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books tagged “disasters”
books tagged “disasters”
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The 100 Greatest Disasters of All Timeby Stephen J. SpignesiISBN 0806523417 (0-8065-2341-7)
Hardcover, Kensington Pub Corp
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102 Minutes: The Untold Story of The Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towersby Kevin FlynnISBN 0805080325 (0-8050-8032-5)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: '102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers'Book summary:In 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, New York Times writers Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn vividly recreate the 102-minute span between the moment Flight 11 hit the first Twin Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001, and the moment the second tower collapsed, all from the perspective of those inside the buildings--the 12,000 who escaped, and the 2,749 who did not. It's becoming easier, years later, to forget the profound, visceral responses the Trade Center attacks evoked in the days and weeks following September 11. Using hundreds of interviews, countless transcripts of radio and phone communications, and exhaustive research, Dwyer and Flynn bring that flood of responses back--from heartbreak to bewilderment to fury. The randomness of death and survival is heartbreaking. One man, in the second tower, survived because he bolted from his desk the moment he heard the first plane hit; another, who stayed at his desk on the 97th floor, called his wife in his final moments to tell her to cancel a surprise trip he had planned. In many cases, the deaths of those who survived the initial attacks but were killed by the collapse of the towers were tragically avoidable. Building code exemptions, communication breakdowns between firefighters and police, and policies put in place by building management to keep everyone inside the towers in emergencies led, the authors argue, to the deaths of hundreds who might otherwise have survived. September 11 is by now both familiar and nearly mythological. Dwyer and Flynn's accomplishment is recounting that day's events in a style that is stirring, thorough, and refreshingly understated. --Erica C. Barnett [via]
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9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Official edition) Including the Executive Summaryby National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9-11 Commission)ISBN 1579809677 (1-57980-967-7)
Softcover, Claitors Pub Div
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› Find signed collectible books: '9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Official edition) Including the Executive Summary'Book summary:The result of months of intensive investigations and inquiries by a specially appointed bipartisan panel, The 9/11 Commission Report is one of the most important historical documents of the modern era. And while that fact alone makes it worth owning, it is also a chilling and valuable piece of nonfiction: a comprehensive and alarming look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history and the events that led up to it. The commission traces the roots of al-Qaeda's strategies along with the emergence of the 19 hijackers and how they entered the United States and boarded airplanes. It details the missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert disaster. Using transcripts of cockpit voice recordings, the report describes events on board the planes along with the chaotic reaction on the ground from nearly every level of government. Going forward, the commission calls for a comprehensive overhaul of what it sees as a deeply flawed and disjointed intelligence-gathering operation. The creation of a post for a single National Security Director is recommended, along with the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center. The report finds fault with the approaches of both the Clinton and Bush administrations but, because they were a bipartisan panel and the problems described are so systemic and far-reaching, they stop short of assigning blame to any particular person or group. Credit must be given to how readable the report is. At more than 500 pages, the writing is clear and forceful and the information is made more accessible since it is fre from election politics and rancor. While the commission notes that future attacks are probably inevitable, a coordinated preventive effort along with a clear plan to respond with efficiency can offer Americans some hope in a post-9/11 world. --John Moe [via]
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Airframeby Michael CrichtonISBN 0963192574 (0-9631925-7-4)
Hardcover, B E Trice Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Airframe'Book summary:Cruising 35,000 feet above the earth, a twin-engine commercial jet encounters an accident that leaves 3 dead, 56 wounded, and the cabin in shambles. What happened? With a multi-billion-dollar company-saving deal on the line, Casey Singleton is sent by her hard-driving boss to uncover the mysterious circumstances that led to the disaster before more people die. But someone doesn't want her to find the truth. Airframe bristles with authentic information, technical jargon, and the command of detail Crichton's readers have come to expect. Check out Amazon.com's Airframe feature and read an excerpt from the book! [via]
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Amanda/Mirandaby Richard Peck, Cindy Kane, Robert HuntISBN 0803724896 (0-8037-2489-6)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts of In-Flight Accidentsby Malcolm MacphersonISBN 0688158927 (0-688-15892-7)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts of In-Flight Accidents'Book summary:Readers join desperate pilots in the cockpit as they fight gravity and time in a plane that's falling out of the sky.
Anyone who watches the news knows about the "black box." Officially called the cockpit voice recorder, the black box (which is actually Day-glo orange) records the final moments of any in-flight accident. Often it provides the only explanation of a crash -- inevitably, it provides a heart-breaking, second-by-second account of intense fear tempered by unyielding professionalism.
