Book Description

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devestating personal tragedy.

Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature. ... Read more

Reviews (197)

Isaac's Storm a near-perfect book -- 4 1/2 stars
At the turn of the century, the most vicious hurricane in recorded history hit Galveston, Texas, with such fury that it knocked the city back to the 1800s.

Erik Larson, using the diaries of survivors, builds a classic tale of tortured humanity. The narrative grows like the mounting winds of the hurricane, reaching a sudden crescendo that surprises the reader as much as the storm might have surprised its victims.

I'd give this book five stars but for the lack of photographs. Larson describes existing photos in vivid detail, but for some reason hasn't included them in the book. After reading about the devastation and heartbreak, I wanted to see it for myself, however morbid that may be. It's hard to believe that one storm could do so much damage and kill so many.

Isaac's Storm surpasses The Perfect Storm, its closest rival in storm-disaster books, in narrative, structure, language, detail, and pacing. Well done, Mr. Larson.

Next up: In the Heart of the Sea.

A review from a decendent of survivors of the 1900 Storm
My mother was born on Galveston, so I grew up hearing about Galveston hurricanes. This included the 1900 storm.

Larson's book is a superb historical account of the 1900 storm. I give "Isaac's Storm" very high marks for it's huge wealth of information. This is most significant considering the scope of the disaster and the limited amount of literature concerning it.

On the other hand, Larson's account of the storm failed to convey to me the horror and sheer magnitude felt by those who survived. I recall hearing of the 1900 storm as a boy. I can remember still the raw and hollow feeling those tales left inside me, not unlike how the world felt after another horrible September tragedy, September 11th, 2001. The lack of emotion was as if Mr. Larson were writing one of Isaac's Cline's reports to Moore - rather dry and impersonal.

For those interested in a little less history and more of the impact the storm had on the lives of Gavlestonians, I would recommend another book that I have read more than once about the 1900 storm. It is "A Weekend In September" by John Edward Weems and is available through Amazon.com. Of the two books, Larson's has greater depth of historical information. Weems' book conveys more of the personal tragedy. Weems' book also includes much about Isaac Cline, but is written from the perspective of a young Galvestonian school teacher.

Another solid Larson book
Just as in Devil in the White City, Larson brings a time and place to astonishing life in this tale of turn of the century scientific hubris. Galveston literally jumps off the page, with every ill-fated decision draped with tragic historical significance. As with other Larson titles, the prose can occasionally drag with details that may not be immediately relevant or interesting; however, sticking with the narrative is nicely rewarded by page-turning drama once the hurrican kicks into gear. Overall, a compelling read about a shocking disaster that many of us know nothing about.

WOW - great and scary....
Another one of those tremendous events that most people today know nothing of. More people died in this hurricane than many battles fought and this gets little to no attention.
Go read it.

The best book
Students of the 1900 storm that destroyed Galveston "cut their teeth" on older books like "Death From The Sea" and "Weekend In September". But Larson's work has become the definitve. ... Read more

Book Description

Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims, one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Krakatoa gives us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event.

Reviews (109)

Krakatoa, from discovery to rebirth
This remarkable treasure chest of historical trivia is laid out as a history of the Dutch East Indies, with center place being given to the island of Krakatoa. Anyone uninterested in the social, political, historical, and geological background to the famous eruption can just skip to its chapter, about halfway through the book. Simon Winchester has done an admirable job collecting and collating interviews, logs, diaries, reports, barographs, tide meter readings, you name it, to recreate the the horrific disaster, and set a few earlier errors straight.

One observer looks towards the beach, and see a monstrous wave, higher than the palm trees, sweeping along the shore. Others take note of the sea in the strait, writhing and surging, even though there is no wind and no clouds. Sailors caught in the ashfall suffer electric shocks from the charged cloud. A stone residence on a hill 110 feet high is destroyed by a wave that overtopped it by twenty feet. The sea becomes a slick of ash, pumice, debris, and bodies. (Winchester announces that he is censoring himself, in that last detail.) A woman in Ceylon who is killed by a surge is the most distant victim of the volcano. The airwave circles the globe seven times. The violent sunsets are recorded by landscape painters for years afterwards.

The run-up to the dramatic parts is a fairly interesting history of the Dutch in the East Indies, stuffed to bursting with footnoted asides. Krakatoa is the focal point throughout, though. Winchester even pinpoints the earliest Dutch map to represent the island, and then the first one to name it. There is an unmistakeably British thatchy-tweedy-fussiness in his manner. Even in the climactic narrative of the disaster, he finds room for a footnote to explain that Macassar was the source for an oil that spoiled wood finish, and necessitated the invention of a lace furniture drapery called an "antimacassar".

As for his idea that Krakatoa launched radical Islam in Indonesia, that's probably impossible to prove. The Japanese takeover of Dutch Pacific possessions in World War II, and the Saudi practice of exporting and subsidizing fundamentalist Wahabhi madrassas around the world probably had more to do with it. But it is certainly something to think about.

All in all, this is an informative and at times exciting account of one of the biggest and certainly the loudest natural disaster in recorded human history.

A PBS documentary, but on paper
Having read Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman", and after hearing about the book on the radio, I decided that I couldn't help but read this book. Though Winchester refers to Krakatoa as a widely-known event, I can confess to having only a slight recognition of the name prior to this book. I won't forget now.

Winchester covers enormous ground in this book, writing about evolution, plate tectonics, Islam, the telegraph, imperialism, the Line of Demarcation, the flora of the East Indies, and more. Do not be fooled, you will leave this book with a greater understanding of much of the origin of the modern world.

One delicious tidbit: Winchester argues that the relative cultural size of the world shrank much more at the eruption of Krakatoa than at the dawn of the Internet. On the other hand, Winchester seems to be constantly implying apology for the last 800 years of Western European history. He has a few particular zingers for the nosy British.

Overall, this book is lot of little bits. And, oh yeah, the central part of the book -- Krakatoa's explosion -- was absolutely riveting. My vision of hell now involves something of Dante and something of Krakatoa.

I recommend this book.

Krakatoa: The History
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester is a very informative, enlightening, and researched work. Rather than just being a recounting of the day Krakatoa exploded (which the title seems to imply), the damage it caused, etc., the book does much more. It recounts the historical significance of Indonesia (and the Dutch rule there), the importance of the Sunda Strait (where Krakatoa is located), the underlying reasons for massive volcanic explosions (plate tectonics and continental drift), and the social and religious aftermath due to Krakatoa.

I enjoyed the treatment of each of these issues, but at times some of the information seemed to be a stretch in relation to the subject at hand. The first half of the book, the build-up to the massive explosion if you will, was slower and not as engaging as the second half which was absolutely a joy to read and learn. Winchester does a great job of convincing the reader that Krakatoa was truly the first major event that the world of global communication (due to the telegraph and transatlantic communication lines) came to know. Winchester also does a good job explaining why the Krakatoa legacy has endured. Interestingly, much of it has to do with the unique name itself.

Krakatoa is a very good read. From an intellectual standpoint, the book is great, everything that you want to know about Krakatoa you'll find here. From the standpoint of enjoyable reading, the first half and some of Winchester's digressions are difficult to get through, but the second half is a great read. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject, or just history itself, but beware if you're looking for a book solely focused on the explosion/destruction of Krakatoa on August 27, 1883.

Skip it
I was looking forward to reading "The map that changed the world" by the same author after this book. However, reading "Krakatoa" has made me quite wary of any such adventure. This book is as tepid as Krakatoa was explosive. This is one of the very few instances when I have actually calculated the remaining pages of a book while reading; just to know how much longer I had to sit through it (.... "Finish thy book" is the first of my personal commandments). And mind you, I enjoy reading about the allied scientific aspects of any subject matter including geology (the discussions on petroleum geology in "Hubbert's Peak" being a case in point). The author seems to have started off with the noble aspiration of seamlessly interweaving the history, geography, social context, geopolitics, technological deveopments of the age and other issues keeping Krakatoa as the central theme. However, he ends up serving an unappetising stew with even the meaty part about the dramatic explosion somehow leaving you uninspired.

There are tidbits of interesting factual information but this is not enough to classify as saving grace for any book; especially one with such a compelling central subject, rich in possibilities.

Not the page-turner it's reputed to be.
I guess I'm like most people--I find forces of nature (volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc.) fascinating. The review blurbs on the back cover refer to this book as "a page-turner," and "terrifying." Well...not really. I have no doubt Mr.Winchester knows his stuff. However, my experience with this book is like that of a number of people who have left reviews here--do you HAVE to go into this much set-up to talk about a volcano? Perhaps it's me. One of the best "disaster" books I ever read was John Hersey's "Hiroshima." It dealt with a few major characters, dropped you right in the middle of the situation, and you were exhausted and heartbroken for the characters when you finished--and it was less than 200 pages. Reading "Krakatoa" is like being told a story by a professor whose train of thought is easily derailed by the amount he knows. If you are interested in geology, I have no doubt you will find this book fascinating. If you are an average reader, like me, you will find this book slow at best, mind-bogglingly tedious at worst. ... Read more

Book Description

The gripping story of an epic prairie snowstorm that killed hundreds of newly arrived settlers and cast a shadow on the promise of the American frontier.

January 12, 1888, began as an unseasonably warm morning across Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, the weather so mild that children walked to school without coats and gloves. But that afternoon, without warning, the atmosphere suddenly, violently changed. One moment the air was calm; the next the sky exploded in a raging chaos of horizontal snow and hurricane-force winds. Temperatures plunged as an unprecedented cold front ripped through the center of the continent.

By Friday morning, January 13, some five hundred people lay dead on the drifted prairie, many of them children who had perished on their way home from country schools. In a few terrifying hours, the hopes of the pioneers had been blasted by the bitter realities of their harsh environment. Recent immigrants from Germany, Norway, Denmark, and the Ukraine learned that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled.

With the storm as its dramatic, heartbreaking focal point, The Children's Blizzard captures this pivotal moment in American history by tracing the stories of five families who were forever changed that day. Drawing on family interviews and memoirs, as well as hundreds of contemporary accounts, David Laskin creates an intimate picture of the men, women, and children who made choices they would regret as long as they lived. Here too is a meticulous account of the evolution of the storm and the vain struggle of government forecasters to track its progress.

The blizzard of January 12, 1888, is still remembered on the prairie. Children fled that day while their teachers screamed into the relentless roar. Husbands staggered into the blinding wind in search of wives. Fathers collapsed while trying to drag their children to safety. In telling the story of this meteorological catastrophe, the deadliest blizzard ever to hit the prairie states, David Laskin has produced a masterful portrait of a tragic crucible in the settlement of the American heartland.

Amazon.com

Everybody knows the Dark Ages weren't really dark, right?Not so fast, counters archaeological journalist David Keys, maybe it's more than just a slightly judgmental metaphor.His book Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, based on years of careful research spanning five continents, argues that sometime in A.D. 535, a worldwide disaster struck and uprooted nearly every culture then extant. Given contemporary reports of the sun being blotted out or weakened for nearly a year and a half, followed by famine, drought, and plague, it's hard not to think that so many reports from all over the world must be related.

Keys shows a keen grasp of both the written historical record from Asia, Africa, and Europe and the archaeological evidence from the Americas, and tells many tales of great havoc destroying old empires and laying the ground for new ones.Rome may have fallen, but Spain, England, and France rose in its place, while farther east, Japan and China each unified and gained strength after the chaos.Could an enormous volcanic eruption have had such influence on the world as a whole, and could the same thing happen tomorrow?Catastrophe makes no predictions, but leaves the reader with a new sense of history, nature, and destiny. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (45)

How Forces of Nature Shape Human History
"Catastrophe" refers to a mid-6th century climactic cataclysm that author David Keys believes destroyed the geopolitical status quo of late antiquity and gave birth to the protomodern era from which our current world circumstances derived. According to the hypothesis put forward in "Catastrophe", around the year 535 AD there occurred a major atmospheric disturbance that blocked out much of the Earth's sunlight all over the globe. Tree ring and ice-core evidence, as well as archeological and contemporary written accounts indicate that there was, indeed, severe climactic disruption at this time, and that it almost certainly was the result of a tremendous volcanic explosion. In "Catastrophe", David Keys describes the ways in which he believes the famine, drought and plague that resulted from this explosive event directly and indirectly led to the downfall of the contemporary political powers and the emergence of the new political entities and forces which shaped the world we live in today. As every continent was affected by the loss of sunlight, Keys hypothesizes that the fall of the Roman Empire, the emergence of Islam and the Arab and Ottoman Empires, the reshaping of Eastern Europe, the creation of the modern nations of Japan, China, and Korea in the East and the European powers in the West, the collapse of the great Mesoamerican Empire of Teotihuacan and the emergence of the Mayans, among other great shifts in power, were all indirect results of the climactic changes unleashed in 535 AD.

I find it unlikely that all of the developments that David Keys attributes to the "catastrophe" would not have occurred otherwise. While the direct consequences of a single event are predictable and substantiable, the indirect consequences of something are, of course, impossible to know for sure as there are other factors involved. How many of the developments which occurred in the centuries following the eruption of 535 AD would not have occurred, or would have occurred at a different time, or would have occurred by different means, if the climactic catastrophe had not set change in motion is impossible to say. But David Keys' point is well taken: "Forces of nature and other mechanisms" beyond human control have played -and may continue to play- a fundamental role in human history, culture, and achievements. "Catastrophe" reintroduces the concept of determinism to the discussion of human history, which has been unfashionable for a while now and is due for reconsideration by the academic community. Keys also gives the reader a nice overview of the transition from the order of late antiquity to that of protomodern nations all over the globe, which is interesting and informative regardless of what may have instigated the changes.

A New Explanation for the 535AD Catastrophe
That the Earth suffered catastrophic weather conditions starting around 535AD and lasting for many years thereafter, is becoming a scientifically accepted "fact." As explained in "Catastrophe: a Quest for the Origins of the Modern World," these conditions weakened the Eastern Roman Empire; created horrendous living conditions in the western part of Great Britain that were remembered and later incorporated into the Arthurian legend; contributed through drought in the America's to the fall of the Teotihuacan civilization in Mexico; and through flooding to the collapse of a major center of civilization in Yemen.

Almost wherever in the world that there was significant use of writing in the 6th century AD, from Constantinople to China, references to this catastrophe have shown up in contemporary documents. Many such documents are cited in this book. In the 20th century, the occurrence of the catastrophe and its worldwide impact has been confirmed by the analysis of ice-cores from Greenland and Antarctica and by the study of annual growth rings in wood from across the world that can be safely dated to the 6th century.

The author of "Catastrophe," David Keys, has a theory about the event - or closely related events - that caused of this catastrophe. I found his theory plausible and frightening. Plausible because of the way he lays out his facts, and frightening because there appears to be no reason such dramatic and devastating events could not happen occur again - in the next thousand years or in the next ten years.

Mr. Keys is an excellent writer. He certainly makes this book fully accessible to the non-scientist. He also is apparently quite well informed about both the historic and archeological record from around the world during the 6th century and for a long time afterwards. In fact, most of his book consists of plausible - usually directly climate related - explanations for all kinds of civilization collapses, barbarian migrations, and shifts in economic and political power in different parts of the world following the "event" of 535AD. These explanations are fascinating, and, as just mentioned, always plausible. On the other hand, I doubt that they can all be right, and wished that author had given a little more credit to happenstance and the decisions of individuals in shaping the "origins of the modern world."

Rethinking the Dark Ages and the Origins of the Modern World
"Catastrophe" rocketed to fame as a result of a PBS series which devoted two one hour episodes to its thesis: that an eruption of what was probably a monstrous earlier version of the volcano Krakatoa created weather disruptions and tidal phenomena which wiped out many Classical civilizations, brought on LITERAL "dark ages" in many societies, and helped to create the Medieval world and lay the foundations of the modern.

The Keys theory is so widely accepted now (just five years after the publication of the book) because it is not only backed by masses of contemporary documentary evidence, but also because it explains, better than any other theory, the global decline of civilization in the 6th Century of the Common Era. In mathematical terms, it is "elegant." It is a latter-day Occam's Razor cutting through generations of theories based upon individual cultures or isolated events to show that they could all have at their heart a single event which triggered, as the title says, global "Catastrophe." (Definitely with a capital "C"!)

Keys uses Chinese records to show that a loud bang was heard over hundreds of square miles around 535, and that this was followed by a fall of yellow ash. Other records, from Japan and parts of modern Indonesia, support this occurence. Keys, after weighing and rejecting alternative theories, suggests that only a massive volcanic eruption could be the culprit for the event recorded by the Chinese, and shows, decade by decade, using historical records, dendrochronological (tree ring) records, ice samples, and other measurements, that what happened was no ordinary eruption, but possibly the largest volcanic eruption in history, which darkened skies around the world, creating a "volcanic winter" which brought famine and plague in its wake. Amazingly, he does it in plain, easy-to-read language, a hallmark of historiographic greatness.

Keys documents major climatic disruptions and uses established scientific models to project the impact of these changes on people as diverse as the Central Asian Avar and Turkish horse nomads, East African herdsmen, South American fishermen, and Anglo-Saxon and Britannic farmers in the modern British Isles. His conclusion is stunning: the eruption triggered waves of nomadic migrations which helped to bring about the decline of the recently revived Byzantine empire (which was well on its way to reconquering much of the old Roman Empire), destroyed flourishing urban cultures in the Americas, ruined the powerful Southern Arabian kingdoms which had existed for centuries (thus creating the power vacuum later filled by Mohammad's follwers), and also wrought devastation remembered in Arthurian romances.

One of the crucial contributions which Keys has made is an explanation of the otherwise unexplainable irruption of the bubonic plague out of Africa and into the Byzantine and Indian worlds. The plague -- which spread as far as Britain and permanently ended any chance that an independent Celtic Church would be established, separate from Rome -- killed millions of then and former Romaions (inhabitants of the original Roman Empire) and blasted any hopes of re-establishing the Empire, relegating it instead into an ever-dwindling Greek-centered Eastern Empire, subject to nomadic incursions from Arabia and central Asia.

In the Americas, Teotihuacan and Tikal alike suffered from near-simultaneous climatic disruption which ended their civilizations -- contemporaneously with the decline of the great cities of the Classical Eurasian world. Only the Keys Catastrophe theory explains BOTH phenomena -- the end of urban cultures in the Americas AND in Africa-Eurasia.

In east Asia, Keys blames the super-eruption for the famines whch led to the revolt of Hou Jing, which ended southern Chinese independence and led ultimately to the establishment of the Sui Dynasty and the near-continuous unification of China as a single cultural entity since then. In 535, the very year which Keys gives for the eruption, the Korean state of Silla, probably faced with climatic turmoil and famine as bad as China's, abandoned its pagan past and adopted Buddhism, laying the groundwork for the unification of THAT country, too. Again, no other theory provides a unified explanation for the near-simultaneous events.

The Keys theory is not without its weaknesses. I have particular doubts about the Indonesian chronicles which he utilizes, but which, if authentic, indicate that the Sunda Strait is a relatively modern phenomenon, and, until 535-536, Java and Sumatra formed a super-island, dominated by an unfortuante civlization (called Holotan by the Chinese). If the records Keys uses are correct, Holotan was destroyed (along with much of the island) by the super-eruption, putting it alongside Thera as a major cultural center destroyed by a single volcano. Undeniably, however, major changes took place in Southeast Asia after 535, including the establishment of Proto-Cambodia and Proto-Thailand only one generation later, along with other, more diffuse civilizations, presumably filling the gap left by the vanished Holotan.

The Keys theory will likely be subject to much criticism in the years ahead, and further refinements, but it is already so well-established as a convenient explanation for the catastrophic events of the Sixth Century C.E. that anyone who wants to understand histories of the period being written nowadays simply MUST be familiar with "Catastrophe."

I give "Catastrophe" Five Stars, the highest rating, for its historiographic significance, ease of reading, and current impact on historical thinking.

A fascinating historical detective story
Recent years have seen the publication of several books offering radical new explanations of ancient events or presenting sweeping revisionist theories of history. Examples include Noah's Flood, Eden in the East, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, and 1421: The Year China Discovered America.

Catastrophe is one of the best of these. Archaeological writer David Keys has assembled multiple arguments supporting his theory that a major natural disaster around the year 535 altered the world's climate for years, causing famine and plague and triggering the collapse of existing political systems. He gives us brief but well-written summaries of events that sprang from this catastrophe, including the rise of Islam. According to Keys, this event ended an old world and gave birth to a new one whose patterns we still see today. After a process of elimination, Keys proposes that the cause of this disaster was a volcano in what is now the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. He warns that natural catastrophes in the future could change the world we know. Even if you don't agree with his conclusion, you will learn much from his reviews of historical events. This is fascinating stuff, and highly readable.

Not Catastrophic....But a Little Suspect in Places
Catastrophe, by David Keys, is an effort to attribute several significant changes in history that occurred in or near the 6th Centuary AD to drastic global weather changes, and to attribute those changes to a volcanic eruption. Keys ammasses an enormous amount of evidence to support these attributions, enough by itself to make the work impressive. However, on the whole his trail of evidence is a bit suspect.

Keys offers ample convincing evidence that the 6th century AD saw startling changes in weather. In doing so, he presents data from literally around the globe; moreover, his various sources of information seem to corroborate one another. This represents the most solid part of his argument, although he didn't tell us if he omitted evidence that didn't support his conclusions. From here, Keys proceeds to suggest what affects this weather pattern may have had on the world.

Some of these suggestions are more believable than others. His attribution of plague outbreaks to the weather patterns seems reasonable. Similarly a discussion of impacts on the Roman Empire is well argued and somewhat supported. From there, though, Keys trots about the globe presenting marginal evidence that most of the major events of the 6th Century (and some thereafter) are directly attributable to this weather pattern. In doing so, Keys includes a lot of marginal evidence and reaches for some causal relationships that are probably a lot more complicated than his book suggests. In particular, I found his version of events in the Middle East, Europe and China not so well supported.

I was a little bothered by the language and evidence of some of these chapters. Frequently, Keys uses phrases such as "almost certainly" to describe a cause-and-effect relationship, without providing any real supporting evidence. In one place, his endnote to such a comment simply repeats the "almost certainly" phrase without offering any additional information or citing a source. I think this fact really weakens the credibility of his work.

As he moves toward the end, Keys tries to pinpoint the source of the weather patterns. Toward this end, he nominates the eruption of a volcano in Java. However, in doing so, he needs to significantly re-interpret Javan historical accounts based on second and third hand sources. And while there's some limited basis for doing so, the connection is, from my point of view, far from a slam-dunk. It's easy to see that Keys left this section for the end because it's the least supported part of his chain of argument and potentially unravels the whole thesis.

On the whole, the book is an impressive projection of a lot of focused research. Sadly a lot of the evidence presented is weak in supporting Keys premise. In the end, it's easy for the reader to see that some, perhaps even a lot, of the things that Keys suggests caused major historical changes are credible. Still, a lot aren't. I give the book three stars for pulling together and presenting this information, which is in itself an impressive feat. Keys is not convincing in telling us that a volcanic eruption in 535 AD rewrote most of human history from that point on, however. Other than that, the book is interesting and fairly readable, and worth the time to take a look. ... Read more

Book Description

It was the Perfect Storm. But instead of raging far out in the Atlantic, the Great Hurricane of 1938 left a wake of death and destruction across seven states. It battered J. P. Morgan's Long Island estate, wiped out beach communities from Watch Hill to Newport, flooded the Connecticut Valley, and flattened Vermont's prized maples. Traveling at record speeds, the storm raced up the Atlantic Coast, reaching New York and New England ahead of hurricane warnings and striking with such ferocity that seismographs in Alaska picked up the impact. Winds, clocked at 186 mph, stripped cars of their paint. Walls of water 50 feet high swept homes and entire families out to sea. Sandwiched between the Great Depression and World War II, the storm had a profound impact upon a generation. "The day of the biggest wind has just passed," the newswires read the next day, "and a great part of the most picturesque America, as old as the Pilgrims, has gone beyond recall or replacement." Drawing upon newspaper accounts, the personal testimony of survivors, forecasters, and archival footage, SUDDEN SEA recounts that terrifying day in gripping detail. Scotti describes the unlikely alignment of meteorological conditions that conspired to bring a tropical cyclone to the Northeast. A masterful storyteller, Scotti follows the trajectory of that awful wind--and recovers for posterity the lost stories of those whose lives, families, and communities were destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

beautiful and dramatic
I picked this book up on a whim and once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. Not having been alive in 1938 I knew very little about this disaster before reading Ms.Scotti's well reserched book. The way she weaves personal stories so seamlessly with the factual information creates a riviting tale of a way of life that would never fuloly be seen again. Ms.Scotti talks about the death and destrction that ravaged the east coast (682 deaths, 432 in Rhode Island alone) but she also talks about the amazing, and in some instaces humorus ways that people surrived the storm.
One of the things that I really love about the book is that it is so full of information and stories, yet I never felt confused or lost, I can't say that for many of the books I have read these days. I think Ms.Scotti is one of the most gifted writers I have had the pleasure of reading. Her ability to tug at your heart strings and not have it be in least bit over done is very refreshing. Personaly I think she is a breath of air as welcome as the sea breeze that must have been blowing along the beach only hours before the storm touched down. I can not wait to read her next book.

Sudden storm sends shockwaves to end summer on somber note
This is nice read, an almost pleasant (but, strangely, not gripping) saga of the great New England Hurricane of September 21,1938. Much of the focus of the storm and the story is on the wealthy Hampton areas of Long Island and the Newport area of Rhode Island. Scotti sets the time and place well: the end of the Depression (with the damage still evident), the brewing war in Europe, and the start of the university school year. This storm came not only at an unusual time but also at unusual places. Much of the damage to homes is the result of wealthy people taking advantage of splendid if dangerous views of the ocean. Some of the dead are domestics left behind to shutter summer homes.

"Sea" offers a clear companion and comparison to "Isaac's Storm," the epic of the Galveston hurricane of 1900. "Sea" is able to focus much more on the human element of the catastrophe, using interviews with survivors, photographs (fourteen glossy pages), and records that were just not kept in or saved from 1900. Survivors are alive today. "Sea" is more about the people who fought, including some who survived, the storm. In "Sea," a smug senior forecaster in Washington, DC dismisses the hurricane forecast of an assistant, striking the word 'hurricane' from the assistant's report for September 21 and leading to a lack of warning to the targeted, highly populated areas. The fact that such a storm was unique or that most of the Atlantic's similar storms pushed to the northeast and out to sea was not a good reason to ignore the disastrous consequences of the "Bermuda high" that kept the storm closer to land. The post-storm analysis may have been the real impetus for the modernization of weather forecasting. repairing the damage to railroads, telephone lines, livestock and roads helped usher in the modern age. Air passenger traffice between New York and Boston increased 500% in the week after the storm.

Scotti, a journalist and mystery novelist, uses words well. "Sea" is laden with brief, connected, poignant stories. Capturing the wildness of the sea and storms is no small task. Scotti even includes a brief set of scenes from the life of Katherine Hepburn from that day: swimming and golfing in Connecticut, before seeing her estate, Tara, being washed away. "Sea: has about five small maps; each could have used a bit more detail. And a larger map, tracking the entire storm of its short life, would have been a good, consistent visual reference point for the reader, and would provide more of the dynamic nature of the storm. Without it, some of the stories are static and difficult to connect.

The Storm of the Century
I started reading this book on Saturday and was finished on Monday morning. It completely held my interest. I enjoyed the human element and couldn't wait to find out what happened to the many people in this devasting hurricane. Each account was breath-taking. It makes me want to know more...I am recommending this book to everyone I come in contact with. That anyone lived through this storm was amazing. It makes you realize what is really important in life. I enjoyed the author's telling of this story.

Interesting book on well-known and published hurricane
The beginning of the book hooked me...but somewhere mid-stream it became a hard read...it took about 6 sittings to read the 240ish page book. Meteorology was barely touched upon, which is fine, considering the Weather Bureau was only taking surface observations at the time and any other deductions would be mere guess-work. Besides, non-mets usually make all kinds of errors, such as assuming the Saffir-Simpson Scale was in use (I don't even think the term "Great Hurricane" had been coined as of that time.) One of the forecasters involved actually became one of the best-skilled hurricane forecasters around...it would have been nice if she expounded on his later career, but no matter.

It seemed like the author tried too hard to weave the individual stories together, and I got lost when going back and forth from different spots in Rhode Island and Long Island. I felt like I was adrift in the storm myself. I did like how she followed up on the characters who survived...that was a nice touch. If you're interested in southern New England and weather, this should be a good buy.

"A strange ochre light came off the ocean..."
Powerful hurricanes are infrequent visitors to New England, but 'The Long Island Express' not only paid a visit---it dropped in unannounced on September 21, 1938 just as many summer residents were on the beach and closing up their ocean-front cottages, among them actress Katharine Hepburn and her mother.

The Weather Bureau gave no cause for alarm, at least not after the hurricane skirted Florida and headed north. The meteorologists in Washington D.C. assumed that the storm would dissipate in the cold waters of the Atlantic, as had happened to all north-bound hurricanes since the Great September Gale devastated New England in 1815.

According to the author, no one could have been prepared for the 1938 storm's speed and ferocity. Sweeping northward from Cape Hatteras, building tremendous momentum as it advanced, the hurricane raced over six hundred miles in only twelve hours. Only the captain of the 'Carinthia,' a small 20,000 ton luxury cruiser that weathered the ferocious brawl 150 miles north of Florida might have given warning. He did radio to shore that his barometer had dropped "almost an inch to 27.85 in less than an hour. It was one of the lowest readings ever recorded in the North Atlantic."

Author Scotti interviewed many survivors of this ferocious storm, and includes the story of Katharine Hepburn who had to escape her seaside house through a dining room window and then battle her way to higher ground:

"When the Hepburns reached high ground, they looked back. [Their house] which had endured tide and wind since the 1870's, pirouetted slowly and sailed away."

Many folks were not as fortunate as the Hepburns. The storm surge was so sudden and so high many houses were completely inundated before their inhabitants could escape. One survivor saw a submerged house leap twenty-five feet into the air and explode. Another watched as a school bus containing his children was overtaken by the onrushing water. Others climbed to the top floors of their homes, then clung desperately to pieces of their roof as their houses washed away beneath them.

It is estimated that 682 people died and another 1,754 were seriously wounded by the 'Long Island Express.' Scotti focuses on a few representative stories, and relates tantalizing fragments of many others.

If you would like to read a first-hand account of the 'Long Island Express,' September 21, 1938 was also the day that Everett S. Allen, recent college graduate and future author of "A Wind to Shake the World," began his first 'real' job as a reporter for the New Bedford 'Standard Times.' His book is one of the finest accounts of this vastly underreported hurricane. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

This book made me want to stay indoors forever
I could not put this book down. It is so gruesome, but every story is true! There are bear attacks, people falling through ice, plane crashes, ice storms...you name it; if it can happen in Alaska, then someone has lived to tell about it! I find it facinating to read about unbearable situations that people have survived. This book isn't for those of you who don't want to read the gory details, but if that's what you live for, then this is your book!!

Good for reading at bedtime or while camping
Alaska, despite its many cities and roads, is still a land with large vistas of wild, untamed territory. Kaniut's book is a collection of several dozen Alaskan tales of death and survival, ranging from plane crashes in poor weather to bear attacks, climbing accidents, entrapment in mudflats as the tidewater poured in, winter stranding on ice floes, badger mauling, frostbite on hunting forays gone wrong, and many other true dramas. While the book is rather limited in its straightforward, no-nonsense approach (one could, without being disrespectful, call the style prosaic), it does make for good bedtime reading before drifting off to sleep. The wildness of nature that demonstrates the numinous aspect of God's creation in the last few chapters of Job can be seen in these stories, reminding us that man is not the master of everything he surveys. Nature is wild, dangerous, and commands attention and respect. Ignore this and you might die or be severely crippled (as some of these stories demonstrate.) Overall, this was not a great book, but a good one, a decent selection to take along on a camping trip.

THE ULTIMATE HUMAN TRIUMPHS AND TRADGEDIES
READING THESE REAL LIFE ACCOUNTS WILL LEAVE YOU MARVELING AT THE POWER OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT AND THE WILLPOWER SOME MEN HAVE TO LIVE. YOU WILL SEE HOW TRADGEDY CAN STRIKE EVEN THE WELL PREPARED AND HOW NATURE CAN PUSH MAN TO UNTHINKABLE LIMITS. BY FAR, LARRY KANIUT'S BEST BOOK.

spine tingling tales make toes curl
As a long time Alaskan, I enjoyed the true to life tales shared by the adventurers within the covers of the book. I found myself pacing the floor as I scanned the pages of this book. Not only was I unable to put it down, I was unable to sit down and read it. Good, book, Mr. Kaniut and contributors.

Bill Zeddies

Mind numbing true adventure!
This is easily the best collection of true adventure tales ever assembled. I was blown away by the courage, danger, and pure adrenaline running through these stories. My advice: run to your nearest bookstore and BUY THIS BOOK! ... Read more

Book Description

October 1991. It was "the perfect storm"--a tempest that may happen only once in a century--a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center.

Reviews (836)

A modern day Moby Dick!
When I started this book, it grabbed me, and I couldn't put it down. Fortunately, it's a relatively short book and can be read in a few hours. Sebastian Junger introduces the reader to the world of long-line swordfishing off the Grand Banks. One comes to know the occasionally wild and sometimes desperate captains and crewmembers of the fishing boats. Junger minutely details the work done and dangers faced by the men (and women) who go to sea (his work as a freelance journalist for Outside and other magazines comes in here).

In this book, Junger gives a "true" account of the Andrea Gail and her crew facing and ultimately losing to the storm of the century in October 1991. He used interviews with the surviving associates of the crew and other research. He then made educated guesses as to what happened when the ship actually sank, since there were no survivors to tell, so that part is historical fiction, if you will.

I heartily recommend this book as a quick exciting read. It made a round-trip flight from Denver to Boston and back pass quickly and saved me from the in-flight movies. I have not seen the movie based on this book, so I cannot pass judgment on the cinema version.

The Perferct Storm eclipses its self-named movie!
I had already seen the cinematic version of this book before reading it the other day, but decided to read it any way. Several folks I know had read it and enjoyed the book, so I was curious.
I'm glad I picked it up and read it. The books back story and additional information blew away what was covered in the movie. Many non-fiction books can be page-yawners, but this was a true page burner. Junger does a great job weaving the dialogue, facts, weather reports, and bits of history in the gripping work to make this so interesting.
The descriptions of Gloucester, it's haunts and people were intriguing. The fisherman's lifestyle of the rich and famous (for a week, anyway ) activities as decribed sounded harsh... but I empathized with their plight and silently applauded their lust for life.
Junger's words created a picture of the fiery sailors, ferocious mako, fighting swordfish, and frenetic actions on board a fishing vessel. It made me appreciate what these sailors deal with twenty hours a day for weeks at a time.
If some of you out there are still hesitant about reading this because you saw the movie... even if you saw it on the big screen... don't be... you need to get this book and devour it.

EVER BEEN THERE?
9 OF 10 ADVENTURE STORIES (INC. WAR STORIES)i find lacking & Mr. Junger & His perfect storm qualifies.Perhaps as a novel it would have worked but unfortunetly it isn't that! While the best combat stories are NOT always written by those who've been there(and the same holds true for sea stories etc.-)the old journalism device of "joining the brotherhood" so as to "understand & qualify" generally doesn't work here.!Had Mr Junger been a commercial fisherman some years before writing his "storm " perhaps I could be less subjective.Conrad was a seaman not because He wanted a license to write! A working Class hero is still something to be (as Mr. Lennon said so well.)---"R.V.N. COMBAT INFANTRY 68-69,TAYLOR DIVING & SALVAGE North Sea -78-79 Ocean Sailor- Force 12experience-ongoing sailor.

The Storm of the Century
Those who make a living catching fish from the ocean are always placing themselves at great risk. They often spend several weeks out in the ocean on a relatively small vessel (usually less than 100 feet in length), hoping that they will land that once- in- a- lifetime catch of fish that will improve their financial well- being.

When things go as planned, the life of a fisherman can be adventurous and rewarding. But when the search for sea- dwelling creatures is interrupted by a violent storm, a fun situation can turn critical and even fatal. Such is the case of the men and women who became stranded at sea in the "storm of the century", back in October of 1991. Also referred to as the "perfect storm", this violent act of nature left many people dead without a trace. Author Sebastian Junger wrote this book about the people who were aboard these boats, with quotes from some of the survivors and speculation about what could have happened to those who never returned.

The "Perfect Storm" occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean, just east of the New England states, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. This area is not normally known for producing violent storms, due to its northern latitude. This sudden turn in the weather took everyone by surprise, including those who were out at sea. They had no forewarning about the intensity of this storm, which seemed to brew up out of nowhere. Most of the captains and crew members have dealt with storms before so they knew what procedures to follow. But nothing could properly prepare them for the massive force with which they were suddenly faced.

Junger spends most of this book talking about the people who manned these boats, the events leading up to when they set sail, and the storm itself. Junger is best when he is describing the actual human events during the storms and the heroic efforts of the Coast Guard and Air National Guard to rescue these sailors. Throughout the book, he gets sidetracked from his story and starts talking about statistics and facts about hurricanes, drowning, rainfall, and other data. Some of these facts are interesting and they add to the enjoyment of the book. Other things are annoying and not very useful and they get in the way of the telling of the story.

Junger makes frequent mention of the "Andrea Gail"- one of the boats that was out in the water when the storm picked up speed and was lost without a trace of anything- people or vessel. It was obviously ripped apart in the storm. Junger mentions it from time to time, and he reports the few facts that are known. While the storm is taking place and afterward, when rescue attempts are being made, there is no more contact with the Andrea Gail. Junger provides some speculative guesses about what was likely taking place on the boat, in an effort to keep the reader informed about this particular fishing vessel. But there is no way to know what was really taking place after the radio communication ended suddenly on October 28, 1991.

Junger writes pretty well throughout this book, and he effectively captures the terror that must have been felt by those who were caught in this violent act of nature. The book could have been better, however, if he had included more interviews and quotes from survivors not only on the boats, but also those who were affected when the storm ran ashore and damaged their coastal properties. It also could have been improved with a better ending. Junger ends the writing suddenly, with a few paragraphs about another vessel whose crew was lost in a storm. There is no conclusion or anything to wrap up the book and summarize the key events. It just ends abruptly.

Finding ones' self caught in a bad storm in the middle of the open sea is frequently- occurring nightmare for some people, but it has become reality for a few. This book shows that the life of a fisherman is not all drinking, fun, and games. There are tremendous risks involved when one decides to spend several weeks at sea, and author Sebastian Junger presents a pretty good book about the perils of this lifestyle. It's a book worth reading, although it could have been better with a few improvements.

Vivid and moving
Very detailed and moving account of the sinking of a ship off the coast of Massachusetts. Paints a very clear picture of the power and unpredictability of the sea and the weather, and what options humans have when they become caught in it. Occasionally overdid the technical information, but overall, a very vivid and good book. ... Read more

Book Description

Riki Ott, PhD exposes the profound legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how readers can help reshape our global energy future.

The author chronicles the long-lasting environmental harm to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and investigates the health problems suffered by many cleanup workers. Exxon's spill provided a portal to understanding a startling truth: oil is much more toxic than we previously thought. Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$ frames the larger story of discovery of the truly toxic nature of oil. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Great book for college courses
Dr. Ott's book will serve as an excellent supplement to course syllabi around the country. The book's interdisciplinary approach makes it a perfect educational tool for a variety of departments - public health, environmental studies, ecology, and sociology to name a few. Ott's ability to combine rigourous science with an accessbile writing style offers an engaging expose of oil's effects on humans and nature.Perhaps just as important, the book also presents students and teachers with an inspiring model of how one scientist's passion and determination can uncover truths of global importance.

Highly recommended for teachers and students.

People Need to Know
People need to know what happened in the Valdez cleanup and thankfully the injured and sick found a voice in Dr. Ott.She translates the multi-layered wrong doing hidden beneath corporate and political bureaucracy that lead to so many workers becoming sick in the Valdez clean up.She also translates the science and toxicology behind "what went wrong" in a way that average people can comprehend.

A good read!
Dr. Ott , like the lone pedestrian facing a tank about to run him over, faces the giant Exxon.In Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$, Ott reveals the far reaching effects of the Valdez oil spill on human health, wildlife populations, and the environment.Worker safety and environmental laws based on antiquated science need to be revamped, the industry needs to be held fully accountable and finally we need to take a look at ourselves and the role we can play in reducing the toxicity of our environment.This journey with Dr. Ott, through the initial devastation and lingering after effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, tells the incredible magnitude of the disaster. Through her first hand account we are transported to Prince William Sound, and hear the silencing of the birds, see the slick lapping the shore and smell the inescapable fumes.We also learn that drilling is no longer necessary when looking for oil in Alaska, just scrap away some rocks and a little sand and there on the beaches you'll find it.

Urgent action required
Dr. Ott's book is not only an exceptionally good read but her message must reach our Senators and Representatives now and action must be taken.Dependence on oil is NOT the way of the future.It is highly toxic not only to the environment but to human health as well.We need to start now, to conserve our oil reserves and develop alternative energy sources or the chances are, that our retirement years will be the setting for a major economic shift toward the worst.

If President Bush would like to enter the history books as a man of incredible foresight, he'd better pick up this banner and start leading us in that direction now.

Alaska Resident Says Book Rocks
As a lifelong resident of the area affected by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, I was ecstatic when this crusader, Dr. Ott, accurately portrayed the spill. Not only does Dr. Ott expose Exxon's myths and public deceptions, but she does justice to the thousands of residents affected by the spill.

This book personalizes the disaster by adding a human dimension without compromising fact. If you believe that Prince William Sound has recovered from the effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Dr. Ott's book will show you how Exxon has deceived us all.

Overall, a groundbreaking worthwhile read!! ... Read more

Book Description

The first indication of the prolonged terror that followed the 1906 earthquake occurred when a ship steaming off San Francisco's Golden Gate "seemed to jump clear out of the water." This gripping account of the earthquake, the devastating firestorms that followed, and the city's subsequent reconstruction vividly shows how, after the shaking stopped, humans, not the forces of nature, nearly destroyed San Francisco in a remarkable display of simple ineptitude and power politics. Bolstered by previously unpublished eyewitness accounts and photographs, this definitive history of a fascinating city caught in the grip of the country's greatest urban disaster will forever change conventional understanding of an event one historian called "the very epitome of bigness."
Philip Fradkin takes us onto the city's ruptured streets and into its exclusive clubs, teeming hospitals and refugee camps, and its Chinatown. He introduces the people--both famous and infamous--who experienced these events, such as Jack and Charmian London, Enrico Caruso, James Phelan, and Abraham Ruef. He traces the horrifying results of the mayor's illegal order to shoot-to-kill anyone suspected of a crime, and he uncovers the ugliness of racism that almost led to war with Japan. He reveals how an elite oligarchy failed to serve the needs of ordinary people, the heroic efforts of obscure citizens, the long-lasting psychological effects, and how all these events ushered in a period of unparalleled civic upheaval.
This compelling look at how people and institutions function in great catastrophes demonstrates just how deeply earthquake, fires, hurricanes, floods, wars, droughts, or acts of terrorism can shape us. ... Read more

Amazon.com

At 8:27 a.m. on May 18, 1980, Washington State's Mount St. Helens stood at 9,677 feet; in the next five minutes the mountain lost 1,300 feet, blowing its top in a blast so powerful that trees toppled 17 miles away. Hurricane-force winds stripped the soil from nearby ridges and hillsides, leaving bare rock. All plant life for miles around either vaporized or tore away from the surface of the earth. Once-pristine alpine lakes were transformed into "tea-colored swamps."Volcanic ash shrouded four states like snow while an ash plume high in the atmosphere circled the globe. All told, "57 people were dead, along with millions of birds, deer, elk, and fish." No longer would Northwesterners regard the chain of glacier-clad peaks extending from British Columbia's Mt. Garibaldi to Northern California's Mt. Lassen as benevolent dollops of recreational fun. For the first time they would see these peaks for what they are: volcanoes that could actually erupt. For scientists, Mount St. Helens would provide an ever-changing laboratory for study; indeed, important advances have been made in any number disciplines, from seismology to ecology.

Along with remarkable before-and-after images (including the famous Rosenquist photos of the initial blast), Rob Carson's 20th-anniversary retrospective captures the human drama leading up to the eruption and two decades of subsequent scientific discovery in its aftermath. The idea of a volcano erupting in the continental U.S. was certainly novel at the end of the age of disco. Washington governor Dixy Lee Ray hoped "to live long enough to see one of our volcanoes erupt." Sightseers rushed to the mountain, buying T-shirts with premature slogans like "I Survived Mount St. Helens." Harry Truman, "crotchety octogenarian" and whisky-packing owner and operator of the Mount St. Helens Lodge, made headlines by refusing to leave his home, claiming "that mountain will never hurt me." Truman perished under several hundred feet of ash. A geologist named David Johnston wasn't supposed to be near the mountain that day, but as fate would have it, he traded shifts; his last words shouted into his radio were "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!"

While the human element figures prominently in Carson's book, the truly amazing story is the one of postblast ecological recovery. Take the humble pocket gopher: those that survived began mixing ash with underlying soil, playing a critical role in making the land suitable once more for plant and animal life. Unbelievably, just three years after the eruption, 90 percent of plant species and nearly all mammals had returned to the most devastated areas. Scientists quickly learned that recovery, rather than depending on colonizing species from outside the blast zone, relied largely on species that never left--like hibernating frogs and toads, lucky pocket gophers, and countless subterranean insects. Of course, life outside the blast helped, too; the woolly bear caterpillar parachuted in to reclaim territory and windblown fireweed seeds soon blossomed in the pumice. And meanwhile, the mountain itself (called "Fire Mountain" by the Native American Klickitats) is rapidly growing once again. --Martha Silano ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Don't mistreat the pictures
An excellent book, completely readable and very informative. I visited the devastated area by chopper within a year after the big one, and Carson's book told me that a lot of the interpretations I heard in 1981 are no longer considered valid. I particularly enjoyed the appraisal of Weyerhauser's tree farms vs natural reforestation. There are favorable points for both, and it's essentially a matter of choosing the scientific or the industrial benefits. I bought the book at the Monument (Forest Service, not Park Service) and reading it while I was there made it all the more exciting. My only complaint: the page layouts. Too many tall, narrow pictures are printed across the binding. Photos of these dimensions would easily fit on a single page, and their impact and beauty are diminished when so much of them is buried in the binding. Possibly this flaw would be less objectionable in a sewn hardcover edition. Also, pictures are often printed as insets in larger photos -- which suggests to me that the book design was considered more important than the photographs. The illustrations are great complements to a splendid text, and they deserve kinder treatment.

An American volcano captured in photographic glory.
The eruption of Mt. St. Helens is captured in photographic glory for any who would learn about the explosion of the volcano and the subsequent recovery of its surrounding environment. Black and white and some color photos accompany extensive descriptions of the eruption, its short- and long-term effects, and environmental changes.

wow wonderful writing!
i love this book and the doofus who thought this book wasnt that great(the one below me) needs to read it again he says it moved quickly to the recovery of the mountain: look at the title! thats what it is about retard.you should recognize a great writer when you see one. humph ... Read more

Reviews (10)

apocalyptic & inevitable
As a geoscience educator, I'm often looking for new books that will engage freshman, introductory geology students, and I can think of no better way to compliment this book than to say that I'm going to require it for all my lower division classes.

Reisner doesn't reiterate ideas from Cadillac Desert, but rather infuses his understanding of the interaction of water, geology, and people into this new area. I learned a lot; for example, I didn't have a full appreciation of the precarious nature of the Delta and its role in supplying the southern half of the state with water.

The book was written pre-9/11, and one cannot help nodding bitterly at the accuracy of Reisner's descriptions of public reaction to, say, the deaths of thousands of citizens.

It's a terrible loss for us that Reisner won't write another book, and indeed didn't flesh this one out as thoroughly as his presentation in Cadillac Desert. As an example, the scope and inadequacies of legal changes to building permitting after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake could use further elaboration. Such omissions don't distract from the book--indeed, they may enhance its readibility--but I'm sure had he time, Reisner would have delved in more detail into many subjects. Nonetheless, this book should be a startling and resource-rich guide for the cataclysmic event that is guaranteed to happen in the near future.

Little Book About the Big One
This will make me sound like a bad guy, but the untimely death of Marc Reisner lead to the very undeveloped nature of this book. This was surely a work in progress when he passed away from cancer in 2000. The book has the potential to be an environmentalist powerhouse of investigative reporting, like Reisner's masterpiece "Cadillac Desert." California in general offers the kind of story that Reisner mastered in the other book, as much of the state and its civilization are living on borrowed time and very unnatural social constructs. The state faces two potential catastrophes: running out of fresh water, and of course the inevitable BIG ONE - the ultimate earthquake that will ruin the state.

This book opens in Los Angeles, a megalopolis in a dismal location with zero natural advantages that can naturally support the population. L.A. would be little more than a dusty crossroads without 150 years of federal subsidies and gargantuan engineering schemes to import water, especially from Northern California. Meanwhile, that area has its own threatened megalopolis, as the San Francisco Bay area is just waiting for the big earthquake that will hit sooner or later. In addition to structural mayhem and wildfires, such a disaster would also devastate the water supply for both urban areas.

The problem here is that all of the above issues are covered convincingly, but merely in essay form with no notes or supporting bibliography. Reisner also did not get to the long-term financial and sociological catastrophes that would result from the disaster, which would have made this book far stronger. Meanwhile, much of the book is interspersed with a fictional account of the Big One that is mostly a doomsday scenario. It's a plausible story but indicates a lack of focus for the book overall. Sadly, Reisner was unable to deliver the powerhouse book that this subject promises, and of which he was surely capable. [~doomsdayer520~]

Marc Reisner ¿ his last book, dammit
What a great guy Marc Reisner was. He wrote A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate as he was dying of cancer, and it's not just a benchmark of California's environmental history but also a profound and emotional valedictory effort. Living as I do within ¼ mile of the grumbling and growling Hayward Fault, I found Reisner's projections of the cataclysmic effects of the Big One to be more than unsettling. Those of us who are priviledged or doomed to live in this glorious state cannot fail to take heed of the picture he paints of the likely events surrounding our upcoming tectonic hiccups, belches, and sneezes.
The book is divided into 3 sections. The first retells Californias environmental history from the era of Junipero Serra's mission system right up to our own freeway system. The middle section deals with the fundamentals of plate tectonics. But it's that 3rd section that looks forward to (shudder) a hypothetical eruption of the Hayward Fault in 2005 that is most gripping. Yikes.
Sayonara to a great environmentalist and author.

A Sobering Look At The Inevitable
Think of a writer with an ability to spin a convincing tale of fright, and Stephen King might come to mind. But after reading "A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate," you might want to add Marc Reisner to that list.

In this compact volume, Reisner first provides an overview of California's spectacular development from a largely unsettled desert to the most populous state in the nation. The desire for wealth drove the growth of the state's two great metropolitan areas. While gold fever was behind San Francisco's rapid rise, and land speculation fueled Los Angeles' frenetic expansion, the result was the same--two great communities situated atop extremely violent seismic zones.

Reisner recounts some of the most spectacular earthquakes of the 19th and 20th centuries in this region. But most frightening of all, at least from this reader's viewpoint, is his account of a disaster yet to be. In a vivid, yet fact-based account Reisner describes a quake that is NOT a worst-case scenario...yet it dwarfs its predecessors in destruction of life and property. Thousands of lives are lost, the damage totals soar into the billions, and even though the site for this hypothetical quake is the bay area, we learn why it will almost certainly have catastrophic consequences for southern California's water supply.

Reisner was apparently still working on this book at the time of his death from cancer, so this may be why the ending seems to fall short of a great summing up. Still, his message is clear. When--and it's truly a question of when, not if this disaster strikes--we will face little choice but to rebuild and go on. Our investment in these places is too great to do otherwise. We need to take his cautionary tale to heart, and be prepared as much as we can be for the enormity of the task ahead.

Two books. One cover..............
A Dangerous Place begins as a concise, well-paced description of California's seismic potential and precarious water management systems. Blending history with present day infrastructure requirements, Reisner lays bare the fragility inherent when a populace exceeds the environments ability to support it. Though natural resources may fail on their own, Reisner suspensefully charts the mayhem when the inevitable 7.0 temblor arrives to accelerate the process.

Indeed, through two-thirds of the book, A Dangerous Place is an excellent, non-fictional read. But, then, for some inexplicable reason, Reisner decides to make believe. In the final third, the author imagines the next big earthquake and attempts the difficult shift from fast-paced factual reporting to fully fictional, wide-eyed, first-person narrative. It's him and his family against the fantasy earthquake. It's thrilling, it's chilling.......

Well, no, it's corny.

Reisner's shift from fact to fiction seriously harms his ability to achieve his goal. Where a feigned natural disaster is desired, one may always rent a 70's era movie starring Ernest Borgnine. Yet, when one desires to be provided the facts in an exciting, hard-hitting style, one would hope to have access to the format with which Mr. Reisner began. Had he maintained it, A Dangerous Place would merit 4 to 5 stars. ... Read more

Book Description

Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. Far less well-known is a much greater catastrophe that took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: 90 percent of life was destroyed, including saber-toothed reptiles and their rhinoceros-sized prey on land, as well as vast numbers of fish and other species in the sea.

This book documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction but also the recent rekindling of the idea of catastrophism. Was the end-Permian event caused by the impact of a huge meteorite or comet, or by prolonged volcanic eruption in Siberia? The evidence has been accumulating through the 1990s and into the new millennium, and Michael Benton gives his verdict at the very end.

From field camps in Greenland and Russia to the laboratory bench, When Life Nearly Died involves geologists, paleontologists, environmental modelers, geochemists, astronomers, and experts on biodiversity and conservation. Their working methods are vividly described and explained, and the current disputes are revealed. The implications of our understanding of crises in the past for the current biodiversity crisis are also presented in detail. 46 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A fabulous flatulence!
The public is being subjected to a litany of accounts of how life can, and has been, eliminated en masse. After learning ice ages may have swept away numerous creatures, we discovered dinosaurs may have been wiped out by the Big Rock. While trying to comprehend the amount of life an asteroid can dispose of, Michael Benton demonstrates the numbers pale in comparison to what a Big Burp can achieve. Combining his own field work with the research from numerous others, Benton skilfully builds a scenario of real mass destruction. His fine prose style keeps this book a compelling read throughout.

Sharply criticising Darwin's contemporaries and successors for clinging too resolutely to the notion that Nature's forces merely creep along, Benton notes the persistence of one theme. The "uniformitarians", he says, blinded scholars to the evidence - evidence that suggested life could end suddenly. Charles Lyell, one of Charles Darwin's inspirations, argued that what is seen today typifies the entire, and lengthy, history of our world. Slow, gradual change on today's surface is but the most recent example of the panorama of millions of years. Sudden change, "catastrophism", promoted by Baron Cuvier in France, was false. In life, Darwin's evolution by natural selection reflected the gradualist theme.

Benton dismisses Lyell and his adherents as overcommitted to gradualism. He contends they shut their eyes to contrary evidence. He admits the data was less than readily apparent, but argues some questions should have been raised long before now. New research, sometimes in places already once observed, finally brought reassessment. The Ural Mountains in Russia offered the first clues. Roderick Murchison toured there in the 1840s, naming the "Permian System" of rocks. Wars and revolutions interrupted the surveys and geologists and paleontologists peered at new ground. The Great Karoo of South Africa, China and other sites provided new information. A gradually emerging picture revealed a massive die-off 251 million years ago. What had happened?

After a long introduction of chapters recounting the researchers and their findings around the planet, Benton dismisses the notion of a bolide impact. This idea, fostered by the discovery that the Dinosaur Era had likely been concluded by the impact of a 10 kilometre asteroid, wasn't matched by the evidence. While the Permian Extinction may have been accompanied by darkened skies and deluges of rain, the real killer was something else. The dinosaur extinction wasn't typified by massive intrusions of poisonous gases, but the Permian was another matter. Benton surmises that 251 million years ago a series of volcanic fissures spewed immense waves of lava over the land near the North Pole. This area, now known as Siberia, is still covered by the remnants of the outburst. With the lava came noxious gas, mostly carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. These "greenhouse" gases warmed the seas, releasing life-killing methane. The catastrophe may have killed off up to 96% of all living things.

This is not simply an arcane analysis of events in the ancient past. It's a book that should gain a wide readership, since the events of all those millions of years ago have implications for today. Benton notes the sediments at the bottom of our seas contain a build-up of methane equalling or exceeding that of the Permian. Today's human-spurred global warming may be leading to the same scenario. Extinction, Benton reminds us, isn't limited to dinosaurs or other ancient life. It is clear that we must learn how these mechanisms work to make rational decisions about our dealings with the biosphere. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A great long overdue book on the Permian mass extinction
Distinguished vertebrate paleontologist Michael J. Benton's latest book, "When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction Of All Time", is a long overdue popular account of the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, the end Permian extinction of approximately 251 million years ago. Other customers have complained that this book only devotes less than a quarter of its text to the Permian extinction. However, Benton does an elegant job describing the rise of a uniformitarian view of geology in the 19th Century (One major omission is not citing Scottish geologist James Hutton, who can be regarded correctly as Charles Lyell's intellectual precursor with respect to uniformitarianism.) which was eloquent expressed and defended by Charles Lyell in "Principles of Geology", his influential text on geology which helped shaped the careers of other distinguished scientists, most notably Cha