Kirschenbaum (organizational sociology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel) provides a scholarly examination of disaster behavior and management in a variety of settings including both global conventional and unconventional disasters. He discusses the historical development and organizational theory of crisis management, including the degree to which disaster agencies are actually effective. Next, he explores the victims' perspective, looking at how they obtain disaster information and whether they choose traditional, community-based sources of information or official public sources. He argues that disaster management organizations do not work in the interest of their client-stakeholders. Finally, he discusses alternative organizational forms including disaster communities as survival mechanisms and privatizing disaster management. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)