This 1984 Quill title has been completely updated to include twenty-eight new incidents occurring between 1978 and 1996. Some are famous, like the 1996 Valujet crash in the Everglades and the ill-fated launch of the space shuttle Challenger; other disasters range from commuter prop aircraft to jumbo airliners and a pair of Air Force planes. Few have ever been revealed in their entirety, each, without exception, is absolutely gripping.
In this new edition, editor Malcolm MacPherson has, wherever possible, added weather notes and descriptions of events in the cockpit and cabin, heightening our vivid sense of being there during the final moments. Provided by the National Transportation Safety Board and vetted by an experienced airline captain, these are unforgettable case studies in ultimate emergency -- authentic, immediate, filled with drama, terror, human frailty and error, and unquenchable courage.
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The Black Deathby P. ZieglerISBN 0862998387 (0-86299-838-7)
Hardcover, Sutton Pub Ltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Black Death'Book summary:'as exciting and readable an account as you could wish' -- The Guardian
The major study of the origins, progress and economic and social effects of the plague throughout Europe in the 14th century. [via]
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Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina And the Drowning of New Orleansby Jed HorneISBN 1400065526 (1-4000-6552-6)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of Londonby Adrian TinniswoodISBN 1594480397 (1-59448-039-7)
Softcover, Riverhead Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'By Permission Of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London'Book summary:The great fire of London, here documented by Adrian Tinniswood in By Permission of Heaven is an apt reminder of urban disaster 17th-century-style. The story of the fire, which began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, is well-known, but as well as focusing on the fire itself--its cause, spread and its victims--Tinniswood is good at setting out the wider background to the event. He shows how the fire not only followed the devastation of the bubonic plague, but also came in the midst of the Anglo-Dutch war, public resentment at the restoration of the pro-Catholic Charles II and lingering anti-court feeling in the Square Mile (the City had stoutly supported Cromwell 20 years earlier). He focuses on the leading personalities of the drama--the gallant Duke of York, the hapless Sir Thomas Bludworth, the fussy Samuel Pepys, and the visionary Sir Christopher Wren.
Tinniswood is not distracted by trivia. He describes clearly the longer-term consequences of the fire: the rebuilding of the City, the emergence of fire insurance, and the exodus of noxious trades into the outer reaches of the capital. Above all, Tinniswood shows how anti-Catholic and xenophobic bigotry convinced Londoners for decades afterwards that an axis of evil starting in Popish Rome and ending with foreign arsonists was the real cause of the fire. Then, as now, religious fundamentalism and common-sense did not go hand-in-hand. --Miles Taylor [via]
More editions of By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London:
- By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London: ISBN 1573222445 (1-57322-244-5)
Hardcover, Riverhead Books - By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London: ISBN 0224062263 (0-224-06226-3)
Hardcover, Jonathan Cape - By Permission Of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London: ISBN 1594480397 (1-59448-039-7)
Softcover, Riverhead Books
- By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London: ISBN 1573222445 (1-57322-244-5)
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The Children's Blizzardby David LaskinISBN 0060520760 (0-06-052076-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Children's Blizzard'Book summary:Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants were promised that the prairie offered "land, freedom, and hope." The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and Americas heartland would never be the same.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. [via]More editions of The Children's Blizzard:
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The Circus Fire: A True Storyby Stewart O'NanISBN 0385496842 (0-385-49684-2)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Circus Fire: A True Story'Book summary:As some 9,000 people watched the Wallendas begin their high-wire act on July 6, 1944, a fire started on the sidewall of the big top at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of white gasoline and 18,000 pounds of paraffin; common practice for circuses at the time. In minutes, the entire tent was engulfed in flames. In the rush for the exits, people were trampled and burned--some beyond recognition. In the end, 167 were dead and 487 injured, of whom 140 required hospitalization. The city of Hartford, Connecticut, would never be the same. Stewart O'Nan brings his storytelling ability to the tragedy of The Circus Fire.
Several survivors said the one thing they will never forget about the circus fire as long as they live is the sound of the animals as they burned alive. But there were no animals.
