Book Description

From the doomed campaigns of Roman legions and Napoleon to the fate of U.S. forces in the South Pacific and Vietnam, torrential rain, brutal winters, monster typhoons, and killer hurricanes have had far-reaching-and often terrifying-consequences. As Erik Durschmied vividly describes in dramatic vignettes, the elements have decided human history as often as the spear, bullet, or atomic bomb. Drawing upon extensive research, as well as the author's own experiences in Vietnam, THE WEATHER FACTOR gives a fascinating account of the inevitable collision between weather fronts and human conflict. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Want the truth about this book?
Erik Durschmied's The Weather Factor: How Nature Has Changed History documents the influence of weather through history.From the storm that devoured Varus' legions in AD 9 to the monsoons of Vietnam in '65, Durschmied chronologically outlines the inescapable impact of the elements through a primarily military-driven theme.
While a well-meant endeavor to capture the essence of the historical ramifications of weather, Durschmied fails to appeal adequately to either the historian or meteorologist. He tritely draws from the ignored lessons of Napoleon that fostered Hitler's failure during Barbarossa. A historian knows already of both Napoleon and Hitler's defeat within the context of the harsh Russian winter and is afforded little new historical insight. The weather-savvy reader gleans no novel data or understanding either. Essentially, Durschmied treads on hackneyed ground only to see his footprints lost in a muddled field of bathos.
In the midst of a developing martial theme, the sudden interjection of Ireland's potato blight of the 1840's solidifies the strain of disorganization featured in this book. While the societal and economic ramifications of the climatologic fluctuation promoting the blight were felt internationally, this chapter adds an element of disruption and confuses the theme-driven reader. However, larger problems plague the organization of Durschmied's work. While a sound chronological method is applied, Durschmied interjects several terse chapters that fail to do justice to the most important events of the modern military age. D-Day, the largest military campaign launched by man, is afforded a mere two pages. Only a page and a half are reserved for weather's impact on the target selection in 1945 that launched the Nuclear Age in Hiroshima. Durschmied seems to communicate his inability or lack of desire to either research the events or make substantial claims from these scenarios. Rather he allows his work to be lost in oftentimes laborious narratives about seemingly inconsequential events when compared to the scale and impact of Hiroshima and Normandy.
In his apocalyptic conclusion, Durschmied leaves the reader dissatisfied and confused. After writing of the potential power of anthropogenic forcing in the atmosphere, granting humanity a fuller, more hydrated life, Durschmied waves his goodbye with one lone, unfounded, unexplained paragraph:
Weather fronts are still as unpredictable as they were during the days of Noah. We must learn to live in harmony with nature. It would be folly for man to try to master the elements; there are simply too many imponderables.
There is only one certainty:
Man has managed to harness almost everything.
But God still controls the elements.

In a failing attempt to provide some conclusive form to his already laboriously disorganized read, Durschmied flails with illogic and inconsistency.
The Weather Factor lacks entertaining passages but for the chapter documenting Admiral Halsey's typhoon-battered fleet. Fairly blending a historical narrative with meteorological data, Durschmied provides a glimpse in this chapter of what this book should have been. Yet this lone oasis is not enough to redeem an overall dissatisfying trounce in the world of weather and history.
Read it? Nah.

Everybody talks about it ,but......
This book has received mixed reviews;therefore my expectations were not high when I started it.The first couple of events didn't excite me too much,but then they happened so long ago and I am not too familiar with those times. The more I got into the book ,the better I found it.The author gives very good summaries of events that in most cases were very complicated.This is not simple,but coming from a background of a journalist he does an excellent job.I find most history writing is too detailed even to the point of being an exercise in drudgery.The author is crisp and only drags out the story enough to set the scene.Then he goes into a good description of the weather condition and how it impacted the event.He shows in these events that the weather conditions had much more impact on the outcome of the event than the skills or the weapons of the forces involved.
I have read extensively about The Great Potato Famine and was impressed how well he covered this massive event which was very complicated,extended over several years,and did it in only 18 pages.In addition ,he really brought out the effect the weather had;a factor that is not usually as well emphasized.
A book of these shortened historys also reminded me of somewhat "corresponding"(in want of a better word) events.For instance I had never given it much thought that The Red Army launched it's defense of Moscow on Dec 6,1941 the day before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.Another thing was that at the same time that Napoleon was trying to take Moscow the British and the Americans were fighting the War of 1812 in North America.

The book has many other little gems:
The Potato Famine in Ireland may have had it's roots in the American Potato Blight of 1844.However;this may be of some question as I believe the blight also occurred in several other european countries.The effect elsewhere was nowhere as disasterous as the other food supplies were not shipped out of those countries by the landowners as happened in Ireland.
Two other cities ,Kokura and Niigata were ahead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as targets;but were by-passed because of weather conditions.
The author also tries to make one think of how future events,particularly wars will be influenced by weather.
Finally he reminds us that...
"Man has managed to harnass almost everything.
But God still controls the elements."
By the way there is an excellent Bibliography and Index at the end of the book.
Durschmied also mentions that he's working on a new book "The Snow Owl"--I'm looking forward to it.

No comparison to The Hinge Factor
I very much enjoyed reading "The Hinge Factor" and so I bought this book hoping to find more similar reading material. Chapter 1 raised my doubts and after finishing Chapter 2 I was really disappointed by this book. The episodes are really lenghty and somewhat hard to read/follow - the book is not well written. The most disappointing fact, however, is that this book has not very much to do with military history but focuses almost entirely on political history. The influence of the weather, as the title of the book suggests, seems almost constructed and bears almost no meaning to the events described.

Interesting take on weather and military history
My local library had this book filed under 551, i.e., in the meteorology section, which I think is an error. This book is more of a military history focusing on how weather has influenced the outcome of battles and therefore of history. The science of weather plays a small part.

That being said, it's an interesting read. It's divided into chapters, each devoted to a specific incident. Some are reasonably well-known, such as the battle at Teutoburger Wald that cost Rome three legions (included here due to a thunderstorm that bogged down the Romans and led the Germanic "barbarians" to think that their gods were on their side), the typhoon that destroyed Kublai Khan's fleet heading to invade Japan, and Napoleon's disastrous march on Russia that was devastated by the legendary Russian winter. Others were (to me, at least) more obscure: the thunderstorm that scattered the mobs in Paris and thereby cost Robespierre his supporters, the weather during the Battle of the Bulge that first protected the Germans from air attack and then cleared to leave them vulnerable to the Allies' unchallenged fighters and bombers, and the typhoon that devastated the American Pacific fleet in World War II.

