Culture of Fear: Risk-Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation, Revised Edition (Continuum Compact) [Paperback]

Frank Furedi (Author)

Book Description

Series: Continuum Compact | Publication Date: July 2005

Fear has become an ever-expanding part of life in the West in the twenty-first century. We live in terror of disease, abuse, stranger danger, environmental devastation and terrorist onslaught. We are bombarded with reports of new concerns for our safety and that of our children, and urged to take greater precautions and seek more protection. But compared to the past, or to the developing world, people in contemporary Western societies have much less familiarity with pain, suffering, debilitating disease and death. We actually enjoy an unprecedented level of personal safety. When confronted with events like the destruction of the World Trade Centre, fear for the future is inevitable. But what happened on September 11th 2001 was in many ways an old fashioned act of terror, representing the destructive side of the human passions. Frank Furedi argues that the greater danger in our culture is the tendency to fear achievements representing a more constructive side of humanity. We panic about GM food, about genetic research, about the health dangers of mobile phones. The facts often fail to support the scare stories about new or growing risks to our health and safefy. Our obsession with theoretical risks is in danger of distracting society from dealing with the old-fashioned dangers that have always threatened our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'an excellent book' [quotes from title in article] ~ Press & Journal (Aberdeen), Ron Ferguson

'Frank Furedi's books 'are well researched, properly referenced and make an erudite use of old and new sociological theories and concepts...even fairly scholarly style cannot completely conceal the passion he feels for the subject....It was...intellectually fairly challenging..and i thought that the arguments Furedi is making is an important one and worth considering....'Culture of Fear' is wholeheartedly recommended as a provocative read for those interested in analysis of social phenomena.'

Magda Healey, The Bookbag, September 2006

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and the author of a number of books, most recently Paranoid Parenting (Allen Lane 2001) [pound]9.95.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group; Revised edition (July 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826476163
• ISBN-13: 978-0826476166
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,247,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear cut message, April 17, 2005

By 

Socio-physicist (People's Planet) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culture of Fear (Paperback)

I am a Engineering Physics Student.I read the older version of this book from our Library.The book is clear cut with arguments and scientific facts and looks at how the media over-hypes in the western world while there have been considerable improvement in safety compared to few generations ago.I found the book exhilarating and packed with "sociological imagination".This is one of the few books which captures "sociological emotions of fear" which till now have been handled psychologically.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and provocative sociological study, July 14, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culture of Fear (Paperback)

Now in a revised and updated edition that takes into account recent horrors such as the September 11 attacks, Culture Of Fear by Frank Furedi (Professor of Sociology, University of Kent, Cantebury, England) is a fascinating and provocative sociological study of the contemporary and increasing epidemic of fear in an age when people are statistically safer and live longer than ever before, even a mere century ago. Scare stories that turn people away from discoveries such as genetic research and genetically modified food are particularly worrisome to Professor Furedi, who exhorts a warning that the new media driven fears may well be over-hyped, leading the nation to collectively fear that the sky is falling, when the real danger lies is in the abandonment of scientific and technological advances in industry, medicine, and agricultural. Culture Of Fear is highly recommended reading for the non-specialist general reader, students, political activists, and governmental policy makers, as well as being a welcome addition to academic reading lists and reference collections.