The fault lines within society; Assessing San Francisco’s resilience in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire

Abstract

This study assesses the resilience of San Francisco in the wake of the earthquake and fire of 1906. Adopting the prevalent perspective of historical disaster studies, this study analyses society as a socio-economic system. Hence, employing the concepts of vulnerability and marginalization. The hypothesis is that marginalized communities will develop differently than the general population due the disaster. Thus, changing the composition of society, for instance, through forced migration. The focus is on the four largest immigrant populations (Irish, Italian, German and Chinese) in San Francisco. These subpopulations were more vulnerable as they suffered from the discriminative dynamics of the relief measures and rebuilding policy. The demographic developments that took place after the disaster, discernible from the 1900 and the 1910 census, show this marginalization had an enduring effect on the composition of society.