Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.(REQUIRED READING)(Brief article)(Book review)

HEAT WAVE: A SOCIAL AUTOPSY OF DISASTER IN CHICAGO Eric Klinenberg (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002), 328 pages.

In examining the Chicago heat wave that killed an estimated 739 people over five days in July 1995, Klinenberg makes an original contribution to our understanding of natural disasters. Heat waves are devastating: In the United States they kill more people each year than all other natural disasters combined, and a massive heat wave in Europe in 2003 is estimated to have claimed over 30,000 lives. Yet because they cause little property damage and their victims are usually elderly, poor and isolated, they tend to receive less publicity than other disasters.

In a highly readable sociological narrative that is at times politically pointed, the book examines the 1995 heat wave from an impressive range of perspectives. It includes moving portraits of older people living alone, an examination of government failures before and during the disaster and an analysis of the media's portrayal of this phenomenon as a public news event. Noting that meteorologists and ...