On Thursday, July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day on which the temperature would eventually climb to 106 degrees. It was the start of an unprecedented heat wave that would last a full week - and leave more than seven hundred people dead. Rather than view these deaths as the inevitable consequence of natural disaster, sociologist Eric Klinenberg decided to figure out why so many people - and, specifically, so many elderly, poor, and isolated people - died, and to identify the social and political failures that together made the heat wave so deadly. Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the heat wave, this new edition of Klinenberg's groundbreaking book includes a new foreword by the author that reveals what we've learned in the years since its initial publication in 2002, and how in coming decades the effects of climate change will intensify the social and environmental pressures in urban areas around the world.

About the Author
Eric Klinenberg is professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. His books include Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone and Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media, and he has contributed to the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, and This American Life.

Reviews
"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)



Book Information
ISBN 9780226276182
Author Eric Klinenberg
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 482g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm