Failures of Imagination

The Deadliest Threats to Our Homeland - and How to Thwart Them

By: Michael McCaul

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

America is overwrought with fear. Serial killers, terrorist groups, nuclear attacks, deadly pandemics - every day a new headline hits, warning of the next inevitable catastrophe that will bring the country to ruins. The media fans embers of threats into fires that stir the entire nation into terror. But little do the American people know that the most real and imminent dangers to the country are the ones we've heard about the least and are doing the least about.

Congressman and Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security Michael McCaul has spent years in Washington watching the administration turn a blind eye to the most pressing possible threats to the country. Now, in Failures of Imagination, McCaul turns away from the over-sensationalized, unrealistic fears circulated through the media in order to expose the most legitimate and looming national security threats, which have long been swept under the rug by the administration.

In his book, McCaul details the most pressing threats to our country based on his deep knowledge of our national security readiness, and advocates for the action needed to protect us from them. In stunning detail, he depicts the truth behind these hazards that are closer than we realize - from well-researched patterns that depict the issue's growing urgency, to the past responses (or lack thereof) from the administration - and provides potential solutions for the government to take in order to keep Americans safe. As the 2016 presidential election quickly approaches, Americans must turn their attention to these real and present dangers, and demand an administration that will combat them with the seriousness and urgency they require.

©2016 Michael McCaul. Recorded by arrangement with Crown Forum, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Good read for a student or imaginative citizen

This is an excellent book to read if you have an interest in homeland security, crisis management, or threat mitigation. Generally large impact risk consideration. The part of the book that was sometimes frustrating is that it was not written from an unbiased perspective. It was written from a somewhat GOP, Obama-era critical perspective

The Dangerous World We Live in

Congress McCaul has done a great job telling us the story of many possible threats that await us and why we need to do a better job of being prepared. He does it through various fictional stories based on real events that clearly spell out how easy it would be to create mass chaos in America. This is a must read for every American.

Spot on.

the most awakening book so far this year. It is eye opening and a true jaw dropper. as I watch the news of todays events, I'm constantly reminding myself of how far mankind has come and yet how far we have to go. We are confronted on all sides with menacing foes and a President who is only interested in preserving his legacy in the annals of history. I see now we need to send a mad man to face mad men. there's a old phrase in a 60's melody, it goes I may not be the one you want but I sure am the one you need. Donald Trump.

A scared conservative jingo's wet nightmare

I thought that perhaps the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee would put partisanship aside in an attempt to inform a wider audience. He didn't. Just about every fictitious - yet very imaginable - scenario is somehow related to the Obama administration's policies told through a subjectively negative narrative. The author also heavily subscribes to the failed pillars of the Bush Doctrine - many of which carried into the Obama administration - of pursuing threats abroad before they materialize, which typically result in civilian casualties attributed to US strikes that help to promulgate the narrative of politically-violent islamism that groups like AQ or ISIS are trying to spread across the muslim world.