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Abstract

In Catastrophe and Social Change, generally acknowledged to be the first academic study of disaster, Samuel Henry Prince draws heavily on an unpublished manuscript by a Nova Scotian journalist Dwight Johnstone. Johnstone's manuscript is now in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. It reveals something of what Prince was doing after the explosion. It also provides new information about the response in Halifax, including information about the absence of panic, the absence of role abandonment and the presence of all three types of convergence. Johnstone's manuscript includes some speculation about the cause of the explosion and is written in rather flowery language but it is a significant contribution to our knowledge about disaster response. It is important in its own right as well as for its impact on Prince.

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The Man who Helped Sammy Prince Write: Dwight Johnstone and the Halifax Explosion

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