Worst Cases
Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination
University of Chicago Press, 2005
Cloth: 978-0-226-10859-9 | Paper: 978-0-226-79010-7 | Electronic: 978-0-226-10860-5
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226108605.001.0001
Cloth: 978-0-226-10859-9 | Paper: 978-0-226-79010-7 | Electronic: 978-0-226-10860-5
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226108605.001.0001
AVAILABLE FROM
University of Chicago Press (paper, ebook)Amazon Kindle (PDF)
Barnes & Noble Nook
Brytewave (CafeScribe-Follett Higher Ed)
Chegg Inc
DeGruyter Multi-User Ebook Program
ebrary
EBSCO eBooks (formerly NetLibrary)
Google Play
University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO)
ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Al Qaeda detonates a nuclear weapon in Times Square during rush hour, wiping out half of Manhattan and killing 500,000 people. A virulent strain of bird flu jumps to humans in Thailand, sweeps across Asia, and claims more than fifty million lives. A single freight car of chlorine derails on the outskirts of Los Angeles, spilling its contents and killing seven million. An asteroid ten kilometers wide slams into the Atlantic Ocean, unleashing a tsunami that renders life on the planet as we know it extinct.
We consider the few who live in fear of such scenarios to be alarmist or even paranoid. But Worst Cases shows that such individuals—like Cassandra foreseeing the fall of Troy—are more reasonable and prescient than you might think. In this book, Lee Clarke surveys the full range of possible catastrophes that animate and dominate the popular imagination, from toxic spills and terrorism to plane crashes and pandemics. Along the way, he explores how the ubiquity of worst cases in everyday life has rendered them ordinary and mundane. Fear and dread, Clarke argues, have actually become too rare: only when the public has more substantial information and more credible warnings will it take worst cases as seriously as it should.
A timely and necessary look into how we think about the unthinkable, Worst Cases will be must reading for anyone attuned to our current climate of threat and fear.
We consider the few who live in fear of such scenarios to be alarmist or even paranoid. But Worst Cases shows that such individuals—like Cassandra foreseeing the fall of Troy—are more reasonable and prescient than you might think. In this book, Lee Clarke surveys the full range of possible catastrophes that animate and dominate the popular imagination, from toxic spills and terrorism to plane crashes and pandemics. Along the way, he explores how the ubiquity of worst cases in everyday life has rendered them ordinary and mundane. Fear and dread, Clarke argues, have actually become too rare: only when the public has more substantial information and more credible warnings will it take worst cases as seriously as it should.
A timely and necessary look into how we think about the unthinkable, Worst Cases will be must reading for anyone attuned to our current climate of threat and fear.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Lee Clarke is a sociologist at Rutgers University. He is the author of Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents to Tame Disaster, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Acceptable Risk? Making Decisions in a Toxic Environment. He is also the editor of Terrorism and Disaster: New Threats, New Ideas.
REVIEWS
"The practical need for improvisation at all levels of societal response is unquestionable, particularly for major disasters, and Clarke’s book provides a stimulus for the basic and applied studies that are needed."
— American Journal of Sociology“Clarke’s book… is even more timely in 2021 than it was when first published. Clarke wants ordinary citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to potential catastrophic events: events improbable, but still possible, with consequences so severe that we ignore them at our peril.”
— First ThingsTABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Worst Cases: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid - Lee Clarke
The Skycould be Falling: Globally Relevant Disasters and the Perils of Probabilism - Lee Clarke
What's the Worst That Can Happen? - Lee Clarke
Power, Politics, and Panic in Worst Cases - Lee Clarke
Silver Linings: The Good from the Worst - Lee Clarke
Living and Dying in Worst Case Worlds - Lee Clarke
Notes
Index