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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 155.935 EAN: 9780307352897 ISBN: 0307352897 Label: Crown Manufacturer: Crown Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 288 Publication Date: June 10, 2008 Publisher: Crown Release Date: June 10, 2008 Studio: Crown Editorial Review: Product Description: It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization. Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter? Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear. Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire. Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help. The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Good but don't go hunting with the authorThis book is quite good, particularly if you'd like to evaluate yourself and understand how well you might do in a life-threatening emergency. One criteria, which is used to predict how well those being tested for admission into our military's Special Forces will do, is especially intriguing. You're asked if you've experienced three symptoms: 1. Things seem to move in slow motion. 2. Things seemed unreal, as if in a dream. 3. You had a feeling of separation from ... Read More Rating:  - BUY IT NOW! Seriously, if this subject even interests you, buy this!I just finished reading this and cannot wait till I read it again! This is full of not just well written stories, but backed by hours of research and science! It also points you in the right direction of further research with a great breakdown in the back of the book of where the book got it research from by chapter! If emergency management / homeland security even interests you, buy this! Also, if you are in the slightest curious on human response in disasters, buy this book! If you want to better prepare ... Read More Rating: - Sobering, but also EmpoweringThrough study of the latest scientific information regarding human behavior during the stress of disastrous incidents, the author describes how our perceptions and cognitive processes are distorted under these conditions, leading to behaviors that may once have been evolutionarily appropriate but in the modern age are maladaptive and threaten our survival. The book takes us through gripping accounts of individuals who survived 9/11, plane crashes, tsunamis, house fires, terrorist hostage incidents, shootings, ... Read More Rating: - Empowering For me, as a New Yorker who used to work at The World Trade Center, this book was a heart pounder and a tear jerker. It was also very empowering. I now understand some of the behaviors I've seen and understand my own. I know I can survive. It's not just luck. I can better my chances and that of my family. For your own sake, read this book. Rating: - A toolkit for survivorsQuite the primer on surviving disasters. Excellant material for everyone who wants to improve the odds on surviving life threatening situations. Should be required reading for security professionals, and anyone who has anything to do with emeregency response planning & procedures. this book is not a fear, anxiety spin, it has common sense information that everyone needs to know about being a survivor. |
