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The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why | 
 enlarge | Author: Amanda Ripley
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.74
You Save: $10.21 (41%)
New (29) Used (11) from $12.39
Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 1389
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0307352897
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.935
EAN: 9780307352897
ASIN: 0307352897
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Best book of the year. Fascinating read. Impossible to put down. September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a practicing doctor and author (Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely: Making Intelligent Choices in America's Healthcare System), I don't have a lot of free time to read for pleasure, so when I read a book, it's got to be great. This is one of those books. Much like Tipping Point, Blink, and Freakonomics, The Unthinkable provides fascinating anecdotes, references to research, and causes us to think differently about the world we live in. In brief, each victim of a disaster undergoes three stages - denial, deliberation, and the decisive moment. How quickly one moves through the stages can make the difference between life and death. Yet most of us aren't trained or plan for the unthinkable until it is upon us. As Ms. Ripley notes through the various stories, many are stuck in denial or frozen at deliberation and subsequently perish. If there is one major lesson, then it is that we all have the potential to be survivors and that each of us can be better prepared (for example, people who survive plane crashes are more likely to have reviewed the safety card in the seat pocket and noted where the nearest exits are. Why? When the unthinkable happened, passengers not familiar with the exit procedures or nearest way out essentially couldn't think or focus which is problematic when seconds count). Survival favors the prepared mind. The stories were very real and put you in the moment. Over and over you will ask yourself, if I was there would I be the one who survived or would I have been frozen, unable to move or decide and as a result died. The book is impossible to put down. I finished it in days. Easily the best book of the year.
Great book in great condition September 1, 2008
The product and the condition of the book were exactly what I was looking for. I was disappointed in the time it took to receive the book. I am unsure of what the hold up was in delivery.
The Unthinkable August 28, 2008
This book is really unthinkable amazing!!!
It makes you learning so many things on the subject "human behaviour during catastrophes", which you wouldn't expect.
It's nearly all stories-interesting examples from whom to collect and understand theory.
I strongly recommend it to anybody interested on the subject.
Wow August 24, 2008
Such an in-depth study of the human psyche. Great read. I highly recommend this book.
What If???? August 23, 2008
Everyone does it. Bored at work, staring out a window. Or late at night, unable to sleep. The "what if" game.What if the unthinkable thing ever happened, what would you do? Could you handle it? Would you survive?
THE UNTHINKABLE by Amanda Ripley is based on just this intriguing premise and she takes us into the world of several different heroes and heroines who, yes, they did just that. They survived. But more than that, Ms. Ripley slips into analytical mode to help us understand the reasons behind their sudden bursts of courage, often breaking free of an otherwise ordinarily unremarkable normal life.
THE UNTHINKABLE was an engrossing read, one that I would recommend for many reasons. Entertainment, of course. Information, always a plus. But more importantly, it gave me a sense of awareness. Of how sudden all things precious can be plucked away from us and while we can never truly plan for that, a sense of awareness is always a valuable thing, not to be taken for granted.
As any student of history would sadly agree.
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