The one non-battle chapter focuses on the Irish potato famine, which was facilitated by a cool, rainy summer that allowed the potato-killing fungus to flourish.

The penultimate chapter, about fighting in the Mekong delta during the Vietnam War, provides a change since it's written in the first person. The author, a war correspondent, was actually there, and gives a personal view of what it's like to fight natives in the muggy misery of a tropical jungle.

The final chapter addresses the possibility of manipulating the weather in the future to provide better prospects for one's own forces or worse prospects for the enemies'. This has apparently already been tried, with American forces trying to get it to rain on the Ho Chi Minh trail in order to bog down Viet Cong supplies.

The book is readable enough, though with one strange quirk: footnotes that provide additional information rather than references. These quickly become distracting, and I think some should have just been incorporated into the regular text while the rest should either have been eliminated or moved to the back. It's a strange affectation and not at all helpful.

So, overall it's an interesting book even if not what I expected.

Not exactly what it purports to be
First the positive: "The Weather Factor" is a readable book that tells some good stories.Now the negative: it is also not terribly insightful for anyone who knows a lot about history.If you already know the story of events such as the Irish potato famine, the retreats of Napoleon and Hitler in the face of the Russian winter, or of the massive Pacific storm that savaged Admiral Bull Halsey's fleet in December 1944, then you aren't going to learn anything new.For a book allegedly about the weather, Durschimed spends so much time giving general background information that the weather itself gets the short shrift in his narratives.He could just as easily have called the book a collection of random historical essays, which is essentially what it is.

The two most bizzare chapters come at the end.One tells of his own personal experience as a war corrrespondant in the Mekon Delta, like the revelation that jungle conditions hampered American war efforts in Vietnam is a something new.The other is his essay on possible future attempts to use weather control devices as military weapons.This is an intriguing notion, but anyone who knows anything about science will realize that the technology for such a possibility will never be had, if at all, by 2025, which is the random date picked by the author for the title of the chapter.

Overall, "The Weather Factor" is not a bad book, but people with a real interest in weather as well as history buffs will likely be disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description

A work of dynamic history that depicts in fascinating detail the cataclysm that was the Great Fire of London and the modern European capital that rose from its ashes.

By Permission of Heaven is a thrilling account of the Great Fire of London that makes terrific use of a vast array of first-person accounts and forensic investigation. The result is an impeccable achievement in historical storytelling that calls to mind equal parts Patricia Cornwell, Sebastian Junger, and Iain Pears.

By Permission of Heaven follows the conflagration from its beginnings in a Pudding Lane baker's kitchen in 1666 through the extreme devastation it wreaked. Adrian Tinniswood recounts the horror and wonder that gripped the city as the flames spread, destroying 13,200 homes, ninety-three churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and every administrative building in the capital. While looting, savage violence, panic, and chaos reigned within the city and war raged without, hundreds of thousands buried their most precious possessions and fled, never again to see the Lon-don they knew.

Finely depicted here are the towering figures of Restoration England, such as Charles II, Samuel Pepys, and Christopher Wren, who played critical roles in the fire and its aftermath. Tinnis-wood also brings to life the schoolchildren, servants, clerks, and courtiers of the day as they watched the streets run with fire and the greatest city in Britain disappear before their eyes. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Should have been much better
It's hard to take a fascinating historical subject like this and make it boring, but that's exactly what Tinniswood does with this book. He does a very, very poor job of setting the scene and introducing characters -- if you don't already know a lot about 17th century life and the geography of London, you'll likely find yourself lost. His extremely dry writing style doesn't help matters, either.

The book also suffers from a lack of depth -- it's fact after fact with almost no attempt made at interpretation. And the lack of detail when compared to other books about historical fires (such as Von Drehle's "Triangle") is disappointing. Still, Tinniswood clearly has a very good knowledge of this interesting subject, and that's what keeps me from giving this book 1 star.

Resurgam
This book is a fascinating mix of disaster epic, social history, biography, and just plain good storytelling. I highly recommend it.

Adrian Tinniswood, the author of a biography of Christopher Wren and a history of architecture (among other titles), brings us to the intersection of those two topics, the massive fire that swept through the City of London in early September, 1666. For me, as I'd suspect for many readers, about the only thing I knew about the Great Fire of London was that it allowed Christopher Wren to demonstrate his genius in rebuilding the city's churches. In fact, the story is quite a lot larger than that.

Tinniswood's recounting of the fire itself is a narrative worth the price of the book. But what really makes this memorable history is the way the author places the fire in a larger social context of municipal politics, religious bigotry, the fear of war and reprisal, and much more.

What I found more fascinating even than the fire, however, was the author's description of the rebuilding of London and what it demonstrates about the English. In other nations and other times, politicians would not have hesitated to use the Fire as an excuse for a massive "visionary" building of a glorious new capital. But in London, any such plans foundered on the rocks of economic and property rights. The government simply refused to trample propertyholders' legitimate claims -- and the landowners and tenants themselves refused to be driven off their land merely to accommodate the social engineers' dreams of a newer, greater London.

Similarly, "A nationwide tax [to pay for rebuilding the City] would have been turned down flat by Parliament -- why should the rest of the country be made to suffer for London's losses?" [p. 225]. Parliamentary and City leaders even hamstrung the power of the powerful Companies to limit entry to their trades in order to keep reconstruction costs down ... sort of the seventeenth-century equivalent of Right to Work laws.

On the whole, there is a lot going on in this story. But Adrian Tinniswood ties it all together extremely well. Even for readers whose interests may not lie in the history of the Restoration era, this is an interesting tale that's both educational and inspirational. And that's not a bad way to spend your reading time.

Wow, an exciting book.
Wow, an exciting book. Adrian Tinniswood has an undergraduate degree in history and a master's in literature and is a respected journalist. From the extensive bibliography for By Permission of Heaven, one can see that his training in historical research has enabled him to dig a first rate story out of historical archives, while his training in literature produced a riveting tale. The True Story of the Great Fire of London reads like a novel. Tinniswood's effective mining of his sources has paid dividends in the creation of historical characters at least as engaging as those of fictional works, and these individuals are set in the dramatic setting of the fire and its aftermath. The author chronicles the birth and progress of the fire, its amazing destructiveness with little fatality, and its effects on later London and English society. Adding excitement to the story is the fact that, unlike the Chicago fire which was almost as devistating, the London event was set in the midst of war with another country and the very real fear of invasion.