O'Nan interviewed dozens of witnesses and examined police reports, newspaper accounts, and court documents while researching the fire. The result is an engrossing--though agonizingly painful--account of the great fire and its aftermath. He probes the tragedy's enduring mysteries--How did the fire start? Who are the unidentified victims? Who is Little Miss 1565?--and offers up conclusions of his own. He also provides remarkable vignettes of panic, heroism, and grief: Merle Evans and the band playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever," the circus disaster march, over and over; Bill Curlee, standing atop the wild animal chute throwing trapped children to safety; the Cote sisters, who made it home safely then broke down when asked why they were back so early. O'Nan tells their stories with compassion--albeit with a slight tendency toward the macabre.
Moving, saddening, gruesome--yet car-crash compelling--The Circus Fire is a gripping read. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney [via]
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The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedyby Stewart O'NanISBN 0385496850 (0-385-49685-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocenceby Michael CapuzzoISBN 0767904133 (0-7679-0413-3)
Hardcover, Broadway Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence'Book summary:Michael Capuzzo tells the harrowing story of the real-life Jaws that helped inspire Peter Benchley's classic novel (and movie). Modern science now tells us that shark attacks are exceedingly rare and limited to just a few species. Yet they do occur, and one of the most terrifying episodes of fatal attacks occurred near the New Jersey shore in 1916, when a renegade great white shark went on a man-eating spree that left three adults and one boy dead. Capuzzo likens the shark's abnormal behavior to that of a person "who goes off the deep end and starts shooting." Whatever its motives, the shark captivated the public's imagination along the Eastern seaboard, devastated the resort economy, and even drew the attention of President Woodrow Wilson.
Close to Shore is a bit slow to get going and could have been a much shorter book. There is a fair amount of stage setting, and the first shark attack doesn't occur until about one-third of the way through the narrative. But Capuzzo does much with limited source material and includes lots of interesting asides on everything from the lore of sea monsters to the bathing-suit fashions of the day to nearly everything science knows about great whites, which, it turns out, is surprisingly little.
Alternating from the victims' perspectives to the shark's, Capuzzo's descriptions of the attacks are a blend of horrors and thrills: "Charles Bruder felt a slight vacuum tug in the motion of the sea, noted it as a passing current, the pull of a wave, the tickle of undertow. He could not have heard the faint, sucking rush of water not far beneath him. He couldn't have seen or heard what was hurtling from the murk at astonishing speed, jaws unhinging, widening, for the enormous first bite. It was the classic attack that no other creature in nature could make--a bomb from the depths." If this book were on any other subject, it would make for good beach reading. --John J. Miller [via]
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Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916by Michael CapuzzoISBN 0767904141 (0-7679-0414-1)
Softcover, Broadway Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916'Book summary:Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.
During the summer before the United States entered World War I, when ocean swimming was just becoming popular and luxurious Jersey Shore resorts were thriving as a chic playland for an opulent yet still innocent era's new leisure class, Americans were abruptly introduced to the terror of sharks. In July 1916 a lone Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the New Jersey shoreline. There, near the towns of Beach Haven and Spring Lake-and, incredibly, a farming community eleven miles inland-the most ferocious and unpredictable of predators began a deadly rampage: the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history.
For Americans celebrating an astoundingly prosperous epoch much like our own, fueled by the wizardry of revolutionary inventions, the arrival of this violent predator symbolized the limits of mankind's power against nature.
Interweaving a vivid portrait of the era and meticulously drawn characters with chilling accounts of the shark's five attacks and the frenzied hunt that ensued, Michael Capuzzo has created a nonfiction historical thriller with the texture of Ragtime and the tension of Jaws. From the unnerving inevitability of the first attack on the esteemed son of a prosperous Philadelphia physician to the spine-tingling moment when a farm boy swimming in Matawan Creek feels the sandpaper-like skin of the passing shark, Close to Shore is an undeniably gripping saga.
Heightening the drama are stories of the resulting panic in the citizenry, press and politicians, and of colorful personalities such as Herman Oelrichs, a flamboyant millionaire who made a bet that a shark was no match for a man (and set out to prove it); Museum of Natural History ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols, faced with the challenge of stopping a mythic sea creature about which little was known; and, most memorable, the rogue Great White itself moving through a world that couldn't conceive of either its destructive power or its moral right to destroy.
Scrupulously researched and superbly written, Close to Shore brings to life a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history. Masterfully written and suffused with fascinating period detail and insights into the science and behavior of sharks, Close to Shore recounts a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history with startling immediacy.
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]More editions of Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916:
Covering Catastrophy: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11by Mitchell Stephens, Allison Gilbert, Phil Hirschkorn, Melinda Murphy, Robyn WalenskyISBN 156625180X (1-56625-180-X)
Hardcover, Bonus Books
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A Crack In The Edge Of The World: America And The Great California Earthquake Of 1906by Simon WinchesterISBN 0060572000 (0-06-057200-0)
Softcover, Perennial
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Crack in the Edge of the World: America And the Great California Earthquake of 1906'Book summary:Geologically speaking, 1906 was a violent year: powerful, destructive earthquakes shook the ground from Taiwan to South America, while in Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupted. And in San Francisco, a large earthquake occurred just after five in the morning on April 18--and that was just the beginning. The quake caused a conflagration that raged for the next three days, destroying much of the American West's greatest city. The fire, along with water damage and other indirect acts, proved more destructive than the earthquake itself, but insurance companies tried hard to dispute this fact since few people carried earthquake insurance. It was also the world's first major natural disaster to have been extensively photographed and covered by the media, and as a result, it left "an indelible imprint on the mind of the entire nation."
Though the epicenter of this marvelously constructed book is San Francisco, Winchester covers much more than just the disaster. He discusses how this particular quake led to greater scientific study of quakes in an attempt to understand the movements of the earth. Trained at Oxford University as a geologist, Winchester is well qualified to discuss the subject, and he clearly explains plate tectonics theory (first introduced in 1968) and the creation of the San Andreas Fault, along with the geologic exploration of the American West in the late 19th century and the evolution of technology used to measure and predict earthquakes. He also covers the social and political shifts caused by the disaster, such as the way that Pentecostalists viewed the quake as "a message of divine approval" and used it to recruit new members into the church, and the rise in the local Chinese population. With many records destroyed in the fire, there was no way to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and thus many more Chinese were granted citizenship than would have otherwise been. Filled with eyewitness accounts, vivid descriptions, crisp prose, and many delightful meanderings, A Crack in the Edge of the World is a thoroughly absorbing tale. --Shawn Carkonen [via]
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Curse of the Narrowsby Laura MacDonaldISBN 0802715109 (0-8027-1510-9)
Softcover, Walker & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Curse of the Narrows'Book summary:The dramatic story of one of the greatest disasters in history[via]In 1917, the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was crowded with ships leaving for war-torn Europe. On December 6th, two of themthe Mont Blanc and the Imocollided in the Narrows, a hard-to-navigate stretch of the harbor. Ablaze, and with explosions on her deck filling the sky, the Mont Blanc grounded against the citys docks.
As thousands rushed to their windows and into the streets to watch, she exploded with such force that the 3,121 tons of her iron hull vaporized in a cloud that shot up more than 2,000 feet; the explosion was so unusual that Robert Oppenheimer would study its effects to predict the devastation of an atomic bomb. The blast caused a giant wave that swept over parts of the city, followed by a slick, black rain that fell for ten minutes. Much of the city was flattened, and not one in 12,000 buildings within a 16-mile radius left undamaged. More than 1,600 Haligonians were killed and 6,000 injured; and within twenty-four hours, a blizzard had isolated Halifax from the world.
Set vividly against the background of World War I, Curse of the Narrows is the first major account of the worlds largest pre-atomic explosion, the epic relief mission from Boston, and the riveting trial of the Mont Blancs captain and pilot. Laura M. Mac Donald is as adept at describing the dynamics of a chain reaction explosion as she is at chronicling unforgettable human dramas of miraculous survival, unfathomable loss, and the medical breakthroughs in pediatrics and eye surgery that followed the disaster.
Using primary sources--many of which havent been read in decades and--with a wonderful feel for narrative history, Mac Donald chronicles one of the most compelling and dramatic events of the 20th century.More editions of Curse of the Narrows:
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Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919by Stephen PuleoISBN 0807050210 (0-8070-5021-0)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919'Book summary:Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters was playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!"
A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster. [via]More editions of Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919:
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Darkest Hours: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Presentby Jay Robert NashISBN 0882291408 (0-88229-140-8)
Hardcover, Burnham Inc Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Darkest Hours: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present'Book summary:A narrative encyclopedia of worldwide disasters from ancient times to the present. Includes major air crashes, avalanches, landslides, mine disasters, storms, epidemics and much more. Illustrated throughout with black and white photos and drawings. "Each year the slag heap grew higher, casting an ominous shadow over the elementary school lying near its base. Meanwhile a natural spring was eroding the pile from within. The mountain of rock was refuse from the great colliery at Aberfan, Wales, a menacing man-made waste that by October 21, 1966, weighed over two million tons and reached upward 800 feet. That was the day the heap moved. Within minutes, rumbling river of rock had buried the school and seventeen other buildings. One hundred forty-five persons died." [via]
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The Discovery of the Titanicby Rick Archbold, Robert D. Ballard, Ken MarschallISBN 0446389129 (0-446-38912-9)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Discovery of the Titanic'Book summary:As Woods Hole oceanographer Robert Ballard demonstrates in his absorbing, profusely illustrated book about his years-long hunt for the wreck of the Titanic, science isn't all that different from Hollywood. Just as a Hollywood type--say, the director whose quest to make the world's most expensive film is chronicled in Paula Parisi's Titanic and the Making of James Cameron--must use the cachet of his studio connections to raise cash, a Woods Hole scientist must use that eminent institution's reputation to win financing for his or her projects. Like the movie that sprang from the finding of the wreck, Ballard's scientific exploration is a tale of triumph against long odds. He's also got some good historical data on the drama of the sinking. Here are a few ear-witness accounts of the moment of the iceberg's impact on the Titanic: "A disquieting ripping sound like a piece of cloth"; "A thousand marbles"; "As though somebody had drawn a giant finger along the side of the ship." Ballard quotes the most precise description of the fatal instant, given by colorful Second Officer Lightoller: "Not that it was by any means a violent concussion, but just a distinct and unpleasant break in the monotony of her motion." Ballard's book helps you get the feeling of climbing aboard and being there for that distinctly unpleasant moment. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Discovery of the Titanic: Exploring the Greatest of All Lost Shipsby Rick Archbold, Robert D. BallardISBN 0446513857 (0-446-51385-7)
Hardcover, Grand Central Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Discovery of the Titanic: Exploring the Greatest of All Lost Ships'Book summary:An updated edition, with 8 new pages of material, of the 1987 title which recounts the author's discovery and exploration of the Titanic 75 years after it sank in the North Atlantic. Dr Robert Ballard is an oceanographer who has worked on over 50 deep sea expeditions. [via]
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Ecology of Fearby Mike DavisISBN 0375706070 (0-375-70607-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disasterby Mike DavisISBN 0805051066 (0-8050-5106-6)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster'Book summary:The 1990s have not been kind to Los Angeles. As Mike Davis writes, "The destructive February 1992, January 1993, and January 1995 floods ($500 million in damage) were mere brackets around the April 1992 insurrection ($1 billion), the October-November 1993 firestorms ($1 billion) and the January 1994 earthquake ($42 billion)." But, he argues, the increasing fear about nature's reign of terror in Southern California reflected in Hollywood's preoccupation with apocalypse--L.A. has been destroyed on screen by everything from lava (Volcano) to nukes (Miracle Mile) to alien death rays (Independence Day)--is in reality a strong case of denial. Again, Davis himself says it best: "For generations, market-driven urbanization has transgressed environmental common sense. Historic wildfire corridors have been turned into view-lot suburbs, wetland liquefaction zones into marinas, and floodplains into industrial districts and housing tracts. Monolithic public works have been substituted for regional planning and a responsible land ethic. As a result, Southern California has reaped flood, fire, and earthquake tragedies that were as avoidable, as unnatural, as the beating of Rodney King and the ensuing explosion in the streets."
As in City of Quartz, his earlier book about Los Angeles, Davis reveals the deeper ideological narratives behind historical events. Whether he's explaining the motivations behind the persistent refusal of civic leaders to admit that a tornado alley runs down the middle of the region, from Long Beach to Pasadena, or discussing, as one chapter refers to it, "the case for letting Malibu burn," he outlines his arguments with a fascinating amount of detail and a subtle sense of irony. There are wonderful chapters here, such as "Maneaters of the Sierra Madre," a zoology of the wild beasts Angelenos fear, including mountain lions that descend from the hills to eat joggers and small children, swarms of Africanized killer bees making their way across the deserts, and El Chupacabra, the "goat-sucking vampire" that joined L.A.'s roster of faddish icons in 1996.
