Barton's Theory of Collective Stress is a Classic and Worth Testing

Why after twenty years should anyone bother to read Barton's book, Communities in Disaster? Because this book reveals a classic structure by combining theory and method in a rigorous but creative product. Barton's book provides lasting value because it sets forth a distinctive sociological approach to disasters. This approach contributes to the disaster field as well as to general sociology. The central idea of collective stress serves as a focal point in codifying sociologically the earliest disaster research, and also it underlies major constructs such as the emergency social system, mass convergence, and therapeutic community which are standard terms in the disaster field lexicon of today.