Culture of Fear: Risk-Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation (Paperback)

by Frank Furedi (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Fear has become an ever-expanding part of life in the West in the 21st century. We live in terror of disease, abuse, stranger danger, environmental devastation and terrorist onslaught. We are bombard 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 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 safety. Our obsession with theoretical risks is in danger of distracting society from dealing with the old-fashioned dangers that have always threatened our lives.

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group; 2 Revised edition (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826459307
• ISBN-13: 978-0826459305
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,628,358 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 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

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.

2 of 2 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

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.