Book excerpt: This issue of Anesthesiology Clinics, guest edited by Dr. Alexander A. Hannenberg, focuses on Management of Critical Events. This is one of four issues each year selected by the series consulting editor, Dr. Lee Fleisher. Articles in this issue include, but are not limited to: Why We Fail to Rescue from Critical Events; High Fidelity Simulation Training; Alternatives to High Fidelity Simulation Training; Tools to Improve our Capacity to Rescue; Use of Cognitive Aids to Improve Management of Critical Events; Real-time debriefing after critical events: Exploring the Gap between Principle and Reality; Mass Casualty Events; Obstetrical Hemorrhage; Intraoperative cardiac arrest; The Lost Airway; The Septic Patient and Oxygen Supply Failure.