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Summary: Heat Wave: Social Isolation in Chicago
Review:
Over the summer of 1995, the area surrounding Chicago experienced extreme weather conditions that exposed people to a heat index reaching 126 degrees. The result was devastating to the community; a record number of deceased bodies were discovered as a direct result of heat exposure. The hot, humid air stalled over Chicago for one long week. When it was finally dissipated, it left residents of Chicago scared and confused. City streets had failed, electricity use had peaked and many lost power, and power grids had completely collapsed. It was a disaster that was heard around the world.
Between the dates of July 14 and July 20, 739 Chicago residents died from heat exposure. Every year, heat waves kill more people than all other natural disasters combined. However, they often are not heard of or spoken about. This is due to the fact that they are not physically damaging and that most heat wave victims are those who are socially isolated from their community. These groups often are composed primarily of elderly, poor, and those who choose to be isolated.
Heat waves directly are linked to these isolated groups, and until now, were not given any attention. Many are left vulnerable to disaster by not being connected into the community. Eric Klinenberg examines the tragedy that took place in Chicago and draws attention to the social, political, and institutional groups that all were involved in the situation. Heat Wave ties in isolation, inner-city neighborhoods, city services, and the news media as integral parts of the disaster that resulted from the heat wave in Chicago.
The first problem examined by Klinenberg was isolation. Many of the victims perished alone, without any companions nearby. Of the 739 bodies that were found dead, 170 of them went unclaimed showing the intensity of loneliness of those who perished. Klinenberg says that elderly isolation is the result of demographic shifts, crime, spatial transformation, and substance abuse problems. Adding to the problem, many of the elderly people lived in sealed rooms that did not allow for windows to be opened.
In the following chapter, Klinenberg examines the urban neighborhood and relates social structure to the isolation theory. He concludes that high poverty plays an important role when evaluating who is at risk for heat waves. Klinenberg emphasizes that these segregated areas do not allow people to establish social connections. Depleted buildings and violent crimes lead to further isolation. Once isolated, an event such as a heat wave disproportionately places certain individuals at an elevated risk to be affected by a disaster situation.
After examining the urban neighborhood, Klinenberg discovers that services provided by the city were not equally distributed. He concludes that support services should not be in the hands of government control. When you place the power into institutional organizations, services are distributed unequally and only offer aid to certain groups of people. Many people struggle to keep up with those benefiting and give up the chase for the services offered. Without adequate services, such as air-conditioning, people are placed at elevated risks from dying from a heat wave.
In his last analysis of the Chicago catastrophe, Klinenberg ties in the news media and their relevance to the heat wave in Chicago. The way the news is distributed is tied in to fit what specific people want to hear. For example, suburban residents were often not informed of the underlying problems related to the heat wave. Instead, the mayor spoke only of the event as being a natural disaster that could not have been avoided. Often, the people not affected by disasters are those that speak of the event. They are able to shape what is talked about and displace talk over the social problems related to the disaster.
Together, the factors discussed helped shape the events involved with the heat wave in Chicago. The socially isolated people seemed to be at the highest risk from the disaster. This incident represented how different groups and unrepresented and how certain people can control what is taken out of an event. Klinenberg closely examines the socially isolated to show that connections are important, and one is in threat without having connections.
However, Klinenberg fails to mention how certain people are motivated in different ways. He follows the thought of being isolated as a threat to one's health. Little talk is given to those who choose to be isolated. While some people feel as though they need people around them, others feel that isolation is the only way to break away from the mass crowd. Isolation does not result from one factor alone. People choose to remove themselves from society for many different reasons.
Also, Klinenberg fails to mention what is needed to change the current situations in Chicago. It is important to understand what happened in Chicago, but it would be hard to change the situation without a well-thought plan. Social and political institutions seem to be a starting point for most changes. We need to draw attention on how to change corrupt practice from political institutions. We must establish equal rights again and allow everyone to have access to city services. Without a plan, things will continue to go as they always have and attention on unequal practices will be displaced.
The disaster that occurred in Chicago was not the heat wave itself; it was the underlying social problems that stemmed from the heat wave. This put certain groups of people at elevated risks for heat related death. Attention must be given to heat wave disasters; they cause more deaths every year than all other natural disasters. The victims deserve equal rights and services. By doing so, life can be protected and shared among all groups of people.
Rating:
Summary: makes you think about things that you never think about
Review: Countless movies and books have been based on natural disasters. After all, what is more powerful or awe-inspiring than an F5 tornado, blowing away heavy machinery as if it were nothing? Who isn't slightly alarmed at the possibility of a dormant volcano suddenly erupting and blanketing a sleep mountain town in lava? But sociologist Eric Klinenberg's Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago examines a quieter, less thought about natural disaster: heat waves. More specifically he examines the famous heat wave that hit Chicago in 1995, ultimately causing over 700 deaths. Furthermore, he examines how, in this day and age, so many people could be so profoundly affected by something that we would appear to have a handle on. The main aspect Klinenberg brings up is that of social isolation and how this pervasive trend could end up ultimately costing us our lives. But how does something like this happen, he wonders; how, with all of our modern technology and community outreach programs are people still "left behind." Furthermore, who are these people and how is it that our society puts certain people in these positions. With a comprehensive account of the event and the culmination of his own data, Klinenberg presents are very interesting view on social constructs in the context of natural, momentous events that are out of human control.
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting book on an event too easily overlooked.
