... educational and evocative ... [Singer's] discussions of victim-blaming and scapegoating, abuse of power and political failure, the impact of economic inequality and racism, and accountability and prevention are outstanding ... Singer offers sound and simple recommendations ... A brilliant and alarming analysis, imbued with empathy and appropriate rage, of a tragic, far-too-common problem.
A title that manifestly seeks to make people rethink the causes of the accidental deaths and injuries that are on the rise in the U.S. Spanning the genres of business, political science, and public health, Singer’s work will challenge readers personally and philosophically.
There Are No Accidents looks at a wider range of fatalities that have been chalked up, at various times in the past century, as accidents or mere flukes: not just car crashes but also toxic chemical spills, catastrophic mine explosions, collapsed bridges, the Boeing 737 Max plane crashes, opioid overdoses, and more. In chapter after chapter, Singer makes the case that we should think of accidents not as 'chance mishaps but systemic inevitabilities' ... In a closing chapter, Singer offers more than a handful of useful suggestions for ways to curb the 'accident epidemic' ... At a more individual level, Singer proposes that we adopt the perspectives of the most vulnerable members of our society—the young and the old, the disabled and the poor ... Calling something an accident can be an effective release valve for our emotions. Singer doesn’t deny this; she even writes that she wants to honor the wishes of those who find some measure of peace by privately grieving painful accidents and wouldn’t presume to police what they can or cannot say. But Singer doesn’t want corporations and political leaders to be able to hide behind accidents ... If our leaders didn’t have such a convenient term to fall back on, they would have a lot more explaining to do.
