'A work of sheer brilliance, beauty and bravery' Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less 'Masterly... Her essays have a clarity and prescience that imply a sort of distant, retrospective view, like postcards sent from the near future' New York Times We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase "Did you see?" The feeling that we're living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten. Poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert's The Unreality of Memory consists of a series of lyrical and deeply researched meditations on what our culture of catastrophe has done to public discourse and our own inner lives. In these tender and prophetic essays, she focuses in on our daily preoccupation and favorite pasttime: desperate distraction from disaster by way of a desperate obsession with the disastrous. Moving from public trauma to personal tragedy, from the Titanic and Chernobyl to illness and loss, The Unreality of Memory alternately rips away the facade of our fascination with destruction and gently identifies itself with the age of rubbernecking. A balm, not a burr, Gabbert's essays are a hauntingly perceptive analysis of the anxiety intrinsic in our new, digital ways of being, and also a means of reconciling ourselves to this new world. 'One of those joyful books that send you to your notebook every page or so, desperate not to lose either the thought the author has deftly placed in your mind or the title of a work she has now compelled you to read.' Paris Review

Winner of the Duff Cooper and Lionel Gelber prizes In 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the twentieth century. With unprecedented authority and detail, Red Famine investigates how this happened, who was responsible, and what the consequences were. It is the fullest account yet published of these terrible events. The book draws on a mass of archival material and first-hand testimony only available since the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ukrainian scholars all over the world. It includes accounts of the famine by those who survived it, describing what human beings can do when driven mad by hunger. It shows how the Soviet state ruthlessly used propaganda to turn neighbours against each other in order to expunge supposedly 'anti-revolutionary' elements. It also records the actions of extraordinary individuals who did all they could to relieve the suffering. The famine was rapidly followed by an attack on Ukraine's cultural and political leadership - and then by a denial that it had ever happened at all. Census reports were falsified and memory suppressed. Some western journalists shamelessly swallowed the Soviet line; others bravely rejected it, and were undermined and harassed. The Soviet authorities were determined not only that Ukraine should abandon its national aspirations, but that the country's true history should be buried along with its millions of victims. Red Famine, a triumph of scholarship and human sympathy, is a milestone in the recovery of those memories and that history. At a moment of crisis between Russia and Ukraine, it also shows how far the present is shaped by the past.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. As of July 2020, more than 13.8 million cases have been reported across 188 countries and territories, resulting in more than 590,000 deaths. COVID 19: Tackling Global Pandemics through Scientific and Social Tools, is an amalgamation of scientific and social perspective. The book provides a selection of handpicked themes and topics relevant to COVID 19 pandemic across various disciplines delivered by experts in the domain. The Opinion section is a unique component of this book discussing important issues concerning the COVID 19. COVID 19: Tackling Global Pandemics through Scientific and Social Tools serves as single source of information ranging from clinical research to social science and even biotechnology to engineering in a single platform. But there is scarcity of a quality document that summarizes various aspects of a single event. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provide scientific and social information on COVID 19 to all sectors of readers i.e. from students to researchers and even policy makers Divided into 13 chapters, the book begins with an in-depth introduction to the highly infectious disease COVID19. Followed by chapters on interventions, vaccine development, prevention and control COVID 19: Tackling Global Pandemics through Scientific and Social Tools also provides insights to current global situation, mathematical models and social factors like distancing and hand-washing. The book closes with a review on the use of artificial intelligence and engineered intervention. All are presented in a practical short format, making this volume a valuable resource for very broad academic audience.

From the renowned authority on domestic violence, a startlingly original inquiry into the aftermath of wars and their impact on the least visible victims: women

In 2007, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which brings relief to countries in the wake of war, wanted to understand what really happened to women in post-conflict zones. Answers came through the point and click of digital cameras. On behalf of the IRC, Ann Jones spent a year traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, lending cameras to women who had no other means of telling the world what war had done to their lives. Their photographs chronicle the consequences of modern warfare for the most vulnerable. Animated by the voices of brave and resourceful women, "War Is Not Over When It's Over" is a powerful dispatch from the ruins.

Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact of open data, however, focuses on high-income countries. Much less is known about open data’s role and value in low- and middle-income countries, and more generally about its possible contributions to economic and social development. Open Data for Developing Economies features in-depth case studies on how open data is having an impact across the developing world-from an agriculture initiative in Colombia to data-driven healthcare projects in Uganda and South Africa to crisis response in Nepal. The analysis built on these case studies aims to create actionable intelligence regarding: (a) the conditions under which open data is most (and least) effective in development, presented in the form of a Periodic Table of Open Data; (b) strategies to maximize the positive contributions of open data to development; and (c) the means for limiting open data’s harms on developing countries.

Big data, surveillance, crisis management. Three largely different and richly researched fields, however, the interplay amongst these three domains is rarely addressed. Through unique international case studies this book examines the links between these three fields. Considering crisis management as an 'umbrella term' that covers a number of crises and ways of managing them, this book explores the collection of 'big data' by governmental crisis organisations, as well as the unintended consequences of using such data. In particular, through the lens of surveillance, the contributions investigate how the use and abuse of big data can easily lead to monitoring and controlling the behaviour of people affected by crises. Readers will understand that big data in crisis management must be examined as a political process, involving questions of power and transparency. A highly topical volume, Big Data, Surveillance and Crisis Management will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields including Sociology and Surveillance Studies, Disaster and Crisis Management, Media Studies, Governmentality, Organisation Theory and Information Society Studies.

Case Studies in Disaster Mitigation and Prevention: Disaster and Emergency Management: Case Studies in Adaptation and Innovation series presents cases illustrating efforts to reduce human and material losses associated with disasters. This volume demonstrates that mitigation is an ongoing phase in which communities continually pursue long-term hazard resistance and reduction. Cases illustrate the importance of risk assessment in the development of mitigation strategies through hazard mapping and multi-hazard mitigation planning. Cases also illustrate approaches to reduction risk through structural and non-structural means, giving consideration to benefits or limitations of these strategies in different contexts. The contributions of different mitigation activities to disaster risk reduction efforts are examined using the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Financial Times' best business books of the year, 2018 'Endlessly fascinating, brimming with insight, and more fun than a book about failure has any right to be.' - Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit What can we learn from our most disastrous failures? An accidental overdose in a state-of-the-art hospital. The Starbucks publicity stunt that spectacularly backfired. The mix-up at the 2017 Oscars ceremony. As technology rapidly advances, it brings with it an explosion of complexity that can trip us up. Meltdown uses real-life examples to reveal how errors in thinking, perception, and design lie behind both our everyday mistakes and our most terrifying disasters. It reveals how a five-minute exercise can prevent billion-dollar catastrophes, why teams with fewer experts are better at managing risk, and why diversity is one of our best safeguards against failure. This eye-opening book will change the way you see our complex world - and your place within it. 'Essential reading.' - Martin Ford, bestselling author of Rise of the Robots

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, disaster preparedness and response has developed into a discrete subspecialty in medicine, and the paramount health care initiative of the US Government. The mental health component of disaster response is a serious subject of study, as trauma is associated with a substantial and long-lasting psychologic burden, both on an individual and community level. The psychopathologies associated with disaster are also quite broad, varying from several different types of post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorders to acute variations of grief-associated depression. This book is the definitive reference on mental health and disasters, focused on the assessment and treatment of the full spectrum of psychopathologies associated with many different types of individual disasters. The logistics for utilizing pre-existing community-based mental health services, as well as the development of new programs, are covered in depth. Case studies and perspectives for improving care, incorporating lessons from Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, are included in detail.

This book addresses all the special considerations important in planning for disasters, from natural disasters to acts of terrorism to catastrophic events.

It covers all aspects from assessing the risk prior to a disaster to the legal ramifications following a disaster. The text addresses the "how-tos" of avoiding the common mistakes which turn natural and man-made catastrophes into economic disasters. It encompasses not only the tried and true tactics used for decades but also focuses on areas often overlooked during the reactive and post disaster phases.

Organizations can be prepared and proactive by using this guide to make a disaster management plan before disaster strikes.

