The 1995 Chicago Heat Wave

Crooked Timber has an interesting review of "Heat Wave: A social autopsy of disaster in Chicago", by Eric Klinenberg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. It's interesting to see how differences in neighborhoods and social networks can make a difference under extreme stress.

It would be interesting to see a comparison (if possible) between Chicago and Baghdad, Iraq. Temperatures and humidities make southern Iraq in the summer among the world's most climatically brutal places. Social networks really count there, but the extreme violence there these days assuredly threatens the lives of those vulnerable to the heat.