Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of Jumping at Shadows by Sasha Abramsky

Jumping at Shadows by Sasha Abramsky

Jumping at Shadows

The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream

by Sasha Abramsky
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 5, 2017, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A thoughtful and insightful exploration of America's culture of fear.

Why does a disease that killed only a handful of Americans like ebola provoke panic, but the flu - which kills tens of thousands each year - is dismissed with a yawn? Why is an unarmed young black woman who knocks on a stranger's front door to ask for help after her car breaks down perceived to be so threatening that the stranger shoots her dead? In Jumping at Shadows, Sasha Abramsky sets his sights on America's most dangerous epidemic: irrational fear.

In this meditation on the paralyzing terror Americans feel when confronted with something they don't understand - from foreigners to tropical viruses to universal health care - Abramsky delivers an eye-opening analysis of our misconceptions about risk and threats, and how our brains interpret them, both at a neurological level and at a conscious one. What emerges is a journey through a political and cultural landscape that is defined by our fears, which are often misplaced. Ultimately, Abramsky shows that our fears can teach us a great deal about our society, exposing our deeply ingrained racism, classism, xenophobia, and susceptibility to the toxic messages of demagogues.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

And therein lies the beating heart of Abramsky's powerful argument. He writes with an urgency, a strong sense of purpose, and honesty about how easily a fear-driven culture—one that even the author readily admits to falling victim to—can abandon its democratic ideals. His research is impeccable, though it is often too impeccable. Jumping at Shadows effectively cuts through the white noise of contemporary America, and is for anyone wondering how we have arrived at this collective crisis point...continued

Full Review (662 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by Cynthia C. Scott).

Media Reviews

Library Journal
Readers interested in groupthink, sociology, or seeking insight into the current state of American politics will devour this book.

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It takes a strong stomach to handle all the stressors Abramsky investigates - the stories range from Kafkaesque absurdity to nauseating cruelty - but his mild tone and deep compassion ultimately guide the reader to the only rational response: resist inflammatory rhetoric and recover a 'healthier way of living, a calmer, less vengeful notion of community'.

Kirkus Reviews
Abramsky presents a clearly written synthesis of science and sociology. A thoughtful progressive feint against the vulgar fearmongering of the moment.

Reader Reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



The Tucson Samaritans

"I feel sorrow. Anger. And sometimes a little desperation," says Maria Ochoa, one of the people Sasha Abramsky interviews in his book, Jumping at Shadows. As a member of the Tucson Samaritans, a humanitarian group which aids migrants who cross the borders through the Arizona desert, she has reason to be. For more than a decade, she has provided water, food, and medical assistance to border crossers and recovered the bodies of those who didn't make it. Working with the remains of a woman who died in the desert was particularly emotional for her. "We went out to have a service for her, two weeks after they'd picked up her body. And the spot where she'd laid, the outline of her body was still there..."

Yet Ochoa, who is one of many ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Jumping at Shadows, try these:

We have 8 read-alikes for Jumping at Shadows, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Sasha Abramsky
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...
  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Who Said...

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now