Product details
Biographical note
Amanda Ripley, longtime staff writer for Time, has been extensively involved in the magazine's 'Person of the Year' cover stories and now covers homeland security and risk from Washington, DC. Her disaster reporting recently helped Time win two National Magazine Awards.<p>A must read. We need books like this to help us understand the world in which we live.</p>
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of 'The Black Swan' and 'Fooled By Randomness',
A fascinating book ... <i>The Unthinkable</i> is part study of the science of reaction to extreme fear, part indictment of the US government's response to the terrorist threat, part call to arms
- Robert Crampton, The Times
Excellent and accessible study of how people react in disasters ... aside from the sound advice, one of the main strengths of this book is the wealth of anecdotal material and startling facts' 4 stars
London Lite
Ripley's survey of a vast area of research is impressively handled and eminently readable and, should disaster strike, the insights she provides into how you and those around you may respond might just save your life
New Humanist
Spiced with surprising factoids, this book might save your life one day. Just don't read it on a trans-Atlantic flight
Bloomberg
A fascinating and useful new book
New York Times
The thinking person's manual for getting out alive
National Public Radio
Engrossing and lucid...An absorbing study of the psychology and physiology of panic, heroism, and trauma...Facing the truth about the human capacity for risk and disaster turns out to be a lot less scary than staying in the dark
O, The Oprah Magazine
This is a book with a purpose, meant to change things
- Rob Hardy, The Commercial Dispatch
Amanda Ripley takes us on a sometimes stunning, sometimes sobering journey through disaster, using great stories and respected science to show why some prevail and others do not. <i>The Unthinkable </i>isn't merely a book about disaster; it's a book about survival -- maybe yours
- Gavin de Becker, author of New York Times bestseller The Gift of Fear,
It was 8.46 a.m. on 9/11 when Elia Zedeño, who had worked in the World Trade Center for twenty-one years, heard a booming explosion and felt the building lurch violently to the south. She grabbed her desk, taking her feet off the floor, and screamed, 'What's happening?'
How would you react to a disaster? Would you be paralysed with fear? Would you panic and lose control? Or might you suddenly discover hidden strengths in yourself?
In The Unthinkable, award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates some of the most harrowing catastrophes in history in order to piece together exactly how we react in a crisis. Through compelling interviews with survivors and experts she uncovers our instinctive reactions, shows how primitive parts of our brains take over when we're put under pressure, and demonstrates that we can, in fact, train ourselves to do better.
We all have a 'disaster personality' that reveals itself at moments of crisis. In The Unthinkable you can become acquainted with yours.Who knows? One day, understanding how it works may save your life.