At the end of the book I felt like there should be more story to read and began to cast about for biographies and other historical works on 17th Century England. What more can one ask from a good book?

FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS IN HISTORY, ANTHROPOLOGY, OR SOCIOLOGY: One might write a comparison of the Chicago fire and the London fire using the author as a resource. How were they different? What types of political factors in both made the situation better or worse for either? What kinds of social factors entered into these situations if any? Why were there so few fatalities during the London fire? How did things change for the working class after the fire? Why? Could either fire have been prevented? Why were these cities particularly vulnerable? Were they more vulnerable than other cities of the time or just unlucky? Could Per Bak (How Nature Works: The Science of Self Organized Criticality) or similar authors on the subject of criticality have predicted these events? What would they say about them? Are cities still as vulnerable to fire today despite our better preventive and fire fighting measures? Under what circumstances might such a fire occur today? Would there be more or fewer fatalities? Are third world countries prone to this type of event even today? Why or why not? ... Read more

Book Description

Now in its third edition, North Carolina's Hurricane History is a popular illustrated history of the more than fifty great storms that have battered the Tar Heel state from the days of the first European explorers through 1999's devastating hurricane Floyd, which caused $6 billion in damages. Jay Barnes examined newspaper reports, National Weather Service records, and eyewitness descriptions to compile this extraordinary chronicle, which also features nearly 300 photographs, maps, and illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Feet of Destruction
A very exciting and enjoyable book!! Not many books chronicling such subjects as the immense power and effects of nature, so well balance facts relative to and its influence on us. A detailed view high up through the eyes of mother nature provides account of the lethal choreography of her daughters most dangerous dance as she makes entrance to the stage by way of North Carolina.

Rich Reference on the Tarheel State's Hurricanes

The author, an aquarium director in coastal North Carolina, does a remarkable job (especially for a non-meteorologist) of documenting the impact of every hurricane which affected North Carolina since 1875. Each storm -- including some hurricanes that made landfall elsewhere but passed across the state -- gets its own narrative which variews in length according to the storm's impact. Fran (1996), the costliest and fifth deadliest hurricane in state history, gets big coverage with 32 pages. The chronological stories of each storm are spread across several chapters covering most of the book, which are in turn sandwiched between a general introduction to hurricanes and a chapter on Nor'easters. The final few chapters -- on Nor'easters (cold core winter cyclones), hurricane effects on fauna, potential for future danger, and hurricane safety -- appear roughly cobbled together as if there were no logical order for them. Still, the collection of stories of animals' life and death in North Carolina hurricanes is quite interesting, and unique among books dealing with the impact of weather phenomena.

For a historical volume, the writing style is engaging, vividly descriptive and occasionally humorous. Nowhere else in weather related literature have I read about local speech patterns ("Hoigh toide on the sound soide") together with graphic descriptions of mayhem's aftermath, like "...battered caskets and bones lay scattered, unearthed by the hurricane's menacing storm surge."

Some of the stories of human survival, heroism and death in hurricanes are more bizarre and ghastly than fiction could conjure. These tales, together with an accurate factual record of the storms and a rich collection of black and white photos, show the tremendous effort and attention to detail by Barnes in his historical research.

The book does suffer aesthetically from its drab printing, with only cover color, by UNC Press. Such obvious parsimony, unfortunately, exemplifies the policies of many university-affiliated presses. But since substance trumps form; I deem this to be a fine non-technical addition to the literature of any hurricane enthusiast.

STORMS APLENTY!
Once again Jay Barnes has outdone himself with a very informative and educational book about the destruction and aftermath that Hurricanes cause to the east coast of the United States.Being a resident of North Carolina for the forty seven years of my life I can relate to his book with personal conviction and enthusiasm.I have experienced numerous hurricanes on my own from up close and from afar and Jay has captured these moments and others with remarkable exactness!This is a must read book for anyone interested in the unbelievable effects of Mother Nature at her best being for personal information or educational purposes! It is obvious Mr. Barnes has done his homework throughly and I anxiously await further editions and updates of future endeaveors that Jay Barnes has to offer!

A Great Book on Hurricanes
We have read Jay Barnes' Florida's Hurricane History and enjoyed it so much that we wanted to read the NC book. We found the newest edition that includes Floyd in 1999. What a disaster! The book reads very well, and is full of interesting facts and amazing stories about Floyd and other storms. The photos are incredible (one of the things I liked about the Fla. book). I also like the charts in the back that list data for each storm. Weather buffs need both of these books.

A useful reference book for NC hurricanes
Having owned the book for a year, I've gotten a good chance to review the book. It is full of useful hurricane information for the state of North Carolina, but omits a couple of powerful, well-known storms that affected the state in the past which are included in his Florida Hurricane History (an oversight?). Although it is not complete, it is a good non-technical reference for those who wish to see how hurricanes impact the Tar Heel State. Even for meteorologists, it gives a good overview of hurricane activity. It is a book worth owning. ... Read more

Book Description

One of America's leading fire scholars tracks down more of the history and lore of fire in a collection that focuses on wildland fire and its management.This new collection features thirty-two original articles and substantial revisions of previous pieces to address many issues that have sparked public concern in the wake of disastrous wildfires in the West, such as fire ecology, federal fire management, and questions relating to fire suppression. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

useful to those who think AND do
This is a good collection of essays on the world of wildland fire, from history to philosophy to grubbing in the dirt. It is not for those who are not already part of wildland fire; you have to DO it to get it, I guess. If you get it, the essays on prescribed fire are thoughtful criticisms of the status quo, and are strong calls for those of us who use prescribed fire to stop taking it for granted before we lose it. Those essays are highly recommended for all thinking firefighters and fire managers.

Chasing not smoke but meaning
This may be the most confusing book I've ever read. It isn't that
there isn't useful information in it, it's just it's scattered, repetitious, and intermixed with large blocks of what I assume Mr. Pyne thinks is relevant philosophy. You'll find yourself skipping over a great many paragraphs of this last.

The other major failing it that, while the author devotes a great deal of (scattered) space to his criticisms of existing wildfire control practices, he never makes clear what methodology he is in favor of.

Save your time and money and skip this one. I wish I had. ... Read more

Book Description

The most comprehensive account of the Great Blizzard of 1978 in New England, this book contains more than 130 dramatic photos from all across the region. Pictures range from the devastating flooding along the coast to the mountains of snow that paralyzed inland communities, including the 3,500 vehicles stranded on Route 128.

The record-setting storm's impact on the area is explored through first-hand accounts from survivors, relief workers and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, among others.

Painstakingly researched and profusely illustrated, this book will stir memories of those who lived through the storm and will educate those too young to remember it.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of "Storm of the Century" will be donated to the Fort Revere Park & Preservation Society, a non-profit organization that supports the Fort Revere historic site and military history museum overlooking Boston Harbor in Hull, Mass. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It Changed the Way We Lived Our LIves
Tragedies of national significance can remain etched in the human psyche for an entire lifetime. Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, the Challenger disaster, September 11, the Columbia disintegration, and even the front line footage of the war in Iraq act as memory triggers for those who experienced them through the newspaper, radio, television or internet, not to mention those men, women and children who had the misfortune of witnessing them in person.
Tragedies of a regional or local nature can have the same effect. The only major difference is the number of people who share the memories. While almost any of the nearly three hundred million Americans around on September 11 can today meet in any coffee shop, health club or on any street corner in the nation and share their experiences of "where they were when they heard," much smaller segments of society can trade stories of localized tales like famous fires or powerful storms.
New England has reluctantly hosted many such events, from the opening days of the American Revolution onward. And although the impact of the event has been lost since the last living witness passed on, one can almost imagine the feelings of insecurity that must have run through the streets of Boston as British regulars and Colonial troops fired upon each other in pitched battles in and around the city.
A coastal region like New England is impacted most severely by the forces of Mother Nature, strong winds, surging seas, and heavy snows. The great gales of the past grow less significant to modern memory as time passes, but events such as the Minot's Light Gale of April 16, 1851, the Portland Gale of 1898, the Hurricane of 1938, and Hurricane Carol of 1954, to name just a few examples, all tested the residents of New England to their limits, and stayed in the minds of their survivors long after the last gust of wind had dissipated.
When anyone over the age of thirty who has lived in southern New England for their entire life is asked about the most significant natural event he or she can remember, without a doubt the answer will involve memories of the Blizzard of 1978.
Christopher Haraden of Hull, Massachusetts, was just seven years old when the storm simply known to its survivors as "The Blizzard" struck New England. He remembers listening to radio stations rerunning summer weather reports at the height of the storm as a diversion to the mayhem outside his windows, helping his father in the town's emergency relief efforts, and wondering innocently why families at the relief center wouldn't just simply go home days after the storm had ended. He later learned just how many families had no homes to go home to.
Although his career path took him well away from local news as he grew up, after becoming the youngest person in the history of the state of Massachusetts to serve on a local historical commission and working as editor of the Hull Times, those memories lingered as he moved through life. After whetting his appetite by contributing to the production of a book on the history of his hometown, as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978 approached, he decided to combine his research, writing and interviewing skills and publish his first solo-authored book, Storm of the Century: New England's Great Blizzard of 1978.
"The Blizzard changed the way that people lived on the South Shore of Massachusetts," he said in a recent interview.
But Storm of the Century is not just about the South Shore. "It could have been. There's no doubt that an entire book could have been written specifically about the impact the Blizzard had on Hull and Scituate alone. In fact, the recovery story in Hull was one of the larger stories of the entire history of the storm. And so much more could be written about how it changed specific neighborhoods. My intention was to tell the story of the entire storm from beginning to end across the entire northeast region."
And although the title may seem cliche, as writers over the course of time have resorted to such superlatives all too frequently and easily in search of sales, Haraden deftly lays out his rationale for its use in a well-researched and presented opening chapter on the science of the storm, proving that the Blizzard dumped more snow on Boston than any other storm in recorded history. "We've had a lot of snow from some storms, and we've had a lot of flooding, but we've never had both come together like we did in February 1978," he said. Twenty-seven inches of snow and tides two and a half feet above normal combined to create New England's storm of the century, a meteorological disaster that claimed more than fifty lives before it was over.
Comparisons will inevitably arise, as well they should, to other storms. Historians may argue that the Portland Gale was more destructive and caused more hardship. Differences arise, though, that make comparisons difficult to rely on. Were people more apt to be affected by the cold during the Blizzard of 1978? In 1898, people along the New England coast were lucky to even have an electric light in their bedroom, never mind electric heat. Their heat came from wood and coal stoves, and due to the appalling number of ships that wrecked during the storm, driftwood and lost cargoes of coal washed ashore for months as renewable, free heat sources. Folks that lost their electric heat during the Blizzard faced the possibility of freezing to death. The argument could be made, therefore, that the Blizzard, because of New Englanders' increasing reliance on new technologies that failed during the storm, was for the region the most devastating storm in its entire history.
Thoroughly illustrated with photos gathered from the Army Corps of Engineers, various New England newspapers, the National Archives and private collections, Haraden's recounting of the storm vividly portrays Mother Nature at her worst and the people of New England at their best, as they pull together to survive one of the most destructive natural events in the region's history. The stories of the Blizzard of 1978 will fade from living memory as with the storms that came before. Haraden's book has caught its fury for all time. ... Read more

Book Description

Martin Brayne tells in vivid detail, using extensive primary research and documentation, the story of the Great Storm of 1703 in the British Isles. ... Read more

Book Description

Fue la tormenta del siglo, la tormenta perfecta.Con la tensión narrativa de la propia furia de los elementos, el autor nos lleva al corazón de la tormenta, nos deja en los labios un sabor a mar y nos transmite el desamparo que se siente cuando se está de verdad en peligro. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Facts over rhetoric
With Bush touring the West talking about logging as the solution to preventing ever larger forest fires, this book provides ample documentation that FIRE SUPRESSION and MONOCULTURE REPLANTING are the real causes of the current explosive environment.

I first saw this book at the top of Mt. Harkness. The fire watchman there pointed it out to me, as we both struggled to peer at Mt. Shasta through the smoky haze created by the Biscuit and Fremont fires.

The differences in the trees and ground cover between now and the last century is striking. Most of the photos taken in the late 1800's show trees devoid of branches below 20 feet, and very little ground cover. Photos of the same area taken recently show thickly limbed trees down to ground level, with dense underbrush. Without hundreds of little fires to regularly clear out the low limbs and undergrowth, the forests become dense tinderboxes. When a fire finally breaks through fire suppression, it kills the trees instead of burning their limbs.

Will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires
This unusual photographic interpretation of ecological changes brought about by forest fires in the Sierra Nevada since 1849 will provide a guide which should intrigue both California residents and any interested in forestry issues, park management or ecosystems. Chapters use historical photographs to document changes which have taken place over the past 150 years, from early settlements to modern times. Fire In Sierra Nevada Forests will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires and logging issues. ... Read more

Book Description

THE ECHOES OF OUR PAST

Twelve thousand years ago, the human race barely escaped annihilation when a piece of exploded star passed through our solar system, unleashing an apocalypse. Great fires raged, mountains rose and fell, a maelstrom of cosmic debris bombarded Earth, continents broke apart, and oceans swept across the land. Millions of people, animals, and plants perished almost overnight. Entire societies, cultures, and belief systems were lost forever. The resulting aftershock shaped humanity for thousands of years, and continues to haunt us to this day. This is not fiction. This is history.

THE TRUTHS OF THE PRESENT

Using authoritative source material and an understanding of mankind's aptitude for the transmission of factual knowledge through myth and legend, Joseph Christy-Vitale dramatically unveils a past unlike any proposed by either religion or science, viewing the global catastrophe as living history, since the traumatic effects of that terrible event affect us as a species even today.

THE PATHS OF THE FUTURE

Providing an insight into where our troubled view of the world originated, Watermark tells the true story of how humanity's brush with extinction still pervades our lives -- and offers the first step to recovering what we lost so long ago: a healthy, balanced view of the world. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Using brains for a change, instead of being an Ostrich
Anything that exposes where Science ignores evidence because they can't explain it is worth a read. Especially when that evidence proves their current theory is just a security blanket the crying baby is afraid to give up.
This is insightful and logical. In reality, it helps us start to understand why we're using such a small percent of our brain. Why would biology/evolution build such a structure and not use it? A caveman with a large brain makes zero sense. Watermark makes sense. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Fascinating History of the Sacramento Valley
If you've ever taken a guided factory tour, you know the difference between someone reciting memorized facts and someone who can call upon a deep reservoir of knowledge, accumulated over a lifetime, for information that will illuminate a particular subject. Mr. Kelley clearly belongs in the latter class. Reading his book, it is apparent that we are only scratching the surface of what this remarkable historian knows about the complex interplay of history, politics, personality and nature that conspired to produce the water system northern California has today.

The story of California water is fascinating, although perhaps only of real interest to Californians. Nevertheless, even if only for that audience, Mr. Kelley has written an entirely readable, yet simultaneously scholarly volume. Anyone interested in an introduction to the state of northern California's water situation should begin with this book.

In a general sense, however, this book is also about changing political and sociological trends in America beginning around 1850. The focus is on flooding in the Sacramento Valley, and its battles between gold miners and valley farmers, or between Republican engineers and Democratic populists, but parallels are probably found elsewhere in our country during the same period of history. I enjoyed this book tremendously.

Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain"
I am a big California rivers environmental history buff, and I found this book to be too similar to his publication "Gold v. Grain" which debuted over 40 years ago. This book is essentially an extension of "Gold v. Grain" that covers the 1960s-1980s. Much of the earlier chapters are virtually cut and pasted verbatim from his previous book. Despite these criticisms, it remains (to my knowledge) the most comprehensive book written about the Sacramento River to date. Until a better book on the Sac comes along, this is probably the one to read for factual information, and for more conceptual/abstract stimulation, I recommend "Organic Machine" by Richard White.

Comprehensive but compelling
For a native of the flood-prone Sacramento Valley, Battling The Inland Sea is the bible. Nowhere else is the history of a fitful battle against the annual floodwaters unleashed on the Sacramento Valley by the powerful Sierra Nevada watersheds captured so comprehensively. Kelley, however, informs us in a style that is relevant and entertaining. The valley resident treasures it for its history of the Big Fight. Political scientists enjoy it for its history and the lively way Kelley uses the fight over flooding in Northern California as a study in California and national politics. ... Read more

Book Description

The most powerful earthquake in human history struck on Dec.26, 2004, and set off a destructive chain of events nearly beyond comprehension.But even in the vortex of this unprecedented calamity, the human spirit not only endured but triumphed.Tsunami:Heroes, Hope, and Incredible Stories of Survival officially documents in unforgettable words and pictures the inspirational sotries of people surviving against impossible odds, heroic acts crossing all boundaries of gender, age and nationality, and a planet ignoring its artifical boundaries to come together. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A wonderful historic magazine
Unfortunately I've learned that the government of Indonesia is playing games with the relief money, much like North Korea and Iraq did, and very little of the relief money is getting to the people who need it. On the front page it states "This book supports asian disaster relief". Beyond the politics, I bought this magazine as a historical document.Generations from now I can tell the younger generation "I survived the Tsunami and all I got was this lousy magazine". Instead of sending monies over to these countries, The United States should have offered relief effort in terms of building a better infrastructure for the affected countries. It's a win-win situation. Out of work Americans could work, like they did Kuwait, tax free and the people who are suffering due to this horrific event, would get the relief they need. No more cash. It only gets abused. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Superb Focus on Culture Underlying Catastrophe

This is one of those books where the Amazon.com referal system worked for me. I would never have found it otherwise. It is a timely book, and it has direct relevance to the 9-11 catastrophe because everything this book talks about in terms of "cultures of catastrophe" (one could call them cultures of oblivion or cultures of inattention) resonates with the findings of the joint congressional panel on the many ways in which the CIA, FBI, and NSA failed America.

What most engaged me about this book, apart from its outstanding attention to the relationship between cultures of inattention or distraction and major catastrophic events (the book makes clear that catastrophe's don't have to happen--they make the jump from disasters when the over-all system of first responders and related parties fails to act quickly and correctly in harmony, precisely because of their past culture), is its focus on the total system, on every feature of society in relation to the environment.

The editors write: "One of the common sources of the policy-practice defect is its construction on culturally bound assumptions. In disaster contexts, aid often gets delivred in inappropriate forms and according to unsuited principles." The book excells at looking at the uneven record of disaster preparedness, and the lack of understanding to local contexts that often help turn disasters into catastrophes.

I recommend this book as a primary reference for national security practitioners as well as state & local responders. The ... billions now in the Homeland Security budget was not designed with this book's lessons in mind, and will in all likelihood do more damage than good when we are tested again.

The message of the book is so important it merits emphasis--no amount of money is going to prevent catastrophe--absent a commitment to creating a culture of attention and interoperability and information sharing, we will create our own catastrophes each time we are challenged by what could have been nothing more than a localized disaster. ... Read more

Book Description

The wildfires of the summer of 1910 scorched millions of acres in the western states, depositing soot as far away as Greenland. Through the experiences and words of rangers, soldiers, politicians, scientists, and the volunteers who fought the fires and were forever scarred by them, acclaimed historian and former forest fire fighter Stephen Pyne tells the story of that catastrophic year and its indelible legacy on the firefighting policies of today. Not only does Pyne explain how wildfires happen and how they are fought, he also chronicles the ongoing debate on the relative merits of firefighting versus "light burning." More than a memorable adventure tale, Year of the Fires is the story of a profound event that continues to shape American life.

"Year of the Fires is a pleasure to read." (The New York Review of Books)

"Powerful and absorbing." (Austin American-Statesman) ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Despite dense prose, still a good book.
Although some of the other reviewers disagree, Pyne has done a fantastic job of pulling together many diverse strands of primary materials to make a compelling narrative. Not only does Pyne tell the stories of individual firefighters on the line, but he interweaves larger political and environmental issues as well. Really, this is a model work as far as coordinating the "big picture" with the details. Readers of this work will learn about bureaucratic infighting in the early 1900's, competing forestry theories, the physics of how fires actually work, as well as slices of social history here and there. Pyne's greatest weakness in this book is that he tends to be too wordy and a bit too flamboyant with imagery. If you can overlook that and can see the big picture Pyne is painting, the book will draw you in.

Overly academic
I found this book through a newspaper review and eagerly bought it. I was very disappointed. It is overly academic, dull, poorly organized and excessively wordy. As a journalist, I understand the powers of brevity and clarity, but the author does not. Even the organization, by month, leaves a lot to be desired as the author still skips between months. The political background becomes so laborious that it is impossible to follow a chain of events or personalities. I would definitely skip reading this book, even though I forced my way through all of it, hoping that it would get better. It did not.

Heavy Plowing
This book could be some much more readable with, perhaps, an editor and another draft. The author has to juggle a lot of details - historical, political, social, biographical and statistical - but does so in an ungraceful confusing manner. The writing at times is distractingly florid. I compare this to Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas that handles a wealth of period detail with grace and a simplicity and directness of language that sweeps you along. I was very disappointed given the natural drama of the story.

Quite an interesting read
In 1910, the newly formed Forest Service faced its greatest threat, a series of large fires burning in Idaho's panhandle. Mobilizing all its resources, and even calling on the Army for help, the Service began to fight the fires. However, things went from bad to very much worse when a sudden wind-storm (producing no rain) fanned the fires into a firestorm! An unknown number of people died, and many acres of private and national forest burned. In this story, there are heroes and cowards, self-promoters and self-sacrificers.

Professor Pyne does an excellent job of explaining first the history of the Forest Service and forest-fire fighting, and then covers the actual events of the firestorm in a manner that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Finally, the aftereffects are covered in an in-depth manner. This book is quite interesting, bringing the story of that tragic year right into my life. I really enjoyed reading this book, and think that you will, too. ... Read more

Book Description

The deadliest hurricane in Florida history is the subject of this book by historian Mykle. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The Story of a Nightmare Come True
Every adult who lives within 50 miles of the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the United States should read Killer Cane. Hurricanes are deadly, but quiet hurricane seasons in the past decade have given coastal residents a sense that hurricanes won't hit them. But they will. I survived two hurricanes, and they were pure horror. They were Category One hurricanes, the weakest kind, but they tore off roofs and smashed property like gigantic maniacs.

Robert Mykle's fine book describes a Category Four hurricane that came ashore near Palm Beach in 1928. A Category One hurricane causes some damage, while a Category Five causes complete destruction, so you can imagine the strength of a Category Four. But destruction didn't stop at the coast. The hurricane moved inland to rip into the farming communities at the south end of Lake Okeechobee, 40-50 miles inland from Palm Beach. Winds of 150 miles-per-hour and more than 12 inches of rain destroyed almost everything in its path, and killed some 2000 people. The real cost of this disaster is the effect on its victims, and Mykle introduces us to many of the doomed families as they go about their business, not knowing that the day after tomorrow will be their last on earth. We come to care about them. We mourn those killed and feel the suffering of survivors in the aftermath. This is a great strength of the book, and Robert Mykle has done a terific job of presenting a harrowing story in human terms. It is well worth reading.

Tells the story from the human perspective
In the early period of the last century three great hurricanes devastated Florida. Miami was hit in 1926, The everglades in 28, and the keys in 35. The Miami storm is known for finishing the land boom and the keys storm is famous for being the most powerful hurricane ever and killing WWI veterans on work detail. Mykle's book examines the least well known of the three, the storm of 1928. The everglades storm actually killed the most people by far, but is less well remembered because most of its victims were poor and black. But the hurricane makes for a fascinating story in any case. Mykle tells it through the lives of several everglades families who experienced the calamity, often suffering considerable loss. He covers the disaster from several angles, and so there is something in this book for everyone.

My one fault with this book is that the author focuses a little too much on the individuals and not enough on other features of the catastrophe. We hear little, for instance, about what the hurricane did to Puerto Rico. But this should not dissuade anyone from buying the book on the killer Cane of 28.

Forgotten tragedy
I grew up in this area during the forties and fifties.I attended high school with many decedants of the victims and survivers of this disaster.The book seems to be quiet accurate and hits the nail on the head .It amazes me that it has to be the best kept secret of all diasters.I live in the neighboring state of Georgia,and when I ask people in this area about the storm no one has a clue.At the time it was the third worst disaster to have occured ,in terms of lives lost. What a shame.

A Decent Storm Story
There has been quite a glut lately of weather-related disaster books, and the quality of these books has varied widely. "Killer 'Cane," though a bit rough in places, is one of the better efforts in the genre. The book tells the story of the 1928 hurricane that devastated the Florida Everglades, killing perhaps as many as 3000 people when the Lake Okeechobee Dike gave away. Author Robert Mykle sets up his story well, providing a generous helping of historical background and meterological facts.

Mykle spends much of the first half of the book describing everyday life in the Everglades in the early 20th Century. He particularly focuses his attention on several families who had settled there hoping to scratch a decent living out of the "mucklands," as drained Everglades swamps were called. Mykle the shows how poor forecasting, inept politicians and ignorance of the landscape combined with sheer bad luck to cause a tragedy that could have been greatly diminished if the victims had been given adequate time to evacuate the lowlands.

Mykle is a decent storyteller, but the book does have a couple of drawbacks. Mykle largely ignores that great devastation that the 1928 storm wrought upon numerous islands in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, giving these other disasters only a cursory mention. He also has a tendency to repeat himself in the text and portions of the book are very poorly edited.

Overall, a readable an interesting book for those who love a goodweather-related disaster tale.

satisfying detail, fresh writing
"Killer 'Cane" is an excellent book, written in a fresh and exacting style, with the details that make it come alive. Like the other great books of the disaster genre, like Walter Lord's "Titanic" and the Jim Bishop books about presidential assassinations, "Killer 'Cane" takes the reader right into the scene: Belle Glade, Florida Everglades, 1928, when a monstrous hurricane swept in without warning.

Mykle gives us a large cast of real-life people, and fills us in on their stories, on what had brought them to the area, on their aspirations for a future which for many, never came. It's a slight bit confusing as he jumps around to scenes from the past, juxtapositioning them with the current life of the area and its characters. That said, it's satisfying to piece it all together. As an absorbing movie does, this book engages us with the characters and causes us at times to hold our breath as we await the outcome of their fates. Mykle writes well, using a wide vocabulary and an authentic descriptive style to present not only the people, but the land, and then the storm, as well. This book will keep you riveted until you finish it. Kudoes to Mykle, and the highest recommendation for his work. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

outstanding
With this book you can understand all the amazing and sometimes complicated things about the chemistry and fisics of fire. It's an excellent book for students of all ages, and even for teachers. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Could have been a good book
The information in this book could have been excellent if it were not shadowed by the terrible grammar. I was unable to finish reading the book because of the errors. I find it a shame that this book is for sale and that some of the readers may assume the misuse of the English language is an acceptable way to write. I am an average person and I would have paid someone to proofread my book if I were to have it published, as I too make grammatical errors. With some more work this would be an excellent account of Storm King Mountain.

On Stormking Mountain..The Legacy..The Lesson
I have read this book. Two people giving their personal accounts of what happened while they were there on vacation. The strike on the cover lets you know the intent of such lightening storms. Their book gives an insight to the before and the after of the town of Glenwood Springs. And the mountain being a part of it, makes me want to go and visit the memorial site and climb the mountain. Then come back and soak in the Hot Springs. They give an account of what happened once the storm came in and what prevailed the next few days made me see life in a different view.

Don't expect John McLean
This is without a doubt the poorest excuse for writing I have ever wasted my precious spare time reading. Useless for academic purposes, senseless as a story and definitely not journalistic in any way. Do not waste your money.

A Lesson on how NOT to write a book
Its a shame that one star is the lowest rating we can give. This book doesnt even deserve that. I had to stop reading the book due to its MANY grammatical errors. This is an English teachers WORST NIGHTMARE. It might have been a good book with the help of an editor. I recommend "Fire On The Mountain", by John M. Maclean, INSTEAD of this book.

The Story
(...)These two people I have met while I was in Glenwood last year and they are just down to earth people, who was there for the first lightening strike and they are just telling a story. They know a few of the fellow firefighters who were in the fire, and they know deep inside that these people are honest and caring and loving people. This is just a story to tell what went on from the beginning to the end. Correct some of the grammar is incorrect and etc. But if you just read the story with warmth and compassion, then you will understand the sadness that came about on that mountain... The Indians knew the land as of being Sacred. So should all who have been on the mountain since. Climb the mountain, feel the sadness, and the love left behind. ... Read more

Book Description

Imagine standing at the center of a Roman coliseum that is 20 miles across, with walls that soar 10 miles into the sky, towering walls with cascades of ice crystals falling along its brilliantly white surface. That's what it's like to stand in the eye of a hurricane.In Divine Wind, Kerry Emanuel, one of the world's leading authorities on hurricanes, gives us an engaging account of these awe-inspiring meteorological events, revealing how hurricanes and typhoons have literally altered human history, thwarting military incursions and changing the course of explorations. Offering an account of the physics of the tropical atmosphere, the author explains how such benign climates give rise to the most powerful storms in the world and tells what modern science has learned about them. Interwoven with this scientific account are descriptions of some of the most important hurricanes in history and relevant works of art and literature. For instance, he describes the 17th century hurricane that likely inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest and that led to the British colonization of Bermuda. We also read about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, by far the worst natural calamity in U.S. history, with a death toll between 8,000 and 12,000 that exceeded the San Francisco earthquake, the Johnstown Flood, and the Okeechobee Hurricane combined.Boasting more than one hundred color illustrations, from ultra-modern Doppler imagery to classic paintings by Winslow Homer, Divine Wind captures the profound effects that hurricanes have had on humanity. Its fascinating blend of history, science, and art will appeal to weather junkies, science buffs, and everyone who read Isaac's Storm. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When nature kills on a grand scale, it does so indiscriminately: a murderer may be spared and an orphanage destroyed. So it was with the May 8, 1902, eruption of Mount Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique, author Alwyn Scarth shows in La Catastrophe, his study of the event. The explosion, more specifically, its aftermath--a 300 mph burst of superheated gas as well as roiling mudflows and tsunamis--killed more than 28,000 people, sank a dozen seaborne ships, and reduced the city of Saint-Pierre to rubble. Scarth, after briefly delineating the island's geology and history, methodically describes the increasingly fraught days before the event and, with gruesome precision, the event itself. Most welcome are his many sidebars, including firsthand accounts by survivors, newspaper stories, and lists of widespread rumors (and their dispelling). As well, the book is amply and instructively illustrated. The prose is powerful and understated, and the book somberly thrilling and perceptive. Nor does it avoid ghastly ironies. A few months after the eruption, Scarth observes, "the ruins of Saint-Pierre suffered the supreme indignity of becoming an attraction for boatloads of tourists." --H. O'Billovich ... Read more

Reviews (3)

VIVID DETAILS
Loved this book, could not put it down, felt like I was there. I want to keep reading .

A huge cloud of red-hot ash and gas shot down the mountain
The volcano Mount Pelée, on the Caribbean island of Martinique did not behave according to scientific expectations. Almost 27,000 people died on the morning of May 8, 1902 because, according to this book's author, no one had ever heard of a nuée ardente (pyroclastic flow) until after the destruction of Saint-Pierre.

