A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes

A key tension in Dolin’s book exists between individualism and collaboration. Individualism, the notion that people survive and thrive according to their own talents, is a crucial component of American identity, which has roots in the frontiering project of European settlers. From the age of the Conquistadors to the 19th-century colonization of the American West, Europeans waged individual rather than united campaigns on the territory. Dolin’s book explores how the “every man for himself” attitude fares in the face of the non-human problem of hurricanes, showing how collaborative efforts ran alongside this trend.

The notion of individual forays into hurricane research began in the Enlightenment, an era which celebrated scientists such as Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin as superstar individuals gifted with a unique genius. Guided by this model, Redfield and Espy worked against each other in the field of hurricane science in what became the “American Storm Controversy” (40). The non-collaborative Espy in particular was looking to boost his personal star, rather than being open to competing views that would enhance the collective knowledge about hurricanes. For Espy, the more controllable element of personal reputation took precedence over the greater task of getting closer to understanding and containing the uncontrollable force of a hurricane.