A timely ethnography of how Indonesia's coastal dwellers inhabit the "chronic present" of a slow-motion natural disaster Ice caps are melting, seas are rising, and densely populated cities worldwide are threatened by floodwaters, especially in Southeast Asia. Building on Borrowed Time is a timely and powerful ethnography of how people in Semarang, Indonesia, on the north coast of Java, are dealing with this global warming-driven existential challenge. In addition to antiflooding infrastructure breaking down, vast areas of cities like Semarang and Jakarta are rapidly sinking, affecting the very foundations of urban life: toxic water oozes through the floors of houses, bridges are submerged, traffic is interrupted. As Lukas Ley shows, the residents of Semarang are constantly engaged in maintaining their homes and streets, trying to live through a slow-motion disaster shaped by the interacting temporalities of infrastructural failure, ecological deterioration, and urban development. He casts this predicament through the temporal lens of a "meantime," a managerial response that means a constant enduring of the present rather than progress toward a better future-a "chronic present." Building on Borrowed Time takes us to a place where a flood crisis has already arrived-where everyday residents are not waiting for the effects of climate change but are in fact already living with it-and shows that life in coastal Southeast Asia is defined not by the temporality of climate science but by the lived experience of tidal flooding.

"The First 72 Hours" is the seminal anthology of the perspectives of public and private sector leaders who came together after September 11, 2001 to design more disaster-resilient communities. Under the umbrella of the Suburban Emergency Management Project, these leaders learned from national experts and one another that all disasters are intensely local at first and that most communities are "on their own" immediately following disaster impact--often for as long as 72 hours. This new awareness mandated updating strategies to improve disaster preparedness, particularly in light of the threat of terrorism.

A wide gamut of perspectives are laid out in the book, including those of doctors and hospitals, city managers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, American Red Cross volunteers, hospital accreditors, the media, business managers, utility companies, emergency managers, public health officials, academics, and elected public officials. In their own words, these individuals convey the importance of learning how to map the myriad organizations involved in local disaster preparedness and response; analyzing, refining and rehearsing local disaster roles; and getting to know individual personalities when in specific roles.

"The First 72 Hours" is an essential resource for professionals and private citizens alike who want to know what kinds of questions must be asked and answered to better prepare their communities to survive future disaster.

"There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all."--Hamlet V, II, William Shakespeare

The first biography of Asenath Nicholson, Compassionate Stranger recovers the largely forgotten history of an extraordinary woman. Trained as a schoolteacher,Nicholson was involved in the abolitionist, temperance, and diet reforms of the day before she left New York in 1844 ""to personally investigate the condition of the Irish poor."" She walked alone throughout nearly every county in Ireland and reported on conditions in rural Ireland on the eve of the Great Irish Famine. She published Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger, an account of her travels in 1847. She returned to Ireland in December 1846 to do what she could to relieve famine suffering - first in Dublin and then in the winter of 1847-48 in the west of Ireland where the suffering was greatest. Nicholson's precise, detailed diaries and correspondence reveal haunting insights into the desperation of victims of the Famine and the negligence and greed of those who added to the suffering. Her account of the Great Irish Famine, Annals of the Famine in Ireland in 1847, 1848 and 1849, is both a record of her work and an indictment of official policies toward the poor: land, employment,famine relief. In addition to telling Nicholson's story, from her early life in Vermont and upstate New York to her better-known work in Ireland, Murphy puts Nicholson's own writings and other historical documents in conversation. This not only contextualizes Nicholson's life and work, but it also supplements the impersonal official records with Nicholson's more compassionate and impassioned accounts of the Irish poor.

As commercial flight is changing dramatically and its future remains unclear, a look at how we got here Grounded: Perpetual Flight . . . and Then the Pandemic considers the time leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global plummet in commercial flight. Mobility studies scholar Christopher Schaberg tours the newly opened airport terminal outside of New Orleans (MSY) in late 2019, and goes on to survey the broad cultural landscape of empty airports and grounded planes in the early months of the novel coronavirus's spread in 2020. The book culminates in a reflection on the future of air travel: what may unfold, and what parts of commercial flight are almost certainly relics of the past. Grounded blends journalistic reportage with cultural theory and philosophical inquiry in order to offer graspable insights as well as a stinging critique of contemporary air travel.

In this penetrating account of the impacts of risk on everyday life, Gabe Mythen provides a theoretically informed overview of the regulation of crime and security in a globalized world. By explicating the relationships between risk and crime, security and justice, the text applies risk to specific incidents and events, scrutinizing social processes and cultural practices, and illumining some of the central social and political issues of the modern age. Extending across a range of domains - including law, the environment, media and politics - Mythen embarks on a conceptual and critical exploration of risk theory. In doing so, his incisive text presents both a critical evaluation of the efficacy of competing perspectives on risk, and an authoritative appraisal of the place of risk within the social sciences.

The future may still be unpredictable, but nowadays, disasters are not. We live in a time of constant, consistent catastrophe, where things more often go wrong than they go right. So why do we still fumble when disaster hits? Why are we always one step behind? In The Devil Never Sleeps, Juliette Kayyem lays the groundwork for a new approach to dealing with disasters. Presenting the basic themes of crisis management, Kayyem amends the principles we rely on far too easily. Instead, she offers us a new framework to anticipate the "devil's" inevitable return, highlighting the leadership deficiencies we need to overcome and the forward thinking we need to harness. It's no longer about preventing a disaster from occurring, but learning how to use the tools at our disposal to minimize the consequences when it does. Filled with personal anecdotes and real-life examples from natural disasters like the California wildfires to man-made ones like the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, The Devil Never Sleeps is a guide for governments, businesses, and individuals alike on how to alter our thinking so that we can develop effective strategies in the face of perpetual catastrophe.

For many decades federal emergency and disaster policy and management has been an important but one of the least publicised and studied aspects of the national policy in the former Soviet Union. This book discusses major disasters which were unknown to anyone except in very limited official circles. Also discussed is the historical and legal development of the emergency management system in the former Soviet Union/current Russia and the impacted populations themselves.

Learn Resilience Through These Survival Stories #1 New Release in Disaster Relief Extreme Survival is the long awaited followup to New York Times best-selling author Michael Tougias's The Finest Hours. This thriller will have you mentally on the edge-of-your-seat as you read these true survival stories and learn useful survival techniques! Explore the stories and the causes of manmade disasters. To answer the question of why disasters happen and how some survive, Tougias interviewed over 100 people who survived against all odds, first chronicling their harrowing survival stories, and then discussing in detail the lessons learned. Both an exciting and informative read, this book provides the entertainment and exceptional research fans expect. Learn resilience through the mindset of a survivor. Tougias shares what a person is capable of when under pressure and facing different types of disasters. Surviving disasters requires extreme survival techniques to kick in at just the right time! All of Michael Tougias books have a level of deep survival laced within the pages. Learn how to rise against the odds in your personal and professional life. Inside, you'll find: Captivating and narrative survival stories told in true Tougias' trademark style Analysis of major man-made disasters and the faulty decisions that led to them First-person accounts and detailed survival tactics that can be utilized in your day-to-day life If you like non-fiction survival books like The Gift of Fear, Deep Survival, or If I Live Until Morning, you'll love Extreme Survival.

Heartbreaking stories from survivors along the Texas Gulf Coast Hurricane Harvey was one of the worst American natural disasters in recorded history. It ravaged the Texas Gulf Coast, and left thousands of people homeless in its wake. In Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath, Kevin M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew L. Spialek offer first-hand accounts from survivors themselves, providing a rare, on-the-ground perspective of natural disaster recovery. Drawing on interviews from more than 350 survivors, the authors trace the experiences of individuals and their communities, both rich and poor, urban and rural, white, Latinx, and Black, and how they navigated the long and difficult road to recovery after Hurricane Harvey. From Corpus Christi to Galveston, they paint a vivid, compelling picture of heartache and destruction, as well as resilience and recovery, as survivors slowly begin rebuilding their lives and their communities. An emotionally provocative read, Hurricane Harvey's Aftermath provides insight into how ordinary people experience and persevere through a disaster in an age of environmental vulnerability.