The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

About this book

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 personalityanything weve ever learned thought or dreamed ofultimately 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 historys epic disasters from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bombto 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 brains fear circuits and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly she discovers the brains 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.