Abstract
It is the sobering thesis of this important book by one of the country's leading sociologists that the technologies embodied in nuclear power, nuclear weapons, aerospace, petrochemicals, recombinant DNA, and other advanced systems are so complex that accidents carrying grave consequences must now be considered a "normal" feature of life in modern society. Indeed, in an alarming number of instances accidents have actually originated in the very safety devices installed to prevent unanticipated system break-downs.