Noting that most traditional examinations of stress view it as a medical condition, this guide takes an anthropological approach and reveals a less threatening picture of this natural response to danger. Using narratives from people in very stressful situations?including a spy, an executive, a refugee camp worker, and a policeman?the discussion shows that even harrowing amounts of stress can be Productive as long as the patterns of its application do not turn dangerous. Summarizing these findings as they apply to American workers, the authors suggest solutions to avoid becoming a virtual zombie who has little awareness of his actions.

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Peter H. Stephenson is a Michael Smith Foundation Research Associate at the Centre on Aging, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, British Columbia.

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"Lively and engagingly written. An instant classic in the genre of public and medical anthropology that is an inherently readable, even fun, examination of how we think of “stress.’" “James B. Waldram, author, Revenge of the Windigo (2010)

"Zombie Factory, in a concise and immediately understandable fashion, offers us a timely warning. Every reader will be able to find him or herself in the pages of this book." —G. V. Loewen, author, A Socio-Ethnographic Study of the Academic Professionalism of Anthropologists