person accounts and portraits that are a moving testament to the power of everyday people to make miracles happen.
What People Are Saying
Norman Mailer
America is a profoundly divided nation and the two halves have dangerously little in common. While one side of the land is greedy, narcissistic, essentially indifferent to the future, and ready to use religion like an ATM machine, the other half of America is compassionate beyond measure, beyond the measure of other lands, and the letters in It Takes a Nation are evidence of the overpowering truth that despite every stone-cold vice, vicissitude, and greedy-grab, every distortion of our national ideals, there remains a heart in America that still believes in compassion as the first of the virtues. How America is in need of this remaining generosity of spirit.
Naomi Wolf
Thanks to MoveOn's community, the victims of Hurricane Katrina found shelter-- and thanks to the continued citizen activism these amazing stories will inspire, all of us can hope to rebuild the country in a better way.
Michael Stipe
The title says it all. It Takes a Nation shows us that by joining together we can begin to heal the trauma that has forever changed the Gulf Coast and our country. So many Americans feel that we are living in divisive times, but MoveOn's Hurricane Housing program proved that our core values are very similar when put to the test. We are a great people, and it is in unity that we reach greatness.
Arianna Huffington
Hurricane Katrina may have exposed the worst of our cronyism-laden government, but it also brought out the best in the American spirit- as captured in these stories and images.The way that neighbor helped neighbor and stranger helped stranger, regardless of political persuasion, shows that American's core beliefs and values are far less divided than the spinmeisters on both sides of the aisle would have us believe. Thanks to MoveOn's Hurricane Housing Project, the victims of Katrina found shelter. And thanks to the citizen activism these amazing stories will surely inspire, we can all look forward to a more engaged and hopeful country.
Moby
For many years now, MoveOn has worked hard to advance progressive causes in theUnited States but I've never been more proud to be associated with MoveOn than when it successfully developed and implemented the Hurricane Housing Program. It proved that by appealing to people's better nature and sense of altruism, we really can work towards making the world a better place. People wanted to help. People wanted to do the right thing. MoveOn stepped into the breach and helped people to help each other.
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