Whole world on fire
Subtitle: organizations, knowledge, and nuclear weapons devastation
By: Lynn Eden.
Series: Cornell studies in security affairs
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Ithaca, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 365
Subjects: Nuclear warfare -- Planning.; Nuclear mass fires.; Organizational behavior -- United States -- Case studies.; Science -- Social aspects -- United States -- Case studies.; United States -- Military policy -- Decision making.
Genres: Case studies.
Description: "Whole World on Fire focuses on a technical riddle wrapped in an organizational mystery: How and why, for more than half a century, did the U.S. government fail to predict nuclear fire damage as it drew up plans to fight strategic nuclear war?" "Whole World on Fire shows how well-funded and highly professional organizations, by focusing on what they do well and systematically excluding what they don't do well, may build a poor representation of the world - a self-reinforcing fallacy that can have serious consequences. In a sweeping conclusion, Eden shows the implications of this analysis for understanding such things as the sinking of the Titanic, the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the poor fireproofing in the World Trade Center."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Understanding nuclear weapons effects; title: Constructing destruction, 1940-1961; title: Predicting the unpredictable? 1955-2003.