Social Science Disasters

The deadly hurricane of 1928 claimed 2500 lives, and the long-forgotten story of the casualties, as told in Black Cloud, continues to stir passion. Among the dead were 700 black Floridian men, women, and children who were buried in an unmarked West Palm Beach ditch during a racist recovery and rebuilding effort that conscripted the labor of blacks much like latter-day slaves.

Something must be done. Vlad Luxor continues to rule the Timeless Province with a cruel hand, and now he's screaming about Inners and Outers, Others and Us. Then when the meanest boy in school is turned into the stinkiest, weirdest creature ever, Henry, Jo, Apollo, and Pirate Girl are asked to do the impossible. Breaking this spell will force them to go on their most dangerous, frightening adventure yet - through the Wilds, the Forest of Knives, and a lodge in the woods belonging to the most terrible bully of all...Vlad Luxor himself.

The story takes place in a world much like ours, but at the same time not at all like ours, in which Vlad Luxor - capricious, vain, infantile tyrant - rules over a town with an iron fist. He's an emperor with no clothes, but woe is the person who points that out - they could wind up turned into a squirrel or lizard or who knows what! For in this world, the evil leader also has magic, which he uses to punish anyone who speaks out against him. But in every classic tale with a despicable villain, there must also be a truly noble hero - in this case, four of them!

Billy Sothern's Down in New Orleans illustrates, in very human and heartbreaking ways, how the horrors that emerged during and following Hurricane Katrina existed long before the storm. These beautifully composed stories not only reveal the dignity—and amazing grit and grace—of the hurricane's survivors; they also illuminate larger truths about the urgent issues of our day.

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn't been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan - a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

La historia que cautivó a millones de personas en todo el mundo, quienes fueron testigos de cómo fueron saliendo cada uno de los 33 mineros de las entrañas de la tierra. A 800 kilómetros al norte de Santiago, en pleno desierto de Atacama, pasado el mediodía del 5 de agosto de 2010, el tiempo se detuvo. Una roca gigante bloqueó el acceso principal de la mina San José, cercana a la ciudad de Copiapó, dejando atrapado a 33 mineros por 69 días.

In August 1995, twenty-six passengers and a crew of three board a commuter plane in Atlanta headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. Shortly after takeoff they hear an explosion, and some see a mangled engine lodged against the wing. From that moment, nine minutes and twenty seconds elapse until the crippled plane crashes in a west Georgia hayfield. Gary Pomerantz takes listeners deep into the hearts and minds of the people aboard, each of whom prepares in his or her own way for what may come.

Rescue offers riveting stories about what happens when things go terribly wrong in some of the world's most perilous places: Himalayan peaks, African plains, vast oceans, remote Arctic wilderness. The result is a collection of first-rate prose read by masterful narrators that makes for compulsive listening.

On Shishmaref Island in Alaska, homes are being washed into the sea. In the South Pacific, small island nations face annihilation by encroaching waters. In coastal Louisiana, an area the size of a football field disappears every day. For these communities, sea level rise isn’t a distant, abstract fear: it’s happening now and it’s threatening their way of life. In The Rising Sea, Orrin H. Pilkey and Rob Young warn that many other coastal areas may be close behind.

February 5, 1898. Witnesses report a giant orange fireball reflected in the glacial waters of Alaska's Lynn Canal. At the height of Klondike gold fever, the Clara Nevada disappeared into an epic storm - taking passengers and priceless cargo with it. Was the explosion an accident or a robbery gone wrong? Did Captain C.H. Lewis make off with $165,000 ($13.6 million in today's currency) in raw gold? Or was the sinking a case of a sea-weary steamer meeting an untimely end?

Esta crónica narra las historias de las víctimas y de los sobrevivientes de uno de los peores incendios en la historia del Perú. En el año 2017, Jorge Luis Huamán y Jovi Herrera perdieron la vida al no poder escapar del siniestro, pues permanecían encerrados en un contenedor donde trabajan de manera habitual, sin contrato y sin seguridad en el conglomerado comercial llamada Las Malvinas ubicada en la provincia constitucional del Callao.

"Mientras escribo esto, a lo largo del año 2015, los científicos intentan adelantarse a las próximas pandemias. Nadie es capaz de predecir cuándo una cepa en particular llevará a cabo el salto, si acaso lo hará. Sin embargo, no estamos indefensos ante lo que la evolución pueda tenernos reservado. Contamos con recursos para contrarrestar la expansión de la gripe, como lavarnos las manos. Y los científicos están aprendiendo a fabricar vacunas más efectivas. Al menos, ya no tenemos que mirar hacia las estrellas en busca de protección." — Carl Zimmer

Drawing on databases of cases filed, news reports, and other sources, Susan M. Sterett argues that governing during the pandemic must include the human institutions intertwined with the effects of the virus. Those institutions reveal problems well beyond the reach of technical expertise. Failures in private insurance as a way of governing risk, conflicts about the primacy of religion, government authority, and health, are problems that predated the pandemic and will persist in future disasters.

Ohne Vorwarnung kam die Flut über das Ahrtal. In der Nacht vom 14. auf den 15. Juli 2021 brach eine Katastrophe über die beschauliche Weinregion herein. Zurück blieben Schlamm, unfassbares Leid und viele Jahre harter Arbeit, die den Bewohnern nun bevorstehen. Andy Neumann nimmt die Leser mit in diese Situation und macht auf sehr persönliche Weise deutlich, welche Kämpfe die Bewohner des Ahrtals durchstehen mussten. Feinsinnig und mit einer Prise Humor, insbesondere aber von einem klaren Willen geprägt: weitermachen.

How do we stay safe? Should we? What if our attempts are exposing us even more to the very risks we are avoiding? Would acceptance of danger make us more secure? Is there such a thing as foolproof? In Foolproof, Greg Ip presents a macro theory of human nature and disaster that explains how we can keep ourselves safe in our increasingly dangerous world.

In Your Government Failed You, Clarke looks at why failures have continued and how America and the world can succeed against the terrorists. But Clarke goes beyond terrorism to examine the recurring U.S. government disasters. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, we've gotten involved in Iraq. Drawing on his 30 years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and Intelligence Community, Clarke discovers patterns in the failure and suggests ways to stop the cycle.

In this hilarious and helpful handbook, best-selling author Ian Kerner introduces us to the DSI team, a top-secret unit within the FBI (that's the Federal Bureau of Intimacy) whose sole mission is to investigate dating dilemmas and equip you with the skills you need so you're never again a dating victim.

A riveting account of the greatest small-boat rescue in American history.

A gripping narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown Flood - the deadliest flood in US history - from New York Times best-selling author, NBC host, and legendary weather authority Al Roker. May 1889: After a deluge of rainfall swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork Dam in central Pennsylvania. Though they telegraphed neighboring towns, warning of the impending danger, residents, used to false alarms, remained in their homes. At 3:10 p.m., the dam gave way....

For most San Franciscans, April 18, 1906 started at 5:12 a.m. with 65 seconds of violent quaking followed by a relentless, raging fire that left 98% of the structures in the most populated part of the city in ruins. However, while everyone felt the earthquake equally, they did not all suffer to the same degree. In Saving San Francisco, Andrea Rees Davies, a former firefighter, tells a new story of the 1906 catastrophe. Saving San Francisco challenges the long-lived myth that the fire brought out altruism and leveled class distinctions among residents.