Mission Improbable: Using Fantasy Documents to Tame Disaster
An airplane is hijacked by terrorists, an explosion is imminent at Three Mile Island, the president has been shot. How do governments and corporations deal with these sorts of catastrophes?  In this provocative book, Lee Clarke examines how institutions build contingency plans for the grim but often very real potential massive disaster. He argues that they sometimes create "fantasy documents," rhetorical tools used to convince audiences that experts are in charge and that all is well. Fantasy documents, however, can actually increase risk because they give people a false sense of security. Getting to the core of this ever-topical issue,Mission Improbablemakes the case that society would be better off-and safer-if managers and experts could admit they can't control the uncontrollable.--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.