Review: Do you remember the heat wave in Chicago in 1995? The rail lines folded, electricity went out with rolling blackouts, some streets even buckled. The heat was over 100 degrees, rarely dipping below the 80's at night, and the humidity near 100%. But what most people don't remember is the horrific human death toll during that time. Over 700 people were killed in that heat wave that lasted nearly a week. But while the author looks deeply into the horror of this natural disaster, he mainly concentrates with precision on a few separate areas: First, that heat waves kill more people annualy than all other types of natural disasters combined. Yet they receive little public attention mostly because they fail to generate the massive property damage and fantastic images produced by other weather-related disasters. Second, most of the people that died were the elderly and poor, who died at home, with their windows often sealed or even nailed shut to prevent rampant crime in their areas. They had no air conditioning because they could not afford it, and little or any access to any social help because of their economic situation. The author also looks into how the city of Chicago didn't come to grips with what had happened until the heat wave was well over, and that because of the social structure where the affluent have ample protection from such massive natural disasters, the elderly, infirm and poor will likely remain having none. And while dealing with the aftermath is much more costly, governments choose not to prepare for them with social programs which are often viewed as liberal pork or government waste. A fascinating, well written book. It also contains many images, some of which appear is if taken from somewhere like Somalia. Eric Klinenberg is an sociology professor at Northwestern University.
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Summary: Brillant
Review: Dr. Klinenberg helps us as readers, citizens, and media-watchers reconceptualize heat waves as meterological disasters to social ones. He argues that such a reconceptualization allows us to understand that society is responsible and SHOULD be responsible for deaths. The brillant part of his book is that he does not pin the blame on any one person, one entity, or one organization. He shows how residents of neighborhoods, the spatial organizations of neighborhoods, politicians, local and national governments, the media, and even history play a role in why these deaths occurred and why the numbers were as significant as they are. Thus, we are all responsible! The book looks at the phenomenon through more than just through the lens of statistics. His ethnographic work helps to look at the lives and qualitative nuances of the numbers. We hear the explanations and the critiques of the residents in the neighborhoods that were hit the hardest by the heat wave deaths. In addition, KLinenberg places their voices in conversation with reporters at the time, insiders of the Daly regime, public health officials, and even police officers. Therefore, we see the phenomenon from both the "official" and "unofficial" sources. Anyone who is an activist, an academic, or a citizen of any American city should read this book. It will change your perspective on how urban areas really operate and SHOULD operate. This book will make Dr. Klinenberg one of the foremost scholars of our time.
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Summary: A tragedy on many levels
Review: Eric Klinenberg's new book "Heat Wave" gives readers a tremendous insight into the Chicago heat wave of 1995. He approaches this tragedy from several fronts. He begins with an account of what happened during the several days of stifling heat and continues with a look at the social impact of living and dying alone, why certain neighborhoods lost more people than others and exposes a city ill-prepared to handle the mounting number of deaths. Klinenberg continues with an assault on the politics of Chicago, the response of the mayor and those around him and finishes with an adept look at the media's role and response to the deaths of over 700 people. Although at times the author writes in a dry style he nonetheless portrays the Chicago heat wave as a catastrophic failure on many levels. Klinenberg gets down to the root of some socio-economic problems that beset Chicago and tells us the "whys" of their causes. Many things stood out as I read this important and often scary book, but one thing kept coming through....although heat waves are discriminating killers the solutions are there if right decisions are made at the right times, by governments and citizens alike. A sad and ironic end to "Heat Wave" is told in the form of a senior editor at The Chicago Tribune who decided to relate this tragedy from both a human and social side. As Chicago cooled down his work went on. Unfortunately, only a small part of the story was ever printed as the paper decided that in the chill of November few readers would be interested in a story that had occurred during the blistering heat only a few months before. I highly recommend this book. It is a service to help us understand what happened during July of that year. As the author points out, this could happen again.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Academic Work
Review: Klinenberg does a wonderful job of introducing us to the social conditions that were necessary for the disaster in Chicago to take place during the summer of 1995. The conditions, we learn, were primarily spatially problematic. I don't want to give too much away - but I'll say this: with dense urban environements, this disaster never would have happened. The North/South Lawndale experience was especially effective. Klinenberg kept me going almost all the way through the book, so I highly recommend it. I only give him 4 stars because he loses the idea of density at some point and harps (too much, IMO) on the media. That's fine, though: he did his research, and this book is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Academic Work
Review: Klinenberg does a wonderful job of introducing us to the social conditions that were necessary for the disaster in Chicago to take place during the summer of 1995. The conditions, we learn, were primarily spatially problematic. I don't want to give too much away - but I'll say this: with dense urban environements, this disaster never would have happened. The North/South Lawndale experience was especially effective. Klinenberg kept me going almost all the way through the book, so I highly recommend it. I only give him 4 stars because he loses the idea of density at some point and harps (too much, IMO) on the media. That's fine, though: he did his research, and this book is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Heat Wave
Review: Klinenberg's investigation of the conditions and outcome of the 1995 tragedy deals with issues of human interdependence and examines the importance of local and regional communities in preventing future catastrophes of this kind. Heat Wave takes a natural phenomenon and penetrates to issues of economic and social depravity, the echelon of neighborhood that one resides and the solitude that extends from those circumstances.
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Summary: The hidden Chicago
Review: Not all that far away from the glitter and pizazz of the Miracle Mile is the hidden Chicago, where seedy SROs warehouse forgotten senior citizens, and the much-publicized heat wave exposed the horrible conditions that these members of our "Greatest Generation" endure. Our public health care system is a rip-off that we pay more for and get less from than any other industrialized nation in the world. We should ask not only if Chicago learned its lesson from the heat wave, but if we as a nation have learned ours. We can do better than this. geocities.com/singlepayerweb
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Summary: An Excellent Candidate for Course Syllabi
Review: The only think I would add to what has been said already is that this book should be strongly considered for courses that emphasize the interaction between medicine and public health. Unlike other books written about the urban condition, this book focuses on a single public health problem and presents it from both scientific and sociodemographic perspectives. Medical and public health students alike stand much to gain by reading this book.
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