Book excerpt: Swans, Swine, and Swindlers argues that we must view crises as "messes": webs of complex and dynamically interacting ill-defined and/or wicked problems, conundrums, paradoxes, puzzles, crises; their solutions; and our conscious and unconscious assumptions, beliefs, emotions, and values. Working systematically with this concept, the text digs deeper into the causes, mitigation, and management of crises.