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- Shark Attacks -
Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks
by Richard G. Fernicola
The Lyons Press, 2001. 330pp.
"In July 1916, with the specter of American involvement in World War I on the horizon and New York City in the throes of a deadly polio epidemic, the tri-state population thronged the Jersey shore in search of a respite from the stifling midsummer heat. The Atlantic's refreshing waters proved to be utterly inhospitable, however. In a shockingly brief span of just twelve days, four swimmers were violently and fatally mauled by a marauding shark (or school of sharks), and a fifth was seriously injured, escaping within inches of his life. By the third week in July, national newspapers were headlining reports of "Battles Against Man-Eating Sharks" above the battles of war across the ocean. In this thoroughly researched account, Dr. Richard Fernicola, the leading expert on the attacks, presents a riveting portrait of these twelve days of terror against the colorful backdrop of America in 1916." --book description
- Heat Wave -
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
by Eric Klinenberg
University of Chicago Press, 2003.
"... Why heat waves are such a quiet menace and how social conditions contributed to more than 700 deaths during a week-long wave of unprecedented heat and humidity in Chicago in 1995 are the focus of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, written by sociologist Eric Klinenberg. The term "social isolation" is usually applied to those living in remote locations, but Klinenberg demonstrates that this unfortunate condition also applies to thousands of people (primarily senior citizens) in our nation's largest cities. And so it was in 1995. Thousands of Chicago's elderly lived alone (many of them in or near poverty), isolated in many ways and by many factors. When the record-breaking heat and humidity arrived and stayed, these men and women started dying, one at a time and quietly, behind closed, locked doors ...
The book is not without its flaws. Klinenberg strays from sociological analysis and into a politicized attack when he examines the 1995 response of Mayor Richard M. Daley and his administration. He makes far too much of the mayor's brief questioning of exactly what constitutes a "heat-related death." " --N Eng J Med, John Wilhelm, M.D., M.P.H.
Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago