After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I long wondered if we were investing too much money and effort in technology and too little effort in training and educating people to mentally and psychologically adapt to disasters of all sorts including both natural disasters and terrorist threats. This book brilliantly addresses this question through a series of in-depth, individual survival stories supplemented by summaries of findings by brain scientists and social psychologists.
The survivor stories are numerous and quite detailed. They include stories of a World Trade Center 9/11 survivor, a US Ambassador held hostage in a violent embassy takeover in Bogota, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting spree, as well stories of plane crash survivors, maritime catastrophes, and Hurricane Katrina flood victims. I read survivor stories on a regular basis for personal and professional reasons, yet I found the narratives in this book intensely vivid and gripping, and learned new things from many of them. In fact, some of the stories sent chills down my spine or nearly moved me to tears. Amanda Ripley, identified as a senior Time correspondent, is a great story-teller and her journalistic genre - with its up close and in the moment style - serves well to bring dynamic intensity to the survivor narratives. Parenthetically, I had to wonder if the title "The Unthinkable" was an intentional pun on the ironic moniker applied to the Titanic, "The Unsinkable."
The research is also impressive and above all, always engaging and readable. Ripley's thesis is that individuals go through three mental stages in sequence when disaster strikes, she labels the stages: Denial, Deliberation, and Decision. She discusses each stage in detail and how to move most quickly and effectively into the Decision stage. She also includes outstanding chapters on panic, on the "freeze" response, and on heroes - what is heroism, who becomes a hero, and why. Her investigation of resilience and how to become more resilient is also a very thoughtful and worthwhile exploration of this important but nebulous and poorly understood psychological construct.
I would recommend this book as a very inspiring and worthwhile read for audiences at almost any level of experience or expertise; it compares very favorably to numerous other books I have read on the topic of response to mass disasters and terrorist acts. There are many surprises along way, as her stories illustrate that courage, endurance, resilience and even heroism come from ordinary people of vastly differing age, education, ethnic, and other demographic backgrounds, suggesting that we can all improve at helping ourselves and others survive catastrophe by learning from others who've been through hell and back.
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Not bound correctly.
The book is bound incorrectly. The cover is upside down compared to the pages. Not sure if it is just my product or others as well.
Spitzenrezensionen aus anderen Ländern
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Miss Ashlee BakerBewertet in Großbritannien am 26. Dezember 2019
Everyone should read this book! It will undoubtedly save lives if they did.
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sheila bowtleBewertet in Australien am 7. November 2014
Such a worthwhile read. First time in years I ...
