Scared to Death: The Anatomy of a Very Dangerous Phenomenon - Tapa dura

Feature in ADI News, December 2007 Title mention in an article--Central Somerset Gazette "Well argued and eminently readable book."Michael Grey, Lloyd's List Featured in an article--AdiNEWS Today's Books / Bookweek "The A-List" Title mention in article--Telegraph & Argus Title mention by James Le Fanu in The Daily Telegraph, December 2007 Title mention in an unfavourable review in The Observer Reviewed in H-Soz-u-Kult, November 2008--Cord Arendes Mentioned in The Bookseller, June 2009--Katie Allen Title mention in article--, Featured in an article--, Reviewed in H-Soz-u-Kult, November 2008--, Mentioned in The Bookseller, June 2009--, Title mention in an article--, "Well argued and eminently readable book." Michael Grey, Lloyd's List "There is so much to commend this book. Not only is it packed with solidly researched evidence, it's also a gripping narrative read. there are few books on current affairs that really qualify as page-turners, but this is most definitely one of them ... It ought to be required reading for every adult in the country." Pan Pantziarka, London Book Review.com, March 12th 2008 "Scared to Death is a masterful and salutary account of the most costly misjudgements of the last 25 years. Written with painful clarity, here is an important study of the process by which sloppy science becomes a difficult to shift orthodoxy." The Spectator--Sanford Lakoff Title mention in article--Sanford Lakoff Featured in an article--Sanford Lakoff Title mention in an article--Sanford Lakoff Reviewed in H-Soz-u-Kult, November 2008--Sanford Lakoff Mentioned in The Bookseller, June 2009--Sanford Lakoff "Quite simply, a must read. This expose of 'scares' of our time makes for a fascinating and eye-opening study." Resource--Sanford Lakoff Title mention in an article written by Christopher Booker--Sanford Lakoff Title mention in an article written by Richard North--Sanford Lakoff "This is a book that should be compulsory reading for every politician and journalist"--Sanford Lakoff '[A] brilliant and beautifully written expose of some of the most destructive delusions of our time"--Sanford Lakoff "Mr. Booker and Mr. North identify a dynamic through which a marginal public concern mushrooms into a full-blown scare from salmonella and mad cow disease to DDT and asbestos, and focus on what may be the greatest, most costly scare of all: Global warming." Washington Times--Sanford Lakoff "The Washington Times " "It takes a bold team of authors to take on Al Gore these days...while reading this book may make the reader want to punch his or her local elected official and the news correspondent he rode in on, the responsibility for controlling these scares ultimately rests with each of us." -Popmatters.com "Possibly the most important book written in the last 100 years." Amazon reviewer--Sanford Lakoff "Every politician, every journalist, every consumer of journalism, should read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it." Mail on Sunday --Sanford Lakoff

From salmonella in eggs to BSE, from the Millennium Bug to bird 'flu, from DDT to passive smoking, from asbestos to global warming, 'scares' have become one of the most conspicuous and damaging features of our modern world. This book for the first time tells the inside story of each of the major scares of the past two decades, showing how they have followed a remarkably consistent pattern.It analyses the crucial role played in each case by scientists who have misread or manipulated the evidence; by the media and lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; and finally by the politicians and officials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response, leaving us all to pay a colossal price, which may run into billions or even hundreds of billions of pounds. This book culminates in a chillingly detailed account of the story behind what it shows has become the greatest scare of them all: the belief that the world faces disaster through man-made global warming. In an epilogue the authors compare our credulity in falling for scares to mass-hysterias of previous ages such as the post-mediaeval 'witch craze', describing our time as a 'new age of superstition'.