Heroic Efforts: The Emotional Culture of Search and Rescue Volunteers

by Jennifer Lois

Book Overview

Winner of the 2006 Outstanding Recent Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Emotions Section Many search and rescue workers voluntarily interrupt their lives when they are called upon to help strangers. They awake in the middle of the night to cover miles of terrain in search of lost hikers or leave work to search potential avalanche zones for missing skiers, snowboarders, and snowmobilers in blizzard conditions...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814751849
• ISBN13: 9780814751848
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

This book is great! The stories are very exciting to read and Lois writes really well - I couldn't put the book down! I've done search and rescue for years and am currenlty a professional fire fighter, and I connected to this book through many of my experiences. I also learned a lot in thinking about this stuff! She does a fantastic job talking about the interaction between rescuers and victims and families. SAR work is very emotional and it's about time someone pointed that out. Heroes can be very affected by the things they experience and they need to realize it for their own emotional health. I thought the stuff about gender was going to be male-bashing, but it wasn't. It did point out the sexism in these risk taking fields, but I thought it was a fair and balanced portrayal of our world. Two thumbs up! A must-read for any EMS worker, but entertaining and informative regardless!