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

AMANDA RIPLEY is a senior writer for Time magazine.

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

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.

The Barnes & Noble Review

"Most of us, I think, have imagined what it might be like to experience a plane crash or a fire or an earthquake," writes Amanda Ripley in her engaging, enlightening, and surprisingly upbeat The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes -- and Why. "We have ideas about what we might do or fail to do, how it might feel for our hearts to pound in our chests, whom we might call in the final moments, and whether we might be suddenly compelled to seize the hand of the businessman sitting in the window seat. We have fears that we admit to openly and ones that we never discuss. We carry around this half-completed sentence, filling in different scenarios depending on the anxiety of the times: I wonder what I would do if "

Introduction: "Life Becomes Like Molten Metal" v

Part 1 Denial 1

1 Delay: Procrastinating in Tower 1 3

2 Risk: Gambling in New Orleans 22

Part 2 Deliberation 53

3 Fear: The Body and Mind of a Hostage 55

4 Resilience: Staying Cool in Jerusalem 85

5 Groupthink: Role Playing at the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire 108

Part 3 The Decisive Moment 139

6 Panic: A Stampede on Holy Ground 141

7 Paralysis: Playing Dead in French Class 163

8 Heroism: A Suicide Attempt on the Potomac River 179

Conclusion: Making New Instincts 203

Author's Note 225

Appendix 1 How to Boost Your Survival Odds 229

Appendix 2 Notes 233

Appendix 3 Selected Bibliography 251

Index 259