When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, writer Douglas Brinkley was forced to evacuate his home along with scores of his fellow New Orleans residents. Now the New York Times best-selling author of The Boys of Pointe du Hoc and Tour of Duty tells the complete tale of the terrible storm. Through detailed research and interviews with survivors, Brinkley investigates the failure of government at every level to manage this devastating tragedy. He also explains the political, social, and economic factors that led to the breakdown of the New Orleans levee system, particularly how the Mississippi Gulf Coast was never properly rebuilt after Hurricane Camille in 1969. Douglas Brinkley is professor of history and director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Tulane University. Four of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. His last three historical narratives, Tour of Duty, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc and Parish Priest were all New York Times best-sellers. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and American Heritage, he lives in New Orleans with his wife, Anne, and their two children, Benton and Johnny. “... its thick detail provides a ground-level view of human behavior far richer than the breathless news reports that stunned and shamed the nation in the summer of 2005.”— New York Times Book Review