[For] decades, researchers have told us that the link between cataclysm and social disintegration is a myth perpetuated by movies, fiction, and misguided journalism. In fact, in case after case, the opposite occurs: In the earthquake and fire of 1906, Jack London observed: never, in all San Francisco's history, were her people so kind and courteous as on this night of terror. We did not panic. We coped, a British psychiatrist recalled after the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings. We often assume that such humanity among survivors, what author Rebecca Solnit has called a paradise built in hell, is an exception after catastrophes, specific to a particular culture or place. In fact, it is the rule.