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Author Wuthnow, Robert.

Title Be very afraid : the cultural response to terror, pandemics, environmental devastation, nuclear annihilation, and other threats / Robert Wuthnow.

Publication Info. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Item Status

Location Call No. Status OPAC Message Public Note Gift Note
 Moore Stacks  HV551.2 .W88 2010    Available  ---
Description 294 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Introduction -- Perilous times -- The nuclear-haunted era -- What to mobilize against -- Waging war on terror -- Weapons of mass destruction -- Panics and pandemics -- Environmental catastrophe -- Setting a new agenda -- The call for action -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Index.
Summary Examines the human response to existential threats--once a matter for theology, but now looming before us in multiple forms. Nuclear weapons, pandemics, global warming: each threatens to destroy the planet, or at least to annihilate our species. Freud, Wuthnow notes, famously taught that the standard psychological response to an overwhelming danger is denial. In fact, Wuthnow argues, the opposite is true: we seek ways of positively meeting the threat, of doing something--anything--even if it's wasteful and time-consuming. It would be one thing if our responses were merely pointless, Wuthnow observes, but they can actually be harmful.--From publisher description.
Subject Emergency management.
Emergency management.
Threats.
Threats.
Fear -- Social aspects.
Fear -- Social aspects.
Terrorism -- Social aspects.
Terrorism -- Social aspects.
Terrorism -- Psychological aspects.
Terrorism -- Psychological aspects.
Epidemics -- Social aspects.
Epidemics -- Social aspects.
Epidemics.
Epidemics -- Psychological aspects.
Epidemics -- Psychological aspects.
Global warming -- Social aspects.
Global warming -- Social aspects.
Global warming.
Global warming -- Psychological aspects.
Psychological aspects.
Nuclear weapons -- Social aspects.
Nuclear weapons -- Social aspects.
Nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons -- Psychological aspects.
Nuclear weapons -- Psychological aspects.
Weapons of mass destruction -- Psychological aspects.
Weapons of mass destruction.
Weapons of mass destruction -- Social aspects.
Weapons of mass destruction -- Social aspects.
ISBN 9780199730872 alkaline paper
0199730873 alkaline paper