Social impact of disasters Books

Book SynopsisOn Thursday, July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day on which the temperature would eventually climb to 106 degrees. This book reveals how in coming decades the effects of climate change will intensify the social and environmental pressures in urban areas around the world.Trade Review"Klinenberg draws the lines of culpability in dozens of directions, drawing a dense and subtle portrait of exactly what happened." (Malcolm Gladwell) "Revelatory." (Chicago) "Should be required reading for all public officials." (Choice)

Read more less

Book SynopsisA global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again.In Global Catastrophic Risks 25 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, Earth-based natural catastrophes, nuclear war, terrorism, global warming, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, general artificial intelligence, and social collapse. The book also addresses over-arching issues - policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes. This is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the big issues of our time; for students focusing on science, society, technology, and public policy; and for academics, policy-makers, and professionals working in these acutely important fields.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition This volume is remarkably entertaining and readable...It's risk assessment meets science fiction. * Natural Hazards Observer *The book works well, providing a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations. * Nature *We should welcome this fascinating and provocative book. * Martin J Rees (from foreword) *[Provides] a mine of peer-reviewed information on the great risks that threaten our own and future generations. * Nature *Table of ContentsI BACKGROUND; II RISKS FROM NATURE; III RISKS FROM UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES; IV RISKS FROM HOSTILE ACTS

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Great Famine, an Gorta Mór in Irish, was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. Often referred to as the Irish Potato Famine, particularly outside Ireland, as around forty percent of the population were reliant on this crop. Over a million people died and over a million more emigrated, often in appalling circumstances. This book explains what happened before and during the Famine, with an account of the consequences of this epic tragedy.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn 21 October 1966, 116 children and 28 adults died when a mountainside coal tip collapsed, engulfing homes and part of a school in the village of Aberfan below. It is a moment that will be forever etched in the memories of many people in Wales and beyond. Aberfan - Government & Disaster is widely recognised as the definitive study of the disaster. Following meticulous research of public records - kept confidential by the UK Government’s 30-year rule - the authors, in this revised second edition, explain how and why the disaster happened and why nobody was held responsible. Iain McLean and Martin Johnes reveal how the National Coal Board, civil servants, and government ministers, who should have protected the public interest, and specifically the interests of the people of Aberfan, failed to do so. The authors also consider what has been learned or ignored from Aberfan such as the understanding of psychological trauma and the law concerning ‘corporate manslaughter’. Aberfan - Government & Disaster is the revised and updated second edition of Iain McLean and Martin Johnes’ acclaimed study published in 2000, which now solely focuses on Aberfan.Trade Review'The full truth about Aberfan' The Guardian; 'The research is outstanding...the investigation is substantial, balanced and authoritative...this is certainly the definitive book on the subject...Meticulous.' John R. Davis, Journal of Contemporary British History; 'Excellent...thorough and sympathetic.' Headway 2000 (Aberfan's Community Newspaper); 'Definitive...authoritative...anyone who wants to understand the process of government and its obsession with secrecy should read this book.' Ron Davies, Secretary of State for Wales 1997-1998; 'Intelligent and moving' PlanetTable of ContentsForeword Preface 1. The Last Day before Half-term 2. On Moles and the Habits of Birds: The Unpolitics of Aberfan 3. Uneasy Relationships: The Aberfan Disaster, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council and Local Politics 4. The Management of Trauma 5. Regulating and Raiding Gifts of Generosity: The Aberfan Disaster Fund 6. Aberfan Then and Now Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling author of The Post-American World ''An intelligent, learned and judicious guide for a world already in the making'' The New York TimesSince the end of the Cold War, the world has been shaken to its core three times. 11 September 2001, the financial collapse of 2008 and - most of all - Covid-19. Each was an asymmetric threat, set in motion by something seemingly small, and different from anything the world had experienced before. Lenin is supposed to have said, ''There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.'' This is one of those times when history has sped up.In this urgent and timely book, Fareed Zakaria, one of the ''top ten global thinkers of the last decade'' (Foreign Policy), foresees the nature of a post-pandemic world: the political, social, technological and economic consequences that may take years to unfold. In ten surprising, hopeful ''lessons'', he writes about the acceleration of natural and biological risks, the obsolescence of the old political categories of right and left, the rise of ''digital life'', the future of globalization and an emerging world order split between the United States and China. He invites us to think about how we are truly social animals with community embedded in our nature, and, above all, the degree to which nothing is written - the future is truly in our own hands.Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World speaks to past, present and future, and will become an enduring reflection on life in the early twenty-first century.Trade ReviewIt is an intelligent, learned and judicious guide for a world already in the making. -- Josef Joffe * New York Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book analyses the potential for catastrophes – from nuclear war and climate change to further pandemics, the misuse of Artificial Intelligence and more – that could jeopardise our planet and its people.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSurvival narrative meets scientific, natural and social history in the riveting story of a volcanic disaster.Trade Review"With 1,500 potentially active volcanoes worldwide, this is an urgent reminder of the need for advances in the field." -- Nature"... Olson is a gifted science communicator…" -- Physics World"Steve Olson not only tells their personal stories, but also turns the tension between the science and the cultural assumptions at play on that day into a drama that reads like a tragic thriller." -- Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature 2016 Shortlist - UKClimbing.com"In Mr. Olson’s telling, [the survivors’] stories read like urgent fiction… These vignettes lend a human face to an event that has become associated largely with geology." -- The Wall Street Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisA modern fable inspired by the Covid-19 crisis. A touching picture book jam-packed with fun illustrations, woven together with a message of hope.Trade Review'This is a deceptively powerful message disguised as a simple children's book. Beautifully illustrated, there is a touching depth here we should all take on as we and the Earth emerge from the Coronavirus crisis and look to a better future.' - Chris Knight; 'This book couldn't come at a better time. With the world being bought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic, it's hard to know how to talk about what is going with young children. They understand that things are not quite right, but don't always have the maturity to be able to hear what is really happening. ....My children, 6 and 8, immediately understood the concept of this story and felt a strong desire to show even more care towards the earth that we are so lucky to live on. I strongly recommend this to any parent with children pre-school and up. Such a wonderful resource for 'spinning' this whole situation in a positive and reinforcing way.' - Maddy Shaw; 'This clever little book which touches on how the Coronavirus has impacted the environment is one of my favourites. What happens when the earth gets sick? Perhaps it goes to the doctor or even takes a holiday. With adorable illustrations and an earth that is so cute you just want to give her a hug, Earth Takes a Break is a nice addition to the other Coronavirus children's books because it puts attention on the affect that our lives have on the earth.' - Kelley Donner - Best Coronavirus Children's Books 2020

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Great Irish Famine of 184552 was the defining event in the history of modern Ireland. At least one million people died, and double that number fled the country within a decade.The Great Irish Famine surveys the history of this great tragedy through the testimonies of four key contemporaries, conveying the immediacy of the unfolding disaster as never before.They are: John MacHalethe Catholic Archbishop of Tuam John Mitchelthe radical nationalist Elizabeth Smiththe Scottish-born wife of a Wicklow landlord Charles E. Trevelyanthe assistant secretary to the Treasury Each brings a unique perspective, influenced by who they were, what they witnessed, and what they stood for. It is an intimate and compelling portrayal of these hungry years. The book shows how misguided policies inspired by slavish adherence to ideology worsened the effects of a natural disaster of catastrophic proportions.Reviews:Trade Review“There are many books on this terrible event, but this is one of the most fluent and original. Although it is based on large amounts of primary research its style is accessible and engaging, and the result is a valuable study of a truly harrowing crisis”. * The Times Higher Education Supplement. *

Read more less

Book SynopsisBeautifully illustrated, intimately personal and politically trenchant account of Beirut's catastrophic 2020 port explosionTrade Review'A personal, impassioned account of a crime committed against the Lebanese people’ -- Ursula Lindsey, ‘New York Review of Books’'Magical ... Lamia Ziadé works as an alchemist. My Port of Beirut tells the story of the explosion as she experienced it: from afar but in the heart. She draws the faces of the victims, collects the stories, reproduces the graffiti against the corrupt leaders, and explains these destroyed buildings which to us are only buildings for us but for her are symbols, memories, her life... A book of love, mourning and anger' -- 'Elle''A very moving tribute... the Franco-Lebanese illustrator and writer has been developing a very personal literary genre for several years, made up of very colourful texts and drawings, reproductions of photos taken from private archives or press articles... Here, she erects a mausoleum to the victims of the disaster, and over the pages, the simple succession of their faces and their names creates intense emotion' -- Les Inrockuptibles'Lamia Ziadé tells here in the first person the contemporary history of her native country, its violence, the very year of her birth in 1968, which is also that of the first stone laid for the port silos, for which she has had a passion since childhood... Through this emblematic place that she makes her own, her port of Beirut, she writes a Lebanese autobiography of words and images that will speak to every reader' -- Le Point (April 2021)'Lamia Ziadé tells not only her personal trauma but also the story of the familiar and common violence that crossed her country (and all her life since her birth in 1968) and to which the explosion of the 2,750 tons of nitrate from ammonium from hangar 12 gives an overwhelming sense of endless curse... She mixes narrative and drawings, entangling her biography in the collective destiny to honour here, first and foremost, the memory of victims she did not know.' -- Livres Hebdo (30 March 2021)'Brutal, touching... ' -- Politis'To re-see the Port of Beirut explosion through the softened lens of Lamia Ziade’s watercolors, paired with her personal and family memories of the port, is to re-live it with a raw tenderness that remains full of rage-struck grief' -- M. Lynx Qualey, Founding editor, ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly'Haunted by the city’s violent history, this polyphonic diary of the Beirut Port apocalypse is as poignant as it is meticulous. With the tender rage of a broken heart, Lamia Ziadé turns helplessness into a dazzling act of bearing witness.' -- Omar Berrada, writer and curator‘Extraordinary’ -- 'Ms. Magazine'Table of ContentsPrologue: August 4, 2020 1: The Sirens of the Port of Beirut 2: The Heroes 3: “A steamer enters the haze of the port of Beirut” 4: The Enchantment of Objects 5: The Saint George Hospital 6: Lady Cochrane 7: The Third Basin 8: My Sister’s Friends 9: Guilt 10: Sacy and Noun 11: The Criminals 12: Report on the Port, 1956 13: My Father’s Stubbornness 14: A Peaceful and Gentle People 15: My Sister on the Telephone 16: Who? 17: Beirut, Nest of Spies 18: The Port, Like the Country 19: Thawra, Birth of a Nation 20: October 17th 21: A Turn for the Worse

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Black Death

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis richly illustrated pamphlet seeks to contextualize the mass evictions by focussing on the ideological and economic factors as well as the role of religious and racial prejudice in prompting owners to rid their estates of what was known as a surplus population.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe spate of disaster events ranging from major to catastrophic that have occurred in recent years raises a lot of questions about where and why they happened. Understanding the history of emergency management policies and practice is important to an understanding of current and future policies and practice. Continuing in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, the new edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides the background to understand the key political and policy underpinnings of emergency management, exploring how major focusing events have shaped the field of emergency management. This edition builds on the original theoretical framework and chronological approach of previous editions, while enhancing the discussions through the addition of fresh information about the effects and outcomes of older events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The final chapters offer insightful discussion of the public administration concepts Trade Review"Claire Rubin’s third edition is essential reading for students and scholars in emergency management and an excellent introduction to the history of American emergency management for other interested readers. The earlier editions have served as core texts in introductory and advanced classes and the new edition brings the history of the field up to date with new chapters by leading scholars." —William L. Waugh, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University"Emergency Management: The American Experience is an essential book in the field. The updated third edition adds important analyses of recent disasters and policy trends. This book continues to be essential reading for scholars of disaster policy as well as for anyone who wishes to understand the historical and political contexts of emergency management and disaster policy in the United States." —Thomas Birkland, Department of Public Administration, North Carolina State University"The third edition of Emergency Management: The American Experience provides a rich account of disaster policy, to include important historical, social, and administrative issues that underpin our largely reactionary approach to emergency management. Claire Rubin and her colleagues adroitly describe the multitude of lessons learned and not learned following seminal disasters over time across the United States. This book provides crucial insights for both seasoned emergency managers seeking to develop more informed, proactive policy as well as educators who strive to teach the next generation of emergency managers how to more effectively plan for a more resilient future. Given the continued rise in disaster losses, including those exacerbated by a changing climate, the lessons derived from this text are more prescient than ever before and I look forward to further lessons drawn from the compendium book The U.S. Emergency Management System in the Twenty-first Century: From Disaster to Catastrophe." —Gavin Smith, PhD, AICP, Professor, North Carolina State UniversityTable of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction: 110 Years of Disaster Response and Emergency Management in the United States 2. Focusing Events in the Early Twentieth Century: A Hurricane, Two Earthquakes, and a Pandemic 3. The Expanding Role of the Federal Government: 1927–1950 4. The Formative Years: 1950–1978 5. Federal Emergency Management Comes of Age: 1979–2001 6. Emergency Management Restructured: Intended and Unintended Outcomes of Actions taken since 9/11 7. 2005 Events and Outcomes: Hurricane Katrina and Beyond 8. The System Is Tested: Response to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill 9. From a Painful Past to an Uncertain Future 10. The Evolving Federal Role in Emergency Management: Policies and Processes

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume addresses the imperative need for recognizing, exploring, and developing the role of multilingual communication in crisis settings. It is recognized that 'communication is aid' and that access to communication is an undeniable human right in crises. Even where effective and accurate information is available to be distributed, circulated, and broadcast in different ways through an ever-growing array of technologies, too often the language barrier remains in place. From the Philippines to Lebanon via Spain, Italy, Columbia, and the UK, crisis situations occur worldwide, with different cultural reactions and needs everywhere. The contributors of this volume represent a geographical mixture of regions, language combinations, and disciplines, because crisis situations need to be studied in their locale with different methods. Drawing on disaster studies research, this book aims to stimulate a broad, multidisciplinary debate on how complex communication is in cascading crises and on the role translation can play to facilitate communication.Translation in Cascading Crises is a key resource for students and researchers of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Humanitarian Studies, and Disaster Studies.Trade Review"This comprehensive and much-needed volume brings together a variety of experts to discuss the relation between translation and crises from diverse approaches and perspectives. A must read for anyone with an interest in the role language, communication, interpreting and translation studies can play in situation of crisis, in disaster management, in risk mitigation and reduction and, ultimately, in saving lives."Marc Orlando, Monash University, AustraliaTable of ContentsContentsList of FiguresList of TablesList of ContributorsAcknowledgementsChapter 1 Cascading Crises: Translation as Risk Reduction Federico M. Federici and Sharon O’Brien Part 1: Sample Crisis SettingsChapter 2 Crisis Translation in Yemen: Needs and Challenges of Volunteer Translators and Interpreters Khaled Al-ShehariChapter 3 Police Communication across Languages in Crisis Situations: Human Trafficking Investigations in the UK Joanna DruganChapter 4 Cascading Effects: Mediating the Unutterable Sufferance of Gender-based Violence in Migratory Flows Denise FilmerPart 2: Instruments and SupportChapter 5 Accessibility of Multilingual Information in Cascading Crises Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez and Jésus Torres-del-ReyChapter 6 Mapping Translation Technology and the Multilingual Needs of NGOs along the Aid Chain Celia Rico PérezChapter 7 Ethical Considerations on the Use of Machine Translation and Crowdsourcing in Cascading Crises Carla Parra Escartín and Helena Moniz Chapter 8 Management and Training of Linguistic Volunteers: A Case Study of Translation at Cochrane Germany Patrick Cadwell, Claudia Bollig, and Juliane RiedPart 3: Methods and DataChapter 9 Integrating Language Needs in Disaster Research and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management through Participatory Methods Jake Rom D. CadagChapter 10 Human Factors in Risk Communication: Exploring Pilot-Controller ‘Communication Awareness’ Bettina BajajChapter 11 Intralingual Translation and Cascading Crises: Evaluating the Impact of Semi-Automation on the Readability and Comprehensibility of Health Content Alessandra RossettiIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisCurating rigorous academic, policy and practice-based research, this book explores the response and adaptation of the UK voluntary sector to the COVID-19 pandemic and considers what can be learned to maximise its contribution in the event of future crises.Trade Review"The chapters provide useful fine-grained detail on the diversity of the voluntary sector, from the large national organizations to ‘hyperlocal’ ones, from mutual aid to community business and social enterprise sectors." Social Policy & AdministrationTable of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction – James Rees, Rob Macmillan, Chris Dayson, Chris Damm, Claire Bynner Chapter 2: Mobilising the Voluntary Sector: Critical Reflections From Across the Four UK Nations Nick Acheson, Laura Crawford, Jurgen Grotz, Irene Hardill, Denise Hayward, Eddy Hogg, Rhys Dafydd Jones, Matthew Linning, Sally Rees, Alasdair Rutherford, Ewen Speed, Amy McGarvey, Catherine Goodall and Joanna Stuart, Debbie Maltman Chapter 3: Bouncing Back: The Employment of Sector Attributes To Recover From Crises Tony Chapman, Durham University Chapter 4: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Formation and Dissolution of Charitable Organisations Diarmuid McDonnell (University of the West of Scotland), Alasdair Rutherford (University of Stirling) and John Mohan (University of Birmingham). Chapter 5: Paying the Price of “Doing Good” in the Face of Crisis Sarah Smith (Nottingham Trent University), Tracey Coule (Sheffield Hallam University), Daniel King (Nottingham Trent University) Chapter 6: Shifting Sands: Challenges and Opportunities for the Voluntary Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic Jon Burchell, Joanne Cook, Harriet Thiery, Erica Ballantyne, Fiona Walkley, Silviya Nikolova, Daniel Howden Chapter 7: At the COVID-19 Frontlines: Voluntary Sector Support for Refugee and Migrant Families in Glasgow – Maureen McBride, Elaine Feeney, Clara Pirie and Jane Cullingworth Chapter 8: The Value and Contribution of BAME-Led Organisations During and Beyond COVID-19 – Abigail Woodward, Beth Patmore, Gilli Gliff, Chris Dayson Chapter 9: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Advocacy Work of Voluntary Sector Organisations in Wales Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey (University of South Wales), E. Katharina Sarter (University of South Wales), and Vita Terry (IVAR) Chapter 10: Community Ownership of Physical Assets in Changing Times: The Context of Opportunities in the Pandemic – Carina Skropke Chapter 11: The Impact and Effect of COVID-19 on BAME Led Voluntary Sector Organisations: Resilience and New Ways of Working- Karl Murray Chapter 12: Voluntary Sector Organisations, Older People and Healthy Ageing During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Chris Dayson, Emma Bimpson, Angela Ellis-Paine, Joseph Chambers, Jan Gilbertson and Helen Kara Chapter 13: Emotions in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector During the Pandemic – Vita Terry, Houda Davis, and Marilyn Taylor Chapter 14: The Experience of Community-Led Businesses During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Sophie Reid Chapter 15: The Response of Voluntary Community Sports Clubs to COVID-19 – Geoff Nichols, Lindsay Findlay-King, Fiona Reid Chapter 16: The Latent Strength of Community Ties: How Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Organisations Utilised Their Local Networks in Response to COVID-19 – Lucy Smith Chapter 17: How Many of Us Had Pandemic in Our Risk Register? A Snapshot of Experiences of Community Buildings During the First Lockdown of 2020 – Ann Hindley and John Wilson Chapter 18: Leading Through a Pandemic – Patricia Armstrong and Jayne Stuart Chapter 19: Afterword – Margaret Harris

Read more less

Book Synopsis''A tale of irresponsibility and inexperience'' THE TIMES''Graphically written with a sense of dramatic construction'' SCOTSMANOn December 28th 1879, the night of the Great Storm, the Tay Bridge collapsed, along with the train that was crossing, and everyone on board...This is the true story of that disastrous night, told from multiple viewpoints:The station master waiting for the train to arrive - who sees the approaching lights simply vanish.The bored young boys watching from their bedroom window who witness the disaster.The dreamer who designed the bridge which eventually destroyed him.The old highlanders who professed the bridge doomed from the outset.The young woman on the ill-fated train, carrying a love letter from the man she hoped to marry...THE HIGH GIRDERS is a vivid, dramatic reconstruction of the ill-omened man-made catastrophe of the Tay Bridge disaster - and its grim aftermath.Trade ReviewGraphically written with a sense of dramatic construction * SCOTSMAN *A tale of irresponsibility and inexperience * THE TIMES *One of our leading historians, whose works ... are as scholarly as they are readable * OBSERVER *

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the unintended consequences of civic activism in a disaster-prone cityAfter Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people swiftly mobilized to rebuild their neighborhoods, often assisted by government organizations, nonprofits, and other major institutions. In Rethinking Community Resilience, Min Hee Go shows that these recovery efforts are not always the panacea they seem to be, and can actually escalate the city's susceptibility to future environmental hazards. Drawing upon interviews, public records, and more, Go explores the hidden costs of community resilience. She shows thatdespite good intentionsrecovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina exacerbated existing race and class inequalities, putting disadvantaged communities at risk. Ultimately, Go shows that when governments, nonprofits, and communities invest in rebuilding rather than relocating, they inadvertently lay the groundwork for a cycle of vulnerabilities. As cities come to terms with climate change adaptationrather than pTrade Review"Rethinking Community Resilience is a critical, timely account about the effects and limits of community action in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Transcending the neighborhoods-in-the-lead narratives that dominated New Orleans’s recovery, Min Hee Go’s sobering findings illuminate how resident action alone could not overcome the structural racism that led to unequal disaster effects and inequitable recoveries, and how neighborhood scale successes could lead to exclusionary redevelopment and reduce resilience in other ways. As the memory of Hurricane Katrina recedes, the relationships between neighborhoods and local public action in Rethinking Community Resilience are more relevant than ever for researchers, planners, policymakers alike who are investigating neighborhood change and facing disaster recovery and climate adaptation." -- Renia Ehrenfeucht, co-author of Urban Revitalization: Remaking Cities in a Changing World"Within the context of both climate change and long-term population decline, Rethinking Community Resilience examines how well-intentioned community led recovery efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans were often incomplete and haphazard, deepening pre-crisis inequities and increasing the city’s overall susceptibility to future risk. Min Hee Go interrogates the romanticized notion that civic action can uniformly fill the void created by incompetent or weakened government and enable residents to overcome crises and create more resilient communities." -- Marla K. Nelson, Associate Professor, University of New Orleans

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA lifeless body. One of many in the waters of the Mediterranean. Precarious boats navigate the waters of the sea, from south to north. And more often than not, it is not only hope that drowns.From the creator of The Island.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMeltdown investigates and recreates the dramatic events behind the most notorious nuclear accidents in history, as well as those shrouded in secrecy. Combining human tragedy with intriguing science, each account reveals new aspects of humanity's complex relationship with nuclear power and the ongoing struggle to harness and control it. From the pioneers of Los Alamos who got up close and personal with the cores of atomic bombs, to the hapless engineers in Soviet fuel-processing plants who unwittingly mixed up a disaster in a bucket, and from the terrifying impact of a tsunami at Fukushima to the mystery of the recent Russian incident, Meltdown explores the past and future of this extraordinary and potentially lethal source of infinite power. Table of ContentsSplitting the Atom • Explorers of New Worlds • Louis Slotin and the Demon Core • the Town That Wasn't There • Spoilt Milk • Burning Up • the Wrong-shaped Bottle • a Slip of the Hand • Broken Arrow • Human Error • Don't Rock the Boat • Nuclear Nightmare • Concentration Critical • the Four Horsemen • the Nyonoska Mystery.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe art and literature of our time is pregnant with catastrophe, with weather and water, wildness and weirdness. The Anthropocene - the term given to this geological epoch in which humans, anthropos, are wreaking havoc on the earth - is to be found bubbling away everywhere in contemporary cultural production. Typically, discussions of how culture registers, figures and mediates climate change focus on 'climate fiction' or 'cli-fi', but The Anthropocene Unconscious is more interested in how the Anthropocene and especially anthropogenic climate destabilisation manifests in texts that are not overtly about climate change - that is, unconsciously. The Anthropocene, Mark Bould argues, constitutes the unconscious of 'the art and literature of our time'.Tracing the outlines of the Anthropocene unconscious in a range of film, television and literature - across a range of genres and with utter disregard for high-low culture distinctions - this playful and riveting book draws out some of the things that are repressed and obscured by the term 'the Anthropocene', including capital, class, imperialism, inequality, alienation, violence, commodification, patriarchy and racial formations. The Anthropocene Unconscious is about a kind of rewriting. It asks: what happens when we stop assuming that the text is not about the anthropogenic biosphere crises engulfing us? What if all the stories we tell are stories about the Anthropocene? About climate change?Trade ReviewA scintillating work of boisterous melancholy. -- China Miéville, author of OctoberMark Bould's provocation kicks off a thrill-ride roller coaster of ideas, speeding us from one savvy insight to another about culture in the era of climate change. An essential read for anyone wanting to better understand what we know and don't know about what comes next. -- Imre Szeman, author of On PetroculturesIf The Anthropocene Unconscious weren't so fun to read, it might be too terrifying to think about. This is a book people will be quoting for the next twenty years. -- Gerry Canavan, co-editor of Green PlanetsBrilliant. A sharp, original, irreverent, and deadly serious exploration of climate's pervasive presence in all modern culture. Bould's critical elicitation of climate change across a wide range of genres, places and texts offers a novel methodology for reading, categorizing, and interpreting Anthropocene culture and the banal monstrosities of its attendant carbon capitalism. The result is a highly prescient critique of its root causes and a better means to fully realize the past, present and future effects of its unfolding catastrophes. -- Graeme Macdonald, University of WarwickBould's work is as impactful in the twenty-first century as Jacques Derrida's landmark thesis of nuclear culture was three decades ago. -- Anindita Banerjee, author of We Modern PeopleA vision from the future, a retrospective analysis of our present situation, a requiem for a world we have already lost. This is a deeply personal missive - and one that carries a powerful message: we conflate the fact and fiction of global destruction at our peril. -- John Gilbey * Times Higher Education *[Bould] is particularly good on film and its qualities ... while [his] critical arguments are carefully made, he is clear that his method includes reading an awareness of the Anthropocene into the cultural gems he examines. -- Jon Turney * The Arts Desk *Worthy and timely ... [The Anthropocene Unconscious] provide[s] us with a cultural critique that has the potential to reshape the way we think about all cultural forms, and the climate - literally - in which they are produced. -- Leila Sackur * It's Freezing in LA *Ebullient ... meshing high-theory with casual lyricism ... Bould's eco-socialist commitments seem increasingly inescapable. -- Lola Seaton * New Statesman *A swift, wide sweep ... the book's central argument is vital: our culture is submerged in climate catastrophe -- Oscar Rickett * i newspaper *Climate change, to Bould, is always on the peripheries of art, even if we can't confront it face-on, even if we would like to forget it, even when we think we were safe -- Lauren Sneade * Economy, Land & Climate Insight *Bould puts forward a compelling argument about what cultural criticism in the Anthropocene should be, and he does so with the hope of curtailing some of the slow violence and injustices of the many widely and unevenly distributed effects of climate change. -- Alison Sperling * Los Angeles Review of Books *A clear call to action, an attempt to awaken us from our slumber. * Science Fiction Studies *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Great Famine in Ireland was a catastrophe of immense proportions. Eviction, emigration and death from starvation were widespread. Landlords, eager to dispose of `surplus’ tenants, engaged in `assisted passages’, whereby tenants were given financial incentives to emigrate. The clearances of uneconomic tenants from the 85,000-acre Coolattin Estate in County Wicklow by Lord Fitzwilliam were the most organised in Ireland during and after the Famine years. From 1847 to 1856 Fitzwilliam removed 6,000 men, women and children and arranged passage from New Ross in Wexford to Canada on emigrant ships such as the Dunbrody. Most were destitute and many were ill on arrival in Quebec and New Brunswick. Hunger and overcrowding at quarantine stations, such as the infamous Grosse Île, resulted in further disease and death. Jim Rees explores this tragedy, from why the clearances occurred to who went where and how some families fared in Canada.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHumanitarians are required to be impartial, independent, professionally competent and focused only on preventing and alleviating human suffering. It can be hard living up to these principles when others do not share them, while persuading political and military authorities and non-state actors to let an agency assist on the ground requires savvy ethical skills. Getting first to a conflict or natural catastrophe is only the beginning, as aid workers are usually and immediately presented with practical and moral questions about what to do next. For example, when does working closely with a warring party or an immoral regime move from practical cooperation to complicity in human rights violations? Should one operate in camps for displaced people and refugees if they are effectively places of internment? Do humanitarian agencies inadvertently encourage ethnic cleansing by always being ready to 'mop-up' the consequences of scorched earth warfare? This book has been written to help humanitarians assess and respond to these and other ethical dilemmas.Trade ReviewSlim writes in a very engaging manner that is both erudite and easy to read, professional and personal at the same time, as humanitarianism must be. One really feels he himself has struggled with many of the dilemmas he describes and is eager to share his experience. * International Affairs *Few fields of human enterprise are as morally challenging as humanitarian aid, especially in wartime. Hugo Slim has written the essential handbook of ethical expertise for aid workers, aid organizations and students of ethics and humanitarianism. It is comprehensive, passionate and has the special gift of lucidly exploring moral complexities. -- Alex de Waal, Executive Director, World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, Tufts UniversitySlim writes in a very engaging manner that is both erudite and easy to read, professional and personal at the same time, as humanitarianism must be. One really feels he himself has struggled with many of the dilemmas he describes and is eager to share his experience. * The Jordan Times *Humanitarian workers confront desperately difficult ethical choices every day as they struggle to provide aid in war and disasters. In a field where theory and practice are too seldom aligned Hugo Slim has pulled off a rare feat -- a book that is as useful to the thoughtful aid practitioner as it is to the applied scholar. His analysis is fascinating and his refreshingly frank and practical approaches for navigating the ethical minefields of work in the world’s toughest places will appeal to the frontline aid worker and global humanitarian executive alike. -- Neal Keny-Guyer, Chief Executive Officer at Mercy CorpsThis book gets to the heart of the often impossible moral dilemmas and persistent ethical problems which confront, challenge and haunt humanitarians. As the sector professionalises and bureaucratises, it will help aid workers, managers and leaders to understand why principles matter more than ever and how they can be used to make better choices. Importantly, it is written from the perspective of someone who cares deeply about humanitarian action and who wants to help those who help others do so with care, compassion and to the highest possible standards. -- Sorcha O’Callaghan, Head of Humanitarian Policy, British Red CrossA fascinating and important book that unpack the ethics of the humanitarian enterprise, a critical question at a time when the fundamental values and principles of humanitarianism are being contested by the participation of southern actors. Few books penetrate the fundamental moral and ethical questions of humanitarianism, and even fewer in a language that is accessible to both scholars and practitioners -- a must-read. -- Urvashi Aneja, Director, Centre for Global Governance & Policy, Jindal School of International Affairs, Jindal Global University, IndiaIn this brilliant and incisive work, Hugo Slim develops a much needed moral compass that helps aid workers, both seasoned and novice, to navigate the tensions between principle and practice -- as well as the shoals of political manipulation in humanitarian action. An invaluable tool that should be in every humanitarian’s grab bag. -- Antonio Donini, editor of 'The Golden Fleece: Manipulation and Independence in Humanitarian Action''Important and eminently readable . . . masterful . . . a powerful message delivered with brio. His book should be required reading for all frontline aid workers - and even more so for their bosses.'An informative text worth the attention of academics and professionals, and also those considering volunteering in places where governments and large NGOs have been found wanting. * Socialist Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe “BASIC Ph” model of coping and resiliency, developed by Prof. Mooli Lahad and Dr. Ofra Ayalon, was the first to describe coping as an on-going effort to manage life challenges. This is the first book to be published on this world-renowned approach, widely used as an effective resiliency assessment, intervention, and recovery model.Underpinning the model is the suggestion that every person has internal powers, or coping resources, which can be mobilized in stressful situations; the effort to survive coming from a healthy rather than a pathological instinct. The categorization of these coping resources gives the model its name: Belief, Affect, Social, Imagination, Cognition, Physical. This edited volume outlines the theory behind the “BASIC Ph” approach, presents practice-based and research-based interventions and explains their application during and in the wake of both natural and man-made disasters. With wide-ranging chapters from authoritative contributors, the book shows how the “BASIC Ph” model can be successfully applied in family, community, education, health, and business settings.This will be an invaluable text for professionals, academics, and students with an interest in trauma and coping with crisis and disaster.Trade ReviewThis volume's importance is that it opens theory to practice for the study, understanding, and promotion of resilience. We still know little about protecting and developing resilience and it is essential that we be open to an array of models that we develop, test, and refine. This volume offers both clinicians and researchers critical approaches for supporting and fostering people's strengths who are confronted with great adversity. We are at the beginning of this journey that will ultimately be one of mental health's fundamental contributions to humankind. -- Stevan E. Hobfoll, PhD, The Judd and Marjorie Weinberg Presidential Professor and Chair, Behavioral Sciences, RUSH University Medical Center, Chicago, IllinoisThis is an excellent book and essential reading for clinicians and practitioners of all kinds, including play and creative arts therapists. It brings together theory, application and research in a comprehensive manual. The language is accessible but rigorous, and examples of practice bring the text to life and help the reader to live the resilience factor. This book will be in demand for evaluation of 'evidence based-practice' with suffering populations, whether children or adults. It certainly provides an illuminating experience for the reader. -- Professor Sue Jennings, PhD, Visiting Fellow Leeds Metropolitan University, Churchill Fellow 2012-2013 'Arts and Older People'The book descries the usefulness of psychotherapy. it explains that although this form of therapy uses different tools that explore a person's processes an insight, both the preventative model and psychotherapy have equal merit and can achieve similar outcomes... This book helps the reader to understand that people have different belief systems that inform their thinking and behaviours and goes on to compare different coping strategies adopted by diverse peoples and populations... The book uses research, tables, diagrams, photographs and frameworks to enable the reader to visualise the situations of a number of crisis lade communities all over the wold. Case studies bring vividly to life the stories of the most difficult environments and how they cope. The book explains how by applying the BACIS Ph model communities can be helped to build their resiliency and cope ore healthily. -- Hilary Schultess-Young, Independent Social Worker * Professional Social Work *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Integrative Model of Resiliency. Mooli Lahad, Tel Hai College, and Dmitry Leykin, Tel Hai College. 1. Measuring "BASIC Ph". Dmitry Leykin. 2. Six Parts Story Revisited. Mooli Lahad. 3. CARING: Children at Risk Intervention Groups "BASIC Ph" Guide for Coping and Healing. Ofra Ayalon, Nord COPE Center. 4. From "BASIC Ph" to Trauma and PTSD. Moshe Farchi, Tel Hai College. 5. The Application of the "BASIC Ph" Model in Family Therapy. Shulamit Niv, CSPC 6. Parenthood in Six Channels. Mooli Lahad and Nira Kaplansky, Waterbirds International. 7. The Contribution of Lahad's "BASIC Ph" Model and Landy's Role Method Model to Strategies of Coping with Stress among First Year Nursing Students. Naomi Hadary, Safed Academic College. 8. How Jewish and Arab Parents Perceived their Children's Resiliency During the Second Lebanon War. Miri Shacham, Ort Braude College, Mooli Lahad and Yehuda Shacham, ESPCT. 9. From Trama to Resilience: Combining Two Body-Oriented Psychotherapeutic Approaches. Judith Spanglet, Ben Gurion University and "Connections and Links-From Trauma to Resilience," Meirav Tal-Margalit, "Connections and Links-From Trauma to Resilience," and Miri Shacham. 10. Coping Modes of Zefat Residents During the Second Lebanon War. Lev Yossi, and Eshet Yovav, both at Bar-Ilan University 11. "Helping the Helpers" Cross-Cultural Program using the "BASIC Ph" Model. Yehuda Shacham. 12. Skradin Children: Longitudinal Study of Post Traumatic Reactions. Gina Lugovic, University of Zagreb. 13. School Project in Montenegro: During and after the Yugoslav War. Stress and Trauma among Adolescent Schoolchildren - A Model of Preventive Psychological Work in Accordance with the BASIC Ph Approach. Ljiljana Krkeljic, Podgorica, and Nevenka Pavlicic, KCCG Hospital, Podgorica. 14. Implementing the "BASIC Ph" Model in Post-Katrina Mississippi Gulf Coast. Ruvie Rogel, Wright State University and CSPC. 15. The "BASIC Ph" Model: An Approach for Building Business Resilience for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners. Dorit Elmaliach, CSPC. Epilogue: Or a Short Ride into the Future. Mooli Lahad, Miri Shacham and Ofra Ayalon. List of Contributors. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDavid Alexander provides a concise yet comprehensive and systematic primer on how to prepare for a disaster. The book introduces the methods, procedures, protocols and strategies of emergency planning, with an emphasis on situations within industrialized countries. It is designed to be a reference source and manual from which emergency mangers can extract ideas, suggestions and pro-forma methodologies to help them design and implement emergency plans.Table of ContentsPreface. Acknowledgements. 1 Aims, purpose and scope of emergency planning; 2 Methodology: making and using maps; 3 Methodology: analytical techniques; 4 The emergency plan and its activation; 5 The plan in practice: emergency management; 6 Specialized planning; 7 Reconstructive planning; 8 Emergency-management training; 9 Concluding thoughts. Glossary. Bibliography. Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Great Hunger in nineteenth-century Ireland was a major human tragedy of modern times. Almost a million perished and a further two million emigrated in the wake of potato blight and economic collapse. Acute famine also gripped the Scottish Highlands at the same time, causing misery, hardship and distress. The story of that lesser known human disaster is told in this prize-winning and internationally acclaimed book. The author describes the classic themes of highland and Scottish history, including the clearances, landlordism, crofting life, emigration and migration in a subtle and intricate reconstruction based on a wide range of sources. This book should appeal to all those with an interest in Scottish history, the emigration of Scottish people and the Highland Clearances.Trade Review'This book is a major step forward in Highland historiography' * Northern Scotland *'Devine's history is total, sensitive and scholarly with something to say to anthropologists, sociologists and humanists as well as historians' * Choice USA: A Current Review for College Libraries *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the definitive, unique account of the disaster in which 96 men, women and children were killed, hundreds injured and thousands traumatised. It details the appalling treatment endured by the bereaved and survivors in the immediate aftermath, the inhumanity of the identification process and the vilification of fans in the national and international media.In 2012, Phil Scraton was primary author of the ground-breaking report published by the Hillsborough Independent Panel following its new research into thousands of documents disclosed by all agencies involved. Against a backdrop of almost three decades of persistent struggle by bereaved families and survivors, in this new edition he reflects on the Panel’s in-depth work, its revelatory findings and their unprecedented impact – an unreserved apology from the Prime Minister; new criminal investigations; the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s largest-ever inquiry; the quashing of 96 inquest verdicts; a review of all health and pathology policies. Paving the way for truth recovery and institutional accountability in other controversial cases, he details the process and considers the impact of the longest ever inquests, from the preliminary hearings to their comprehensive, devastating verdicts.Powerful, disturbing and harrowing, Hillsborough: The Truth exposes the institutional complacency that led to the unlawful killing of the 96, revealing how the interests of ordinary people are marginalised when those in authority sacrifice truth and accountability to protect their reputations.Trade ReviewThis book is dynamite. A brilliant achievement, a real page-turner. -- Jimmy McGovernThe full truth about Hillsborough would never have been known were it not for Phil Scraton’s meticulous efforts over many years – he has done a huge service not just to the Hillsborough families but to this country. -- Andy Burnham, MP

Read more less

Book SynopsisWe are told we are living in the middle of a climate crisis of unprecedented proportions. As doomsday scenarios mount, hope collapses. Even as more and more people around the planet experience climate disaster as immediate and urgent, our imagination and programs for transformation lag. The disasters are already here, and the crises, longstanding, are ongoing. In Hope Against Hope, the Out of the Woods collective investigates the critical relation between climate change and capitalism and calls for the expansion of our conceptual toolbox to organize within and against ecological crisis characterized by deepening inequality, rising far-right movements, and—relatedly—more frequent and devastating disasters. While much of environmentalist and leftist discourse in this political moment remain oriented toward horizons that repeat and renew racist, anti-migrant, nationalist, and capitalist assumptions, Out of the Woods charts a revolutionary course adequate to our times. At the center of the renewed political orientation Hope Against Hope expounds is an abolitionist approach to border imperialism, reactionary ecology, and state violence that underpins many green solutions and modes of understanding nature. It reminds us of the frequent moments and movements of solidarity emerging in the ruins all around us. Their stunning conclusion to the disarray of politics in our seemingly end times is the urgency of creating what Out of the Woods calls “disaster communism”—the collective power to transform our future political horizons from the ruins and establish a climate future based in common life.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction I. BORDERS Introduction: Disaster Migration On Climate/Borders/Survival/Care/Struggle: Two Members of Out of the Woods in Conversation with BASE Magazine Refuges and Death-Worlds Infrastructure Against Borders A Hostile Environment II. NATURES Introduction: Cyborg Ecology The Dangers of Reactionary Ecology Lies of the Land: Against and Beyond Völkisch Environmentalism The Political Economy of Hunger Contemporary Agriculture: Climate, Capital, and Cyborg Agroecology James O’Connor’s Second Contradiction of Capitalism Murray Bookchin’s Liberatory Technics Organizing Nature in the Midst of Crisis: Jason W. Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life III. FUTURES Introduction: Toward a Regenerative Utopianism The Future is Kids’ Stuff Cthulhu Plays No Role for Me Postcapitalist Ecology: A Comment on Inventing the Future IV. STRATEGIES Introduction: Organizing Amidst Crisis Blockadia and Capitalism: Naomi Klein vs. Naomi Klein Climate Populism and the People’s Climate March Après moi le déluge! Fossil Fuel Abolitionism and the Carbon Bubble Disaster Communism: The Uses of Disaster Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs disasters become more commonplace, we need to think of alternatives for reliefTrade Review'Supremely accomplished. A major step forward in the theory of anarchist practice and deserves our urgent attention as the collapse of capitalism unfolds' -- Uri Gordon, author of 'Anarchy Alive!''Commendable - a book that prepares us to think about and react to the kinds of system failures, collapses, and other disasters that will become increasingly more common over the next decades. Firth complicates the important concept of mutual aid, examining the danger of neoliberal recuperation while emphasising the subversive possibilities at its heart’ -- Peter Gelderloos, activist and author of 'The Solutions Are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution From Below'‘A clear, timely and rigorous account of anarchist responses to catastrophes. It avoids romanticisation, as Rhiannon Firth incisively unpicks state and corporate strategies of co-option’ -- Benjamin Franks, Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Philosophy, University of Glasgow'Disrupts disaster studies using an anarchist epistemology to question widely held assumptions about the state, businesses and social capital in recovery. Firth finds anarchist practices underlie everyday actions in disasters. This ground-breaking book shows how imagination, radical pedagogy, and social movements are living components of disaster anarchy' -- John Preston, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex'Unpacking the beautiful possibilities of mutual aid, Firth reveals a glimmer of hope in this era of darkness and dismay. Anarchy is affirmed as the dawn light of our collective capacity to transform disaster into grace as we create a new day beyond the failings of capitalism and the state.' -- Simon Springer, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Newcastle, Australia''Disaster Anarchy' makes an exceptional contribution to the existing literature. Highly original and beautifully written, it is a must read for any activist or scholar interested in exploring utopian alternatives to the status quo, and creating a new society in the shell of the old.' -- Richard J. White, Reader in Human Geography, Sheffield Hallam University, Britain‘Firth bridges the theories and methodologies in the continuing development of anarchist and liberatory frameworks of decentralised disaster responses, first articulated after Hurricane Katrina. They demonstrate through personal histories and analysis deeper paths forward in anarchist processes and practices that allow our liberatory imaginations to resist the collapse while creating viable alternatives without state coercion or interference' -- scott crow, author of 'Black Flags and Windmills: Hope , Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective'Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations Interviewees 1. Introduction 2. Backdrop: Mainstream Disaster Studies 3. Critical Approaches: Precarity, Securitisation and Disaster Capitalism 4. Towards an Anarchist Approach to Disaster 5. Occupy Sandy Mutual Aid, New York, 2012 6. Covid-19 Mutual Aid, London, 2020 7. Conclusion Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Climate Change: A complex problem 2. The Role of Atmospheric Gases in Climate Change PART 2: TOOLS USED TO INVESTIGE AND PREDICT CLIMATE CHANGE 3. Climate Change through Earth's History 4. Numerical Modelling of the Global Climate and Carbon-cycle System PART 3: INDICATORS 5. Global Surface Temperatures and Climate Change 6. Sea Ice and Climate Change 7. Antarctic Sea Ice Changes and their Implications 8. Land Ice: indicator and integrator of Climate Change 9. Glaciers and Climate Change 10.Poleward Expansion of the Atmospheric Circulation and Climate Change 11. Rising Sea levels and Climate Change 12. Ocean Current Changes 13. Ocean Acidification and Climate Change 14. Permafrost and Climate Change 15. The Jet Stream and Climate Change 16. Extreme Weather and Climate Change 17. Bird Ecology and Climate Change 18. Insect Communities and Climate Change 19. Sea Life, Pelagic Ecosystems, and Climate Change 20. Changes in Coral Reef Ecosystems as a result of Climate Change 21. Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change 22. Intertidal Indicators of Climate and Global Change 23. Lichens and Climate Change 24. Plant Pathogens as Indicators of Climate Change 25. Invasive Plants and Climate Change 26. Biological Diversity and Climate Change 27.The Role of Forests in the Carbon Cycle and Climate Change PART 4: OTHER POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO CLIMATE CHANGE 28. The Variation of the Earth’s Movements (orbital, tilt and precession) and Climate Change 29. The Role of Volcanic Activity in Climate and Global Change 30. Atmospheric Aerosols and their Role in Climate Change 31. Climate Change and Agriculture 32. Widespread surface solar radiation changes and their effects on the Climate: dimming and brightening 33. Space Weather and Cosmic Ray effects and Climate Change PART 5: SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE 34. Engineering Aspects of Climate Change 35. Societal Adaptation to Climate Change

Read more less

Book SynopsisSouth-west Donegal, Ireland, June 1856. From the time that the blight first came on the potatoes in 1845, armed and masked men dubbed Molly Maguires had been raiding the houses of people deemed to be taking advantage of the rural poor. On some occasions, they represented themselves as ''Molly''s Sons'', sent by their mother, to carry out justice; on others, a man attired as a woman, introducing ''herself'' as Molly Maguire, demanding redress for wrongs inflicted on her children. The raiders might stipulate the maximum price at which provisions were to be sold, warn against the eviction of tenants, or demand that an evicted family be reinstated to their holding. People who refused to meet their demands were often viciously beaten and, in some instances, killed -- offences that the Constabulary classified as ''outrages''. Catholic clergymen regularly denounced the Mollies and in 1853, the district was proclaimed under the Crime and Outrage (Ireland) Act. Yet the ''outrages'' continued. Then, in 1856, Patrick McGlynn, a young schoolmaster, suddenly turned informer on the Mollies, precipitating dozens of arrests. Here, a history of McGlynn''s informing, backlit by episodes over the previous two decades, sheds light on that wave of outrage, its origins and outcomes, the meaning and the memory of it. More specifically, it illuminates the end of ''outrage'' -- the shifting objectives of those who engaged in it, and also how, after hunger faded and disease abated, tensions emerged in the Molly Maguires, when one element sought to curtail such activity, while another sought, unsuccessfully, to expand it. And in that contention, when the opportunities of post-Famine society were coming into view, one glimpses the end, or at least an ebbing, of outrage -- in the everyday sense of moral indignation -- at the fate of the rural poor. But, at heart, The End of Outrage is about contention among neighbours -- a family that rose from the ashes of a mode of living, those consumed in the conflagration, and those who lost much but not all. Ultimately, the concern is how the poor themselves came to terms with their loss: how their own outrage at what had been done unto them and their forbears lost malignancy, and eventually ended. The author being a native of the small community that is the focus of The End of Outrage makes it an extraordinarily intimate and absorbing history.Trade ReviewMac Suibhne's superb account brings us face to face with subaltern nineteenthcentury rural Ireland. * Peter Leary, Irish Historical Studies *... a sweeping historical tale ...Mac Suibhne paints an evocative canvas of clashing tribes and morally opaque characters. ...a historical companion to understanding the Irish Catholic experience not only in Donegal, but also in northeastern Pennsylvania. * Charles McElwee, American Conservative *Mac Suibhne provides an insight not only into Beagh during the famine but also into the later troubles in Beagh: clearances, land-grabbing and informing ... Mac Suibhne has reminded us of the importance of the way that the response to local events can illuminate a moment in a country's history. * Maureen Murphy, History *For Mac Suibhne nothing is simple; no one is purely victim or villain; the dominant colour is not green or orange but grey. There are dramatic events and extraordinary characters ... Through it all there is imagination, a commitment to showing people as "more than shadows cold and wan" ... It is impossible not to be moved by the humanity with which Mac Suibhne writes of his ancestors and their neighbours, or to be provoked by his unconventional epic. From a local row he has crafted an extraordinary work of history that makes its own importance. * Christopher Kissane, Irish Times *Breándan Mac Suibhne has provided us with a remarkable new history in his new book The End of Outrage ... he not only tells that story of integration into the market order, but of, in his words, the end of moral indignation in the face of despair and disaster, and of the fate of rural poor -- for it is from those families that the casualties of the famine came. It vividly describes a process of marginalisation, of the consolidation of holdings on the eve of the Famine, the extinguishing of commonage -- all facilitated by the instruments of a new technology of the state, the ordnance survey. * President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins *The End of Outrage is a remarkable book ... The reader of this book is from the outset captured and captivated by its bivalve nature as both a local and personal memoir, as an historical record and a meditation on generational change. * Seamus Dean, Dublin Review of Books *a minute and exacting analysis of one very small place in Southwest Donegal becomes a rumination on how the living rub along with the dead, how forgetting happens and how outrage (grudges, feuding, revenge, violence) ends. It is an extraordinary act of recovery and is set to become a classic of Irish historiography ... [a] marvelous book * Frank Shovlin, Liverpool Postgraduate Journal of Irish Studies *[a] remarkable book ... Mac Suibhne's forensic interrogation of local 'memory' -- scrupulously avoiding verdicts, vindications or sentimentality -- is a masterclass in assessing an extraordinary range of historical sources in both vernaculars, Irish and English. This is an exceptional work of scholarship and historical reconstruction. Rich in evidence, conceptually sharp and challenging, and beautifully written, it will be compulsory reading for all students of modern Ireland for a long time to come. * Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh in Canadian Journal of Irish Studies *Table of ContentsPART I; PART II; PART III; PART IV

Read more less

Book SynopsisRadioactive sources such as nuclear power installations can pose a great threat to both humans and our environment. How do we measure, model and regulate such threats? Environmental Radioactivity and Emergency Preparedness addresses these topical questions and aims to plug the gap in the lack of comprehensive literature in this field. The book explores how to deal with the threats posed by different radiological sources, including those that are lost or hidden, and the issues posed by the use of such sources. It presents measurement methods and approaches to model and quantify the extent of threat, and also presents strategies for emergency preparedness, such as strategies for first-responders and radiological triage in case an accident should happen. Containing the latest recommendations and procedures from bodies such as the IAEA, this book is an essential reference for both students and academicians studying radiation safety, as well as foTrade Review"This new book from Isaksson and Raaf will be very useful for students and professionals engaged in the radiation protection of humans and the environment. It covers all of the fundamental theoretical aspects of radiation physics and radiation biology, but focuses primarily on the field’s practical aspects, including radiation detection, sample preparation, and dose assessment. The book also discusses current global concerns over radiation protection, such as modelling the transfer of radionuclides between large scale environments (like the oceans or soils) to small scale environments (like plants and animals).After starting with a recall of facts or basic principles, each chapter introduces the relevant theory in great detail before providing example calculations and a wide variety of exercises for the reader to utilise. Notably, the last chapter tackles emergency preparedness, discussing emergency scenarios and the remedial actions and dosimetry methods to be applied to large scale accidents. This topic is usually not covered by other books in the field - instead reserved to be discussed in restricted reports – and therefore makes this book unique. Risk communication is another very important issue that is explored, which will be of interest to decision makers and also first responders who might need to deal with public concerns. Focusing on current concerns whilst still tackling the fundamentals of the field, Environmental Radioactivity and Emergency Preparedness is a modern treatise of radiation protection and will be useful to many!"—David Broggio, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, France"One particular challenge of nuclear and radiological technologies is preparing for failure, misuse, and disaster, and emergency preparedness is essential in limiting the impact of such events on our populations and environment. Emergency response teams, specifically experts in radiation protection, medical phyTable of ContentsSource terms. Environmental radiation protection. Environmental exposure pathways. Radiometry and sampling. Radioecology. Nuclear and radiological safety. Emergency preparedness and countermeasures/response. A short history of radiation protection.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDisasters affect people individually and collectively in their communities, national societies, and the international sphere and in any setting from the home to the planetary level. Furthermore, these disasters can be complex, multi-layered and what happens in one location can affect sentient beings elsewhere directly and/or indirectly. These create interdependencies between people, the flora, fauna, and physical environment that require the holistic, transdisciplinary approaches to disasters that are advocated by green social work perspectives.Using case studies drawn from practice and research to explore the skills and knowledge needed by social workers to practice within disaster situations, this book illustrates what good social work practice during times of disaster looks like. It highlights the theories, skills and expertise needed to intervene effectively in specific disaster situations and provides case studies as a major vehicle for considering ethical dilemmas and sTable of Contents1.Introduction. Part One – Disaster Interventions in Local and National Contexts in the UK. 2.Contextualising Social Work Interventions during Disasters in the UK: A multi-nation approach. 3.COVID-19: A health pandemic that challenges the social work profession. 4.Climate change: Social work responds to political failures nationally and internationally. 5.Extreme weather events: Flooding and wildfires, disasters frequently calling upon social workers’ contributions. 6.The Grenfell fire disaster. 7.Terrorist attacks: Immediate and long-term consequences for social work interventions. Part Two - Learning lessons from disasters occurring in other countries. 8.Storm surges and hurricanes. 9.Earthquakes: Socio-economic and political structures turn a natural hazard into a social disaster. 10.Volcanic eruptions: A natural hazard that has unanticipated global impacts. 11.Financial Disasters. 12.Conclusions.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIncludes Case Studies from a Range of Event SitesIntroduction to Crowd Science examines the growing rate of crowd-related accidents and incidents around the world. Using tools, methods, and worked examples gleaned from over 20 years of experience, this text provides an understanding of crowd safety. It establishes how crowd accidents and incidents (specifically mass fatalities in crowded spaces) can occur. The author explores the underlying causes and implements techniques for crowd risk analysis and crowd safety engineering that can help minimize and even eliminate occurrences altogether. Understand Overall Crowd Dynamics and Levels of Complex StructureThe book outlines a simple modeling approach to crowd risk analysis and crowds safety in places of public assembly. With consideration for major events, and large-scale urban environments, the material focuses on the practical elemeTrade Review"Really excellent work. It does a good job of taking a very sophisticated topic and making it accessible for an educated reader."—Tracy Pearl, Florida International UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction. Crowd risk analysis. Causality. Crowd science. Crowd and event modelling. Case studies and examples. Control room applications. The way forward. Appendices. Index.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this fresh approach to railway history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim and grisly railway past.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhy communities and institutions need to work together to reduce disaster risk

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Krasznahorkai's world falls apart along manmade fault lines. Fascinating." -- Paul J. Griffiths - Commonweal"A master of peripatetic, never-ending sentences that brim over with vacillations, qualifications, and false epiphanies." -- Will Harrison - Hudson Review"A masterpiece, the culminating work of the extraordinary Hungarian writer’s career. The alternation of narrative darkness and radiant syntactical beauty makes this my personal favorite of the year." -- Michael Silverblatt - KCRW "Best of 2019""The baron cuts a memorable figure, but the real star of Krasznahorkai's story is a philosopher who has cut himself off from society and lives in hermitage in a forest park, concerned with problems of being and nonbeing. In the end, the worlds the philosopher, the baron, and other characters inhabit are slated to disappear in a wall of flame." -- Kirkus"If you’re a fan of Krasznahorkai, you already know that you need to read this one: the final volume in his four-part series, in which the aging Baron Bela Wenckheim proceeds home to Hungary, to the highly absurd town of his birth." -- Emily Temple - LitHub"At the end of his life, Baron Wenckheim returns to a small town in Hungary, in search of his lost love. From this, László Krasznahorkai forges a fictional universe populated with rogues and visionaries, at once epic and intimate, apocalyptic and deeply comic. Ottilie Mulzet's remarkable translation captures the density of his extended sentences, their many twists and pivots, and the slow accumulation of their extraordinary intellectual and moral force. Singular and uncompromising, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming is a masterpiece by one of the great writers of our time." -- National Book Award Judges' citation"Krasznahorkai's headlong comedy of obsession and wonderful squalor set in small-town Hungary. Majestic." -- New York Times Book Review"A vision of painstaking beauty." -- NPR"Krasznahorkai's fictions emit a recognizably entropic music. His novels—equal parts artful attenuation and digressive deluge—suggest a Beckettian impulse overwhelmed by obsessive proclivities. The epic length of a Krasznahorkai sentence slowly erodes its own reality, clause by scouring clause, until at last it releases the terrible darkness harbored at its core. Baron Wenkcheim’s Homecoming is a fitting capstone to Krasznahorkai’s tetralogy, one of the supreme achievements of contemporary literature." -- Dustin Illingworth - Paris Review Daily"“I’ve said a thousand times that I always wanted to write just one book. Now, with Baron, I can close this story. With this novel I can prove that I really wrote just one book in my life. This is the book—Satantango, Melancholy, War and War, and Baron. This is my one book.”" -- László Krasznahorkai - Paris Review Interview"Krasznahorkai establishes his own rules and rides a wave of exhilarating energy in this sprawling, nonpareil novel, which harkens back to early works such as Satantango but with the benefit of the Man Booker International Prize winner’s mature powers. In a small Hungarian town, an eccentric and isolated genius known only as the Professor occupies a specially designed hut, ravaged by uncontrollable thoughts and trying to rid himself of “human imbecility” while keeping unsavory watch on his daughter. There will soon be more to watch: the ruined Baron Bela Wenckheim is returning home by train, in flight from his extensive gambling debts, only to fall in with a colorful collection of locals, all looking to take advantage of the Baron by one means or another. There’s the roughneck regulars of the local pub, the scheming town mayor looking to gin up excitement over the Baron’s return for his own visibility, and the con man Dante of Szolnok, whom the Baron encounters casually only to find he has his fingers in any pie from which he can extract a profit. The one bright spot in this Greek chorus of rogues is Marika, the Baron’s childhood sweetheart, whose romantic desires to reunite with the refined boy she remembers will be tested by corrosive new realities. This vortex of a novel compares neatly with Dostoevsky and shows Krasznahorkai at the absolute summit of his decades-long project. Apocalyptic, visionary, and mad, it flies off the page and stays lodged intractably wherever it lands." -- Publishers Weekly"Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai is of that vanishingly rare breed of living writers whom it is astonishing to think of as contemporary. From his first novel, 1985’s Satantango, he has garnered comparisons not to the usual crop of popular novelists but to Beckett, Dostoyevsky, and Gogol. His books are echoic dirges that plumb the depths of human consciousness, taking place in downtrodden villages populated by madmen, charlatans, and recluses. Often the thoughts of a character will be rendered in a single sentence that can run on for pages, gathering definition and accruing implication like light passing through a crystal. Baron Wenckheim is another massive and masterly work set in the tragic, ridiculous pandemonium of a village far from Budapest, teetering on the brink of disaster—a novel that both breaks new ground and looks back to Krasznahorkai’s earliest work. It is also said to be his last." -- Publishers Weekly""Krasznahorkai’s novels are less grim than grimoire – books of magic spells that, by their invocation, conjure worlds. It is a turn of great fortune to be alive and to have these novels that are filled to the brim with strange life."" -- Ian Maxton - Spectrum Culture"A literary heir to Kafka, Beckett, and Dostoyevsky: Krasznahorkai’s genius has been his ability to absorb the tectonic changes of politics and culture into his singular style. His challenge of despair is applicable under any economic system. Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming is his latest, longest, strangest, and possibly greatest novel—suffused with nihilism, but deeply funny. The absurd is more absurd, the incomprehensible more incomprehensible than ever. And yet, though it has its confrontations with despair and nihilism, Wenckheim is the funniest of Krasznahorkai’s novels." -- The Baffler"László Krasznahorkai’s masterpiece—a manic Greek chorus that infuses festive Technicolor into his multifaceted, bleak vision. Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming calls into question our acceptance of the crippling status quo, delivering universal truths in a way that few books can anymore. It is precisely the novel we need in these difficult, foreboding times. His funniest and most profound book and, quite possibly, also his most accessible." -- The Millions"Krasznahorkai is a pungent delineator of character, and the landscape of his imaginary city is peopled with figures as busy and distinctive as those of a painting by Bruegel. While the novel energetically pursues Krasznahorkai’s habitual themes – disorder, spiritual drought, the impossibility of meaning in the absence of God – it does so in a tone that glitters with comic detail." -- Jane Shilling - The New Statesman"With an immense cast and wide-ranging erudition, this novel, the culmination of a Hungarian master's career, offers a sweeping view of a contemporary moment that seems deprived of meaning." -- The New Yorker"In Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming the Hungarian maestro Krasznahorkai is on peerless form. Twinkling with dark wit, his dizzyingly torrential sentences (heroically translated by Ottilie Mulzet) forever bait us with the promise of resolution. It's hard to think of anything comparable to the crazed abundance on show here; as a portrait of epistemological derangement –AKA fake news– it hits the mark as well as any more hidebound attempt to catch the zeitgeist." -- Anthony Cummins - The Observer"WINNER OF THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE""One of the most mysterious artists now at work." -- Colm Tóibín"His works tends to get passed around like rare currency. One of the most profoundly unsettling experiences I have had as a reader." -- James Wood"The Hungarian master of the apocalypse." -- Susan Sontag"The universality of Krasznahorkai’s vision rivals that of Gogol’s Dead Souls and far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing." -- W. G. Sebald"The sentences are gloriously funny, intricate, moving, absurd, funny again, and they trip along like rain and lightening and a rattling train, and they start and stop and deviate in ways that I find enthralling...I’m speed-crawling through it on my hands and knees like a happy infant, giggling and farting my way through the subclauses and the spirals and the damp Hungarian undergrowth. I don’t want it to end. It is of course entirely about Hungary, and Hungarian people and Hungarian things. But Hungarian things are the things of the world. There may as well be no place other than Hungary." -- Keith Ridgway - Lunate"Krasznahorkai’s interminable sentences flood the characters in their personal voids." -- Mandy-Suzanne Wong - Electric Literature

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDiscover the history, causes, impacts, and potential future of global food shortagesa problem for all of humanity, not just the developing world.This important reference work takes an in-depth look at the geographic nature of the problem of global food shortages, helping readers to understand that while this is not a problem that exists everywhere, it is a problem that touches everyone. The book begins with an introduction to the basics of global food shortages, moves through the history of the issue, and then explains the current state of affairs. From there, it examines root causes, proposes solutions, and takes a speculative look into the future. This organization moves readers through the problem in a systematic and easy-to-follow manner, while also allowing them to explore each aspect of the issue individually. A curated selection of further readings at the end of each chapter points readers toward resources for additional research and discovery. The book

Read more less

Book Synopsis''This book is brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant. Apart from the epilogue, which is idiotic'' Jeremy Clarkson''F*cking brilliant'' Sarah KnightAN EXHILARATING JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST CREATIVE AND CATASTROPHIC F*CK-UPS OF HUMAN HISTORYIn the seventy thousand years that modern human beings have walked this earth, we''ve come a long way. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we''re real winners. But, frankly, it''s not exactly been plain sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we''ve managed to really, truly, quite unbelievably f*ck things up.From Chairman Mao''s Four Pests Campaign, to the American Dustbowl; from the Austrian army attacking itself one drunken night, to the world''s leading superpower electing a reality TV mogul as President... it''s pretty safe to say that, as a species, we haven''t exactly grown wiser with age.So, next time you think you''ve really f*cked up, thiTrade ReviewThis book is brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant. Apart from the epilogue, which is idiotic -- Jeremy ClarksonTom Phillips has proven beyond a doubt that humans are goddamn lucky to be here and are doing nearly nothing to remain relevant and viable as a species - except, that is, for writing witty, entertaining, and slightly distressing-but-ultimately-endearing books about same. And if you care to avoid orbiting the earth in a space-garbage prison of your fellow humans' design, you should probably read it -- Sarah Knight * The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck *In dark times, it's reassuring to learn that we've always been a bunch of clueless f*cking nitwits -- Stuart Heritage * Don't Be a Dick, Pete *If you find yourself looking at the news and wondering how humanity has got so many things wrong, over and over again, this book is a very funny answer to just that question' -- Mark Watson, comedianA light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong... Both readable and entertaining * Telegraph *Tom Phillips is a very clever, very funny man, and it shows. If Sapiens was a testament to human sophistication, this history of failure cheerfully reminds us that humans are mostly idiots -- Greg Jenner * A Million Years and a Day *Chronicles humanity's myriad follies down the ages with malicious glee and much wit . . . a rib-tickling page-turner * Business Standard *Humans is Tom Phillips' timely, irreverent gallop through thousands of years of human stupidity. Every time you begin to find our foolishness bizarrely comforting, Phillips adds another kick in the ribs. Beneath all this book's laughter is a serious question: where does so much serial stupidity take us? -- Nicholas Griffin * Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World *From the book's goofy "censored" title . . . you might get the impression that Humans is a jokey, bathroom-style compendium, but that would be a mistake. Phillips is hilarious and breezily readable, but he knows his sh*t, and his book is backed by mountains of research. -- Dave Mandl * Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) *

Read more less