Description |
xix, 328 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits, photographs ; 24 cm |
|
regular print |
Contents |
Hell On Water: The Raft Of The Medusa -- Fear -- Panic -- Faith in command -- Alcohol -- Fairness -- Problems In Patagonia: The Wreck Of The Wager -- Fragmentation -- Caring for the weak and injured -- ̀Polar disease' -- Starvation -- Stupidity and inertia -- Castaways In The Sub-Antarctic -- The shifting sands of authority -- Compassion -- The dogma of race -- The dark -- The beast -- Bloodshed In Vinland -- Suicide -- Abuse and violence -- The last resort -- Killing for food -- A Moral Abyss: The Lifeboat Of The William Brown -- Murder -- Thrill kills -- Last man standing -- Scars -- Implications -- Avoiding the Lord of the Flies principle -- Into the woods: the Robbers Cave experiment -- Precis of Lord of the Flies |
Summary |
Disaster strikes. A ship goes down, a plane crashes, a party of travellers is cut off. But when the panic and confusion subside and the dead are counted, the survivors must find a way to keep surviving. And in desperation, unconstrained by law or conventional authority, the tactics they resort to can be both horrifying and ultimately self-destructive. Learmonth and Tabakoff outline the physical and neurological changes that typically affect the victims of disaster. Then, using true stories from history as case studies, they investigate the scenario famously imagined by William Golding in Lord of the Flies and borne out by the extraordinary Robbers Cave experiments of the 1950s. As this fascinating book unfolds the awful truth becomes clear. In extremity, humans are capable of a descent into murderous savagery so swift and complete it could - literally - take your breath away |
Analysis |
Australian |
Notes |
Includes index |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references pages 310-321 and index |
Audience |
Tertiary/Undergraduate, General |
Notes |
Shortlisted, True Crime, Ned Kelly Awards, year 2014 |
Subject |
"The Nib" Waverley Library Award for Literature Nominations (2014)
|
|
Disaster victims -- Biography.
|
|
Disaster victims.
|
|
Homicide -- Case studies.
|
|
Intergroup relations.
|
|
Intergroup relations -- Case studies.
|
|
Social interaction.
|
|
Social control -- Case studies.
|
|
Survival.
|
|
Shipwreck survival.
|
|
Survival at sea.
|
|
Airplane crash survival.
|
|
Survival -- Case studies.
|
|
Survival.
|
Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
|
Case studies.
|
Author |
Tabakoff, Jenny, author
|
ISBN |
9781922147240 (paperback) |
|