Although this book is specifically about Los Angeles, its lessons about the relationship between urban developments and natural ecosystems and about the dangerous influence of class politics on environmental safety policy are applicable to any city. Anyone with a serious interest in natural history or urban policy should make a point of reading this book. --Ron Hogan [via]
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Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American Historyby William Lutz, Denise GessISBN 0805072934 (0-8050-7293-4)
Softcover, Owl Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History'Book summary:A riveting account of a monster firestorm -- the rarest kind of catastrophic fire -- and the extraordinary people who survived its wrath.[via]
On October 8, 1871 -- the same night as the Great Chicago Fire -- an even deadlier conflagration was sweeping through the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, 260 miles north of Chicago. The five-mile-wide wall of flames, borne on tornado-force winds of 100 miles per hour, tore across more than 2,400 square miles of land, obliterating Peshtigo in less than one hour and killing more than 2,000 people.
Firestorm at Peshtigo places the reader at the center of the blow-out. Through accounts of newspaper publishers Luther Noyes and Franklin Tilton, lumber baron Isaac Stephenson, parish priest Father Peter Pernin, and meteorologist Increase Lapham -- the only person who understood the unusual and dangerous nature of this fire -- Denise Gess and William Lutz re-create the story of the people, the politics, and the place behind this monumental natural disaster, delivering it from the lost annals of American history.
Drawn from survivors' letters, diaries, interviews, and local newspapers, Firestorm at Peshtigo tells the human story behind America's deadliest wildfire.More editions of Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History:
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The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, And the Mississippi Gulf Coastby Douglas BrinkleyISBN 0061124230 (0-06-112423-0)
Hardcover, William Morrow & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, And the Mississippi Gulf Coast'Book summary:In the span of five violent hours on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed major Gulf Coast cities and flattened 150 miles of coastline. Yet those wind-torn hours represented only the first stage of the relentless triple tragedy that Katrina brought to the entire Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama. First came the hurricane, one of the three strongest ever to make landfall in the United States -- 150-mile- per-hour winds, with gusts measuring more than 180 miles per hour ripping buildings to pieces. Second, the storm-surge flooding, which submerged a half million homes, creating the largest domestic refugee crisis since the Civil War. Eighty percent of New Orleans was under water, as debris and sewage coursed through the streets, and whole towns in south-eastern Louisiana ceased to exist. And third, the human tragedy of government mis-management, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, implemented an evacuation plan that favored the rich and healthy. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, dithered in the most important aspect of her job: providing leadership in a time of fear and confusion. Michael C. Brown, the FEMA director, seemed more concerned with his sartorial splendor than the specter of death and horror that was taking New Orleans into its grip. In The Great Deluge, bestselling author Douglas Brinkley, a New Orleans resident and professor of history at Tulane University, rips the story of Katrina apart and relates what the Category 3 hurricane was like from every point of view. The book finds the true heroes -- such as Coast Guard officer Jimmy Duckworth and hurricane jock Tony Zumbado. Throughout the book, Brinkley lets the Katrina survivors tell their own stories, masterly allowing them to record the nightmare that was Katrina. The Great Deluge investigates the failure of government at every level and breaks important new stories. Packed with interviews and original research, [via]
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The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In Historyby John BarryISBN 0143036491 (0-14-303649-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History'More editions of The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History:
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The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in Historyby John M. BarryISBN 0143034480 (0-14-303448-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History'Book summary:No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Presumed to have begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. In the United States, where bodies were stacked without coffins on trucks, nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War.
In his powerful new book, award-winning historian John M. Barry unfolds a tale that is magisterial in its breadth and in the depth of its research, and spellbinding as he weaves multiple narrative strands together. In this first great collision between science and epidemic disease, even as society approached collapse, a handful of heroic researchers stepped forward, risking their lives to confront this strange disease. Titans like William Welch at the newly formed Johns Hopkins Medical School and colleagues at Rockefeller University and others from around the country revolutionized American science and public health, and their work in this crisis led to crucial discoveries that we are still using and learning from today.
The Washington Posts Jonathan Yardley said Barrys last book can "change the way we think." The Great Influenza may also change the way we see the world. [via]
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The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Accountby Peter PerninISBN 087020310X (0-87020-310-X)
Softcover, Wisconsin Historical Society
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account'Book summary:Reverend Peter Pernin was the parish priest for Peshtigo and nearby Marinette, whose churches burned to the ground. He published his account of the fire in 1874. The late William Converse Haygood served as editor of the Wisconsin Magazine of History from 1957 to 1975. He prepared this version of Father Pernin's account on the occasion of the Peshtigo Fire's centennial in 1971. Foreword writer Stephen J. Pyne is a professor at Arizona State University in Tempe and author of numerous books on wildland