Charles Perrow is emeritus professor of sociology at Yale University, and the author most recently of The Next Catastrophe; Reducing our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters, (Princeton University Press, 2007). Lee Clarke is professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and the author of Worst Cases; Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Blog Entries by Charles Perrow and Lee Clarke

The Next Railroad Catastrophe

Posted June 20, 2007 | 02:50 PM (EST)


In March Congress began debate to reauthorize the Federal Railroad Safety Program, not updated since 1994. Predictably the drafts are focusing upon a risk not noted in 1994: passengers targeted by terrorists. Terrorist threats have been a staple of Republican rhetoric and homeland security spending since 9/11, and discussion of...

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