Instead of a relatively sluggish stream of lava, a heavy ash-fall, or the earthquake plus tsunami that many were expecting (including the scientific commission appointed by the island's governor), Mount Pelée exploded in a huge lateral blast of gas, dust, and rock. The superheated cloud raced down the side of the volcano with the speed of a hurricane-force wind and headed directly for the port of Saint-Pierre about five miles away.

At 8:02 A.M., May 8, 1902 a businessman in Fort-de-France (an hour's boat trip down the coast of Martinique) was talking on the telephone with a friend in Saint-Pierre. The businessman relates that his friend "...had just finished his sentence, when I heard a dreadful scream, then another much weaker groan, like a stifled death rattle."

Then there was silence. Nearly 27,000 people lay dead or dying at the other end of that telephone line, crushed by falling masonry, asphyxiated by the scalding breath of the nuée ardente, or incinerated in the resulting inferno. There were only two survivors in the city itself: a shoemaker; and a prisoner in a solitary confinement cell who happened to be sheltered in the lee of a hill at the edge of the city.

Alwyn Scarth, former Professor of Geography at the University of Dundee begins "La Catastrophe" with the founding of Saint-Pierre in 1635, and the slaughter of the indigenous Carib population. Unfortunately, the French settlers never paused to question the original inhabitants' choice of name for the mountain that loomed on their northern horizon. 'Mountain of Fire' was renamed 'Bald Mountain,' and the colonists moved on to develop an economy built on slaves, sugarcane and rum without questioning the lack of vegetation on Mount Pelée's summit.

Minor eruptions occurred in 1792 and 1851, causing occasional curious picnickers to struggle up the volcano's slope for a view of the new sulphur vents (soufrières) and hot springs.

Memories of those harmless volcanic sputterings contributed to a false sense of security among residents of Saint-Pierre when Mount Pelée began hurling columns of ash into the air and steaming torrents of mud down her slopes in the spring of 1902.

When "La Catastrophe" appeared in 2002, along with other, similarly-themed books that were hastened onto the shelves (and the remainder tables) during the centennial year of Saint-Pierre's destruction, its author separated himself from the pack by blaming the non-evacuation of the city on her residents' false sense of security, and on their ignorance of pyroclastic flows. He thoroughly debunks the myth presented by some of his fellow-authors, that the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre were forced to stay in town because of a pending election.

Professor Scarth has produced a meticulously-researched account of the "worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century." It is my favorite among the centennial publications, although I found his exposition of the history and sociology of Martinique to be a bit dry.

Here are some of the other myths he discredits while telling the story of this catastrophe:

• Saint-Pierre was never called 'the Paris of the West Indies'--at least not before the 1902 eruption.

• There were more than two survivors. Over a hundred people may have escaped alive from the August 8th nuée ardente, although only two from the city proper. Many of the survivors died shortly thereafter of their external burns and scalded lungs.

• Governor Mouttet was not a villain. He acted courageously in visiting Saint-Pierre on the eve of the eruption, and died believing that the volcano was harmless. The real villain of this story is the man who succeeded him. The new governor had little sympathy for his constituents, and refused to evacuate the still-inhabited villages lying closest to the volcano. Three months after the destruction of Saint-Pierre, Mount Pelée climaxed another period of eruption with a gigantic nuée ardente that claimed another 1085 victims.

• Don't be fooled by the photograph of the ruins on the back of the "La Catastrophe's" dustcover. Saint-Pierre is not a ghost city on the order of Pompeii. According to the author, "nowadays [it] is a hot and sleepy village of about 5000 people."

Outstanding study of the 1902 disaster.
It seems there has been a lot of attention focused on the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee and its destruction of Saint-Pierre recently, and this book stands out as a wonderful account of the events surrounding it. Alwyn Scarth is an exceptionally literate writer and provides a very frank and objective analysis of the events before and after the eruption as well as copious detail on the eruption itself. His writing style is dry at times, but it is enhanced by the occasional wry humor and his portraits of the people of Martinique, especially those of Father Mary and the captain of the cruiser Suchet.

Scarth presents a great number of original documents from a variety of sources (sometimes providing photos of originals such as French naval telegrams), and provides as many eyewitness accounts as possible. Although the eruption of Pelee is the subject of the book, Scarth spends a comparable amount of time on the society of Saint-Pierre and Martinique, particularly the apartheid-based social structure and contentious politics of the colony. He also makes an admirable attempt to show that past accounts that accuse Governor Mouttet of forcing citizens to stay in Saint-Pierre to vote are groundless, and he recounts the political arrogance of the post-eruption administration.

Scarth also refutes several myths about the eruption, especially the belief that Louis-Auguste Sylbaris was the sole survivor and that 30,000 people or more were killed (the likely number is several thousand fewer). He presents Saint-Pierre as a busy and modern colonial city, but vehemently disagrees with any romantic notions of a "Paris of the East Indies."

The geology here seems quite oriented to the European, and Scarth sometimes uses terms that may confuse Americans unfamiliar with volcanoes (he never equates the term 'nuee ardente' with the more common 'pyroclastic flow'), but his descriptions of the nature of stratovolcanoes and their nature is right on; he goes so far as to give Pelee a personality of sorts (describing the murderous volcano as sitting 'innocently under a clear blue sky' minutes after its terrible eruption) that seems to fit in well with the portraits of the other figures on Martinique.

Like many accounts of disasters, there is plenty of 'if only... if only...' here, but Scarth does not seek to blame anyone here: there was simply nothing most residents of Saint-Pierre could do about Pelee. They had no idea what it was capable of, few could afford to move even to other parts of the island, and the city of Saint-Pierre logically seemed the safest place on the island with all of its resources. Nobody knew what a pyroclastic flow was, and the greatest fear was of an earthquake of the type that had damaged the island's capital of Fort-de-France in the past. The only figure to get skewered is the governor who succeeded Mouttet for his awful handling of the terrified residents of La Morne Rouge and his miserable management of the refugees.

The images Scarth presents of the eruption are stark and morbid, and although he sometimes seems to revel in its destruction he never fails to commend the heroism of the survivors. Events slowly build to their climax as Ascension Day dawns and the volcano strikes Saint-Pierre down. The last paragraph is rather morbid, recounting the moment of shock just before the city's destruction, but it rightly illustrates the enormity of the moment as the hapless residents of Saint-Pierre realize something horrible is coming to scribe their names into history.

La Catastrophe is a fascinating read. It is objective, exceptionally detailed without becoming boring, and is a fine account of one of the forgotten tragedies of the modern era. Great for any fan of geology, history, or just those who enjoy stories of people coping with great hardship. ... Read more