SKU: 96804195525

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

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Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in ChicagoOn Thursday, July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index, which measures how the temperature actually feels on the body, would hit 126 degrees by the time the day was over. Meteorologists had been warning residents about a two day heat wave, but these temperatures did not end that soon. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; the records for electrical

On Thursday, July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index, which measures how the temperature actually feels on the body, would hit 126 degrees by the time the day was over. Meteorologists had been warning residents about a two-day heat wave, but these temperatures did not end that soon. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; the records for electrical use were shattered; and power grids had failed, leaving residents without electricity for up to two days. And by July 20, over seven hundred people had perished-more than twice the number that died in the Chicago Fire of 1871, twenty times the number of those struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1992--in the great Chicago heat wave, one of the deadliest in American history.

Heat waves in the United States kill more people during a typical year than all other natural disasters combined. Until now, no one could explain either the overwhelming number or the heartbreaking manner of the deaths resulting from the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Meteorologists and medical scientists have been unable to account for the scale of the trauma, and political officials have puzzled over the sources of the city's vulnerability. In Heat Wave, Eric Klinenberg takes us inside the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct what he calls a social autopsy, examining the social, political, and institutional organs of the city that made this urban disaster so much worse than it ought to have been.

Starting with the question of why so many people died at home alone, Klinenberg investigates why some neighborhoods experienced greater mortality than others, how the city government responded to the crisis, and how journalists, scientists, and public officials reported on and explained these events. Through a combination of years of fieldwork, extensive interviews, and archival research, Klinenberg uncovers how a number of surprising and unsettling forms of social breakdown--including the literal and social isolation of seniors, the institutional abandonment of poor neighborhoods, and the retrenchment of public assistance programs--contributed to the high fatality rates. The human catastrophe, he argues, cannot simply be blamed on the failures of any particular individuals or organizations. For when hundreds of people die behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies, everyone is implicated in their demise.

As Klinenberg demonstrates in this incisive and gripping account of the contemporary urban condition, the widening cracks in the social foundations of American cities that the 1995 Chicago heat wave made visible have by no means subsided as the temperatures returned to normal. The forces that affected Chicago so disastrously remain in play in America's cities, and we ignore them at our peril.

For the Second Edition Klinenberg has added a new Preface showing how climate change has made extreme weather events in urban centers a major challenge for cities and nations across our planet, one that will require commitment to climate-proofing changes to infrastructure rather than just relief responses.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 05/06/2015
ISBN: 9780226276182
Pages: 328
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 8.94h x 6.13w x 0.85d
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SKU: 96804195525

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Casper_TheJagwire
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 5
Perfect
Beautiful the artwork on the front cover is beautiful just like the show it's self. the product came in amazing time and in great care. it is actual full metal cover so very durable. Would recommend for ANY fan of the show its a great collector's piece and it'd pair nicely with the first season's steelbook.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2026
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Joney
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
Great book and a million uses!
Format: Paperback
This works perfect to help create outfits that are perfectly coordinated! I grab one thing I really want to wear, find that color in the book, and then match everything else to the other colors. My daughter also uses it for paintings and art projects.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2026
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glenn
West Palm Beach, US
★★★★★ 5
Like the other one (Vol 1) but different (Vol 2) with more.
Format: Paperback
Volume 2 continues the great color combinations of the 1st Volume, but the combinations are more complex, with more colors. There's even a section of art in the form of paintings, prints, woven work, etc. that you see on one page while on the opposite page is the breakdown of the colorations in bars with no image. What this does is show how the art works, and then how the combinations also work. Also more of the simplified 2 and 3 combinations that I think I prefer as more minimal. Again, these are ranged from light and airy to darkly saturated -and all curiously satisfying and worth study and trying them out. On the computer it's possible to match any tone or hue, so there's a path that only requires finding the right starting color then paying attention to the combination. Not that it's an end-all, but a beginning. Any of those can be shifted or modified with ease but it depends on how they fit a real-time application and not a formula. But the horizons have already been expanded so there's more, and even more.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2025
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Michael
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Great Value
Format: Paperback
It's exactly what I expected. I gives various color pallets that are fairly common in Japanese are & culture.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2026
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Lovecraft
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 5
Great book to help establish a palette for a software, web or art project
Format: Paperback
I love this book for helping me establish a color palette for art projects that I want a Japanese feel to. Also just generally good for getting inspiration for color palettes that just plain look good. I've always, since I can remember from my youth, felt drawn to the Japanese color combinations in kimono. fashion, origami paper and even toys. Maybe it's a consequence of growing up in Hawaii with all the Japanese influences I had -- or, as I suspect, it's just really good color application. This book helps me find the colors I want that go together the way I want. I use the examples in this book with a Color Muse to pick my digital color palette.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2025

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