While We Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention First Edition

My daily commute sometimes includes driving behind a car with this bumper sticker: Make Good Choices.David Hemenway's book shows how creating a safer world requires just that. The catch is that those good choices don't come without a fight.This book tells the story of those successful fights and the fascinating and brave people who had a great idea and then just. didn't. give. up. I learned why the Metro stations in Washington, DC, have always seemed so peaceful, and I got a new perspective on how revolutionary the seat belts in my family's 1965 Volvo station wagon were.This book is fun to read. It will make you see the world in a new light. You will start to see injury prevention interventions everywhere you look. And as a consequence you will imagine the faces of the people saved by the foresight and hard work of the creative hearty people that David Hemenway salutes.Feel helpless about the oil spill? Wondering if we're on the road to ruin? Read this book.

It is so hard to think about the things that didn't happen - the lives that weren't lost because cars and roads are safer, or because NY required landlords to install window guards in tall buildings. Hemenway's book mixes the stories of the inventions that protect us with stories of the unsung heroes who developed and championed them. Surprisingly enough, the book was a page-tuner: well-writtten, and filed with short stories and anecdotes that explain so many anecdotes of everyday life.

Very interesting book to read for anyone interested in trauma, injury prevention or public health. The book is easy to read and filled with very entertaining stories about injury prevention. It certainly helps to understand all the major advancements in the field of injury prevention during the last century.

As a public health/injury prevention person, who frequently tries to explain my own motivation and inspire others to get into this work, this book is invaluable. It is very readable and very quotable. I have already recommended it and quoted from it in presentations - always with attribution. A must read for anyone in the field.

Love this book - uplifting stories of successes in public health! Public health is supposed to be all about statistics, but this book brings out the soul of the subject and puts names and faces to many of the public health policies that we now take for granted.

Excellent collection of real-life success stories from the history of public health research and applications, written by a renowned expert in the field. Also very readable style, pleasurable for both professional and non-academic readers alike. Read this and learn what works!

While We Were Sleeping is an interesting book full of information that everyone should be aware of. Before reading this book, I was completely unaware of all the changes that had been made in products, roads, work places, homes, medical care practices, athletics, subway stations and more that have made our lives so much safer. Like another book that Hemenway wrote (Prices and Choices), this book examines so many different areas and gives so many varied examples of success in injury prevention that it should be appealing to anyone. From the few that we may know about to the many that we do not, Hemenway provides numerous examples of how our lives have been made safer. Each chapter provides specific examples of changes that have made us safer that we rarely think about (e.g., reducing the number of tap water burns in homes, reducing numbers and severity of injuries in football, lowering the odds of dying while anesthetized). He closes each chapter by discussing the people who have made the world safer -- those whose changes we benefit from daily but have never thought about let alone given credit for.This book is fascinating from the perspective of a lay person yet would be an excellent teaching tool, as well. In addition to highlighting all the changes that have kept us safer, it also provides models that can be studied and used as a basis for future change in a variety of fields. This interesting look at injury prevention effectively exemplifies the very goals of public health as a whole -- prevention at a population level. Fascinating and hopeful, While We Were Sleeping is a well written book with widespread appeal.

David Hemenway has written a gem! As a public health professor specializing in injury prevention, I LOVED this book -- for multiple reasons. First, depsite more than 20 years in the field, I learned a lot. Second, though it might seem that this is just a book for injury professionals, it is much much more than that. It is a wonderful primer on the principles of public health that every public health student and professional should read -- as should anyone interested in understanding the approach of public health to problem solving. Third, this is also an important and excellent introduction to the problems and progress in injury control -- a grossly under-recognized and poorly understood aspect of public health. Students of injury control should read this to gain greater familiarity with many of the accomplishments that have been made over the years through incremental changes developed via multiple innovative and determined people addressing a wide range of issues. Fourth, the book is incredibly inspirational in demonstrating how seemingly small or unrelated discoveries can create major change. Fifth, Hemenway's writing is clear, sharp and engaging. As a result, the book is very accessible and suitable to all readers, regardless of their scientific backgrounds or familiarity with public health, yet the messages contained within it are far from simplistic. Finally, it is one of the most inspirational books I have read in a long time and will take a place on my shelf with another of my favorites -- How to Change the World. I have recommended this book to all my colleagues and plan to use it as a teaching tool.