The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why (Hardcover)

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Review
"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. "The Unthinkable" isn't merely a book about disaster; it's a book about survival -- maybe yours."
----Gavin de Becker, author of the "New York Times" bestseller "The Gift of Fear"
"With "The Unthinkable," Amanda Ripley succeeds in two different ways. First, she covers, with great clarity and accuracy, the science of how the body and mind respond to crisis. In the process, she prescribes certain actions that will increase the chances of surviving a disaster. But it's the second aspect, the stories, that makes the book so compelling. These tales leave your viscera enflamed because they compel two questions: 'What would it feel like to go through that?' and 'Would I do the right thing and survive?' This is an irresistible book."
--Robert M. Sapolsky, John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University
""The Unthinkable" is the most magnificent account of a survivor's mind that I have ever read. It has helped me know and accept some of my reactions during my 72 day ordeal in the Andes. I can now understand how fear motivated me, and how denial also played a part. This book will help those who've never faced disaster to understand their own behavior and be prepared should their luck run out one day."
--Nando Parrado, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Miracle in the Andes"
""The Unthinkable" reveals why, under the same circumstances, some people caught up in a disaster survive and others do not. Why someare hopelessly immobilized by fear and crippled by panic, and others are filled with strength, endurance, reactions and the other intrinsic stuff of which Homeric heroes are made. How can we ensure which we will be? In her well-crafted prose, Amanda Ripley shows us all how to prepare to meet danger and increase our chances of surviving the unthinkable."
--Bruce Henderson, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Down to the Sea "and "True North"
"When a disaster occurs we invariably learn the "what" of the event -- how many died, how many survived. Amanda Ripley's riveting "The Unthinkable" provides genuine insight into the "why" behind the numbers. This remarkable book will not only change your life, it could very well save it."
--Gregg Olsen, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine"
"Ever fantasize about what you would do in a disaster? How would you survive? How would you behave? After interviewing survivors of the World Trade Center attack, Amanda Ripley sifted through amazing tales of survivors from other disasters and mined various sociological, psychological, and neurological studies. Her insights are absolutely fascinating, and they could come in handy one day."
----Walter Isaacson, author of the "New York Times" bestsellers "Einstein: His Life and Universe" and "Benjamin Franklin: A Life," and Vice-Chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority
"Rich in information about the subconscious ways we face danger. In the event that someday you face a sudden life or death situation, reading this book will increase the odds that the outcome will be life."
----David Ropeik, author of "Risk!: APractical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You"
"Reading "The Unthinkable" will be life-changing. We live in an age of anxiety that has too many of us rocked back on our heels. Once you've feasted on the rich insights and wisdom of this remarkable book, you'll be standing tall again. While our politicians and media have been keen to exploit and fan our worst fears, Amanda Ripley makes clear that individually and collectively we can meet head-on the hazards that periodically befall us. We need not be afraid!"
----Stephen Flynn, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, and author of "The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation"
""The Unthinkable" is a fascinating, in-depth look at human behavior under extreme pressure. Its gut-wrenching stories span the full spectrum of action under duress, from panic to heroism. Not only is this book fast-paced and engrossing, it's illuminating."
----Michael Tougias, author of "Fatal Forecast: An Icredible True Tale of Disaster" and "Survival at Sea
"
"Amanda Ripley has written a smart, poignant account about the dramas of the existential moment in this new century. She is a provocative voice of a new generation of writers and thinkers whose grasp of daily events and global disaster is piquant, engrossing, and syncretic. Above all, she makes sense of life today in an entirely entertaining and accessible way-- all with a brimming dollop of optimism. If you ever wondered, 'What would I do if the unthinkable happened to "me,"' you hold the answer in your hands."
--Doug Stanton, author of the "New York Times" bestseller "In Harm's Way: TheSinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
"
"A must read. We need books like this to help us understand the world in which we live."
--Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author "The Black Swan" and "Fooled By Randomness"

Product Description
Have you ever wondered how you would react to a disaster? Do you think you would be paralysed with fear, like the diplomat who froze, drink still in hand, as terrorists invaded the Dominican Republic's embassy in Colombia in 1980? Or might you find yourself pretending it hadn't happened, like the 9/11 survivor whose first instinct on feeling the shockwaves of the plane crashing into her building was to stay put? Or then again might you suddenly find hidden strengths in yourself, like Joe Stiley, who not only escaped from a dreadful plane wreck, but also managed to survive thirty minutes in the freezing Potomac river waiting for rescue vehicles to arrive?In "The Unthinkable", award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley talks to risk analysts, psychologists and survivors of some of the most harrowing catastrophes in history in order to piece together how people react in a crisis and why they behave the way they do. She demonstrates that responses ranging from paralysed shock through to frenzied action can be clearly categorised and explained, as can the stages through which most people go when suddenly faced with a disaster - initial denial, cautious deliberation, final decision.She compellingly shows how the rational and irrational parts of our brains interact when put under pressure, and she also reveals the physical effects of sudden stress. And finally she demonstrates that while our reactions are often instinctive and inbuilt, we can also be taught how to master or control them. 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.

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5 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   12 of 13 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Can Save Your Life, Let You Sleep Better at Night, and Learn How to Improve in All Areas, 2 Jul 2008 By  Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)       This is the best non-fiction book you are likely to read this year. I was attracted to this book because I have been in bad car accidents and two hotel fires, once had the airplane window near me break during a flight, designed the plan for an event where the safety team saved two children's lives, and have driven through many dangerous blizzards where every other car was spinning off the road out of control. From those experiences, I learned to appreciate that there were good and bad features about my reactions during those stressful times. I was also astonished to see how many people would have been injured or killed if someone hadn't taken fast and insistent action. Needless to say, I'm convinced that I will have experiences like these again in the future and wanted to be better prepared. I was very pleased with what I learned as Ms. Ripley explained the psychology and physiology of dealing with various life-threatening situations. With this added information, I'm sure I'll make faster and better decisions in the future . . . and implement those decisions better. Many books written by journalists about serious subjects don't get much below the surface of who, what, when, where, why, and how of events they wish to use as set pieces. Ms. Ripley is the happy exception to that rule. This author really thinks about what she is studying and went all over the world to gain more information. In addition, she writes well. I was very impressed by how well she expressed the problem of human beings not knowing what to do if they haven't thought about a problem before or haven't had experience in an area. This is a subject of much interest to me because it is the main barrier to people grasping important opportunities that they are ignoring. I hope that Ms. Ripley will consider writing a book that looks at why people don't seize opportunities when they are not in a threatening situation. I believe that her recommendations for better leadership, more preparation, clearer directions, advance experience with simulations, and knowing yourself better would apply to that class of problems as well. By combining the two perspectives, I think she could help us understand how to be more successful, as well as safer. Brava, Ms. Ripley! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   5 of 13 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Dry, go buy 'Deep Survival', 25 Jul 2008 By  PureSymmetry (london) - See all my reviews    I think the premise of this book was really sound, and I was really excited about reading it. Regrettably, I had read it after reading Deep survival and as such I found 'Unthinkable' to be boring and not as well written as I would have liked. The book tended to focus on the issues of human failures in scenarios that cause the flight/fight or freeze response. In most parts it tended to read like an encyclopaedia and was about as dry and arid as the Mohave. As an aside, one of the other things, which really irked me, was the author's selection of members of Israel's armed forces as heroes. This annoyed me because there are many more Palestinians who have survived and handled adversity on a level unbeknownst to many of us. Why not interview the fathers, brothers and mothers who have handled having their children shot in school by Israeli snipers while attending lessons? The author makes it a point to underline how she follows 'the good journalists code' of not paying for interviews, surely another such code is to report in a balanced and fair way? So, all in all, not an especially illuminating book, read DEEP SURVIVAL, which is a much better and infinitely more interesting read. I did give 'Unthinkable' 3 stars because of the research done, but the book lost 2 stars because of the immensely boring writing style and poor choice of models. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   1 of 2 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Good book but don't take the author hunting, 28 Sep 2008 By  Michael W. Perry "Michael W. Perry, author of... (Author of Untangling Tolkien, Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This book is quite good, particularly if you'd like to evaluate yourself and understand how well you might do in a life-threatening emergency. One criteria, which is used to predict how well those being tested for admission into our military's Special Forces will do, is especially intriguing. You're asked if you've experienced three symptoms: 1. Things seem to move in slow motion. 2. Things seemed unreal, as if in a dream. 3. You had a feeling of separation from what was happening, as if you were watching a movie or a play. Answering "Yes" to all three means you're LESS likely to make it through the grueling Special Forces training. In a tight situation you'll probably freeze or panic. That's not good when bullets are flying. At first, I was disappointed. I'd answered yes to all three, but based on experience, I think I handle a crisis well. Then I noticed that the questions are preceded by "thinking back over last few days...." Oh, that makes an enormous difference. I never have those feelings in day-to-day life. In fact, it's been years since I had one, They only come in life-threatening experiences, such as while mountain climbing and in a car accident that left both cars totaled. It turns out that's OK. Experienced Special Forces operatives have precisely those experiences in tight situations. Kept within limits, they help us focus on the danger at hand and shut out distractions. But if you have them in daily life, your brain is likely to be overwhelmed in a real emergency. Instead of seeing only what you need to see, you see nothing. Instead of seeing things in slow motion, you freeze. Instead of separating slightly from events, you tune them out entirely. In one case, I was in a precarious spot on a cliff face when the friend I was with slipped and fell. If both of us were to live, I had to pass through the three stages the author discusses. Denial was gone in a flash. We were roped together, so if I didn't act quickly, I'd snatched off the rockface after him. Deliberate took less than a second. The rock was too bare to provide a handhold, so my only hope was to grab the rope and exert as much drag as possible before it snapped taunt. If that meant my hands were ripped to shreds, then so be it. Decide was more like acting and meant grabbing the coiled rope and letting the last twenty feet burn through my hands. After I'd arrested his fall, I remember looking at my bare hands, expecting to see flesh ripped to the bone. They were merely a bit red from the friction. My only complain comes from her blog, linked from TheUnthinkable dot com. There she makes remarks about gun control that are silly beyond belief. She's certainly not like the marvelous Sarah Palin, who rides snow machines through a frozen wilderness and hunts moose without a flicker of fear. And lack of confidence and knowledge about weapons doesn't speak well of her in a crunch, since two traits of those who do well in danger are that they're confident of their abilities and prepare well. "What if her reporting of studies of people under stress is equally flawed?," I asked myself. Probably not, I eventually concluded. She's clueless about anything connected with guns because she works for Time magazine, where that sort of ignorance is the norm. But she probably got the other studies right. In short, the book's well worth reading. Just don't ask the author to go hunting with you. She might not panic, but I'm not sure she knows which end of a rifle to point toward the target. Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 5 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars A guide for life and living This might not seem like holiday reading, but I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The book focuses on the psychology of the human mind in stressful situations... Read more Published 1 day ago by Dave M 4.0 out of 5 stars And interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking read This book is well written, very interesting with a wide range of factual reports and interviews from survivors and rescuers, and contains a lot of thought-provoking material. Read more Published 10 months ago by Mr. RJ WILMSHURST Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 5 customer reviews...

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