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 (4.0 / 5.0) "A powerful critique of the international humanitarian agencies dominating famine relief in Africa." -- Foreign Affairs "This is unquestionably an important book by a writer whose accomplishments as a researcher, critic and activist on famine and on human rights in Africa are widely respect." -- International Affairs "... de Waal pleads for readers... to probe for a deeper understanding of the 'political roots of famine'... " -- WorldView "... a well-documented critique that should give pause for serious reflection and serve to instruct both the initiate and the master of famine theory... " -- Sociocultural Anthropology Famine Crimes is a factually rich, powerfully intelligent, morally important analysis of the persistence of famine in Africa. Alex de Waal lays the blame for Africa's problems with starvation on the political failings of African governments, western donors, and the misguided policies of international relief agencies. 
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$14.89 |
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 (3.5 / 5.0) How to survive after the oil runs out and there is no more "grid"
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$6.99 |
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 (5.0 / 5.0) Once overlooked as a minor and ineffective tactic in the mitigation and prevention of terrorism and violent crime, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has undergone dramatic changes since the September 11 attacks. The most up-to-date reevaluation of CPTED since 2000, 21st Century Security and CPTED reflects updates and amendments to the rules for security in the built environment and presents the knowledge and practice of CPTED as applied to today’s world of threats, including street crime, workplace violence, and terrorism.
Edited by America’s premier architect, criminologist, and Certified Protection Professional, and boasting contributions from the world’s top CPTED practitioners, this book represents the first collection of CPTED information to be readily accessible to the architectural and law enforcement communities. Facilitating understanding across fields, it explains the architecture process to security directors and the security design process to architects. Providing step-by-step guidelines for applying real-world concepts, principles, and processes for building security and CPTED, the book starts with the risk threat assessment and considers relevant factors and variables all the way through construction and post-occupancy evaluation. Highly relevant to critical infrastructure protection, the book demonstrates CPTED implementation in high-security environments, as well as public and private sector buildings, parks, ATMs, and schools. It addresses specialization in security system design and planning, crime prevention, blast mitigation, and chemical, biological, and nuclear threat protection. A practical resource and guide for architects, security directors, law enforcement, Homeland Security professionals, and building and property managers, 21st Century Security and CPTED addresses how CPTED is applicable to critical infrastructure protection in the continuing effort for homeland security.
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$71.96 |
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The first half of the 1990s have seen the largest and most costly floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes in the history of the United States. While natural hazards cannot be prevented, their human impacts can be greatly reduced through advance action that mitigates risks and reduces vulnerability. Natural Hazard Mitigation describes and analyzes the way that hazard mitigation has been carried out in the U.S. under our national disaster law, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. It is the first systematic study of the complete intergovernmental system for natural hazard mitigation, including its major elements and the linkages among them. The book:
Damages from natural disasters are reaching catastrophic proportions, making natural hazard mitigation an important national policy issue. The findings and recommendations presented in this volume should help to strengthen natural hazard mitigation policy and practice, thereby serving to reduce drains on the federal treasury that pay for preventable recovery and relief costs, and to spare residents in areas hit by natural disasters undue suffering and expense. It is an informative and eye-opening study for planners, policy-makers, students of planning and geography, and professionals working for government agencies that deal with natural hazards.
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$45.46 |
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 (4.5 / 5.0) “[A] tightly crafted, very readable book . . . the best in-depth contemporary analysis we are going to get.” —Stephen Flynn, The Washington Post When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring. In this searing indictment of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block take readers inside FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during the crisis—the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, and the individuals who saw that the system was broken but did nothing to fix it. In this award-winning and critically acclaimed book, Cooper and Block reconstruct the crucial days before and after the storm hit, laying bare the government’s inability to respond to the most elemental needs. They also demonstrate how the Bush administration’s obsessive focus on terrorist threats fatally undermined the government’s ability to respond to natural disasters. The incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain. Christopher Cooper is a White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and a former political reporter at The Times-Picayune. Robert Block covers the Department of Homeland Security for The Wall Street Journal and is a former foreign correspondent who has reported on terrorism and war from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Both authors live in Washington, D.C. When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the morning of August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring—despite all the drills, exercises, and warnings. In this troubling exposé of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block of The Wall Street Journal show that the flaws go much deeper than out-of-touch federal bureaucrats or overwhelmed local politicians. Drawing on exclusive interviews with federal, state, and local officials, Cooper and Block take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina—the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. America's top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution. Disaster demonstrates that the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain. Washington is ill equipped to handle large-scale emergencies, be they floods or fires, natural events or terrorist attacks, and Cooper and Block make a strong case for overhauling the nation's emergency response system. "A clear, coherent, weirdly compelling narrative . . . Cooper and Block have provided a considerable public service in tracing the institutional failures of the Department of Homeland Security."—Susan Larson, The Times Picayune (New Orleans) “Disaster is likely the best in-depth contemporary analysis we are going to get—and it does that job quite admirably. Given that future catastrophes are inevitable, this book is a call to arms to demand a far more competent federal emergency response than Washington has been willing to provide.”—Stephen Flynn, The Washington Post "A clear, coherent, weirdly compelling narrative . . . Cooper and Block have provided a considerable public service in tracing the institutional failures of the Department of Homeland Security."—Susan Larson, The Times Picayune (New Orleans) "The authors of this work explore the unusual division of responsibilities for maintaining New Orleans' levees, finding that the approach contributed to the lack of adequate levee protection for the city. The authors also examine the DHS-administered National Response Plan . . . Katrina provided two very important lessons for security professionals engaged in business continuity or crisis management planning. First, make sure your decision makers can receive information directly from the field with as little filtering as possible. Second, make sure you can trust your partners—public or private—to deliver what they have promised in a crisis . . . Those lessons, and others, make this well-written book a valuable resource for security officials in all sectors. The authors clearly demonstrate why U.S. government planning and response to Katrina was a disaster in itself."—Lloyd F. Reese, Security Management "The authors' exhaustively researched account slogs through the intricacies of this bureaucratic nightmare and goes beyond the usual pillorying of FEMA head Michael Brown to criticize higher officials in the White House and, especially, DHS. Cooper and Block manage to thread a readable, coherent story through the morass of detail and acronyms, with disquieting implications about the government's ability to cope with catastrophe."—Publishers Weekly
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$9.97 |
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(5.0 / 5.0) Following the successes of Epic, High, and Rough Water, the latest addition to the Adrenaline Books series presents the most gripping rescue narratives. Rescue includes Doug Scott's account of saving himself by crawling off Pakistan's Ogre with two broken legs, and Spike Walker's story of the race to recover a king crab fisherman from the Bering Sea in midwinter. The book also explores other environments, including an account of trying to rescue two canoeists battling hypothermia on a storm-tossed lake; Alison Osius's tale of two teenagers lost in the Great Gulf Wilderness of New Hampshire; and a missionary doctor and his dog team being blown out to sea on an iceberg off the coast of Labrador.
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$4.65 |
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Disaster recovery is often unplanned for in the emergency management life cycle. Yet recovery is the key stage where funds, programs, professional expertise, and volunteer efforts are applied to affected cities, states, and regions to get them up and running again. Providing a unique perspective on a highly focused area, Disaster Recovery is the first core text that tackles the myriad recovery issues faced by federal, state, and local emergency managers, public officials, and voluntary organizations in a long-term disaster recovery situation.
The book takes a holistic approach, integrating the various challenges of recovery such as housing, the infrastructure, and workplaces. Disaster Recovery emphasizes three key themes by integrating vulnerable populations into each chapter, stressing the importance of tying mitigation measures into every aspect of recovery, and encouraging rebuilding in environmentally sustainable ways. Coverage includes topics such as recovery planning, housing, debris management, business and private sector recovery, public/governmental recovery and operations, historical and cultural preservation, environmental recovery, social and psychological recovery and services, voluntary non-governmental organizations (NGOs), federal assistance programs, grant-writing, and donations management. Pedagogical tools to clarify concepts Each chapter features pedagogy to encourage comprehension and retention, including key terms, learning objectives, highlighted practical applications, review questions, a summary, and references. Numerous classic as well as recent case studies ensure concepts are fully explained and illustrated. In addition, ancillary material is available for instructors, including exercises, course material, PowerPoint® slides, and sample test questions. Designed for professional and classroom use, this volume thoroughly covers the disaster recovery process, offering vital insight into the evolving field of emergency management.
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$65.94 |
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(4.5 / 5.0) Knowledge of high angle rescue is vital to many emergency service personnel. High Angle Rescue Techniques' unique step-by-step approach to instruction facilitates the learning process for both trainers and students. The 3rd edition of High Angle Rescue Techniques offers the latest in compliance with nationally recognized standards set by OSHA and the NFPA.
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$40.71 |
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(3.5 / 5.0) Charles Perrow is famous worldwide for his ideas about normal accidents, the notion that multiple and unexpected failures--catastrophes waiting to happen--are built into our society's complex systems. In The Next Catastrophe, he offers crucial insights into how to make us safer, proposing a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness. Perrow argues that rather than laying exclusive emphasis on protecting targets, we should reduce their size to minimize damage and diminish their attractiveness to terrorists. He focuses on three causes of disaster--natural, organizational, and deliberate--and shows that our best hope lies in the deconcentration of high-risk populations, corporate power, and critical infrastructures such as electric energy, computer systems, and the chemical and food industries. Perrow reveals how the threat of catastrophe is on the rise, whether from terrorism, natural disasters, or industrial accidents. Along the way, he gives us the first comprehensive history of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security and examines why these agencies are so ill equipped to protect us. The Next Catastrophe is a penetrating reassessment of the very real dangers we face today and what we must do to confront them. Written in a highly accessible style by a renowned systems-behavior expert, this book is essential reading for the twenty-first century. The events of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina--and the devastating human toll they wrought--were only the beginning. When the next big disaster comes, will we be ready?
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$18.99 |
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(5.0 / 5.0) From the "perfect storm" to the South Pole, a stirring true-life adventure story by a celebrated helicopter rescue pilot
During the course of a 30-year career in helicopter rescue, Colonel Edward Fleming led scores of high-risk, high-profile missions, including rescue operations during the Halloween storm of 1991 described in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and the successful rescue of Dr. Jerri Nielsen from Antarctica after she developed breast cancer. Now, Colonel Fleming takes readers along for a bracing ride as he recounts the most thrilling episodes of his long career. With all the nail-biting excitement of a bestselling thriller, Heart of the Storm brings to life dramatic jungle rescues in the Philippines, the longest helicopter rescue mission in history to save crew members of a Ukrainian freighter 840 miles off of the coast of Nova Scotia, a nearly disastrous rescue off a listing two-masted schooner during an Atlantic winter storm, and many more—including the ill-fated "perfect storm" operation of 1991 and the exceptionally difficult Dr. Nielsen rescue. Fleming describes the many near-misses and narrow escapes he and his crews experienced, as well as many tragic losses he witnessed. Through it all, the courage and professionalism of Fleming and his crews aboard their "Jolly Green Giant" HH3E and MH60 helicopters shines through, making this suspenseful, richly textured book an exhilarating read for anyone who enjoys true-life adventure stories. Col. Edward Fleming, retired (Eagle Bridge, NY), served in the Air Force and Air Force National Guard for 30 years as a helicopter rescue pilot and was the Commander of the 106th Operations Group, 4412th Squadron, in the Persian Gulf and the Vice Commander of the 109th Airlift Wing. Over the course of his career, he was responsible for saving 293 lives. Marketing Campaign
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$6.00 |