Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology: An Inside Look at Catastrophes and Why They Happen
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Overview
This “very absorbing look at technological catastrophes and why they happen"
explores systemic breakdowns behind disasters from Chernobyl to the Challenger( Booklist).
Inviting Disaster delves into over fifty of history’s worst catastrophes in order to show how increasingly “smart" systems leave us wide open to human tragedy. Weaving a dramatic narrative that explains how breakdowns in these systems result in such disasters as the chain reaction crash of the Air France Concorde and the Bhopal chemical accident that killed thousands. James Chiles vividly demonstrates how the battle between human and machine may be escalating beyond manageable limits—and why we all have a stake in its outcome.
Included in this edition is a special introduction providing a behind-the-scenes look at the World Trade Center catastrophe. Combining firsthand accounts of employees’ escapes with an in-depth look at the structural reasons behind the towers’ collapse, Chiles addresses the question: Were the towers “two tall heroes" or structures with a fatal flaw?
“Vivid and dramatic stories." — Harvard Business Review
“This is not a Luddite’s call for a return to the days before complicated technology but a careful examination of various disasters . . . and how they might have been prevented." — Library Journal
“A chillingly fascinating book that educates and informs in a highly readable style." — Dallas Morning News
- Title: Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology: An Inside Look at Catastrophes and Why They Happen
- Author: James R. Chiles
- Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 358
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780061734588, 9780066620824, 0066620821, 0061734586
- Resource ID: LLS:9780061734588
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-03T21:22:30Z
James R. Chiles began writing about technology and history while a student at the University of Texas Law School. His first piece was a 1979 Texas Monthly article on the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. He began writing features for Smithsonian in 1983, and since that time has published features and cover stories there and in Audubon, Air & Space, Harvard magazine, and American Heritage of Invention & Technology. He lives in Minnesota.