Discover how human beings react to danger -- and what makes the difference between life and death

"Fascinating and useful... [shows that] the most important variable in an emergency is your own behavior." -- The New York Times

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?

In her quest to answer these questions, award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley traces human responses to some of recent history's epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917-one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb-to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. To understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts. She even has her own brain examined by military researchers and experiences, 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 brain's fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain's ability to do much, much better-with just a little help.

• We started tracking this book on December 26, 2010.
• This book was $8.10 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 246 times in the past 5,082 days.
• The current price of this book is $9.99 last checked 2 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past 90 days.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is $6.99.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $1.99.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on January 1, 2024.
• This book has been $1.99 3 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on May 13, 2024.
• This book has been $14.99 5 times since we started tracking it.

• Politics & Social Sciences

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 434 Pages
• File Size: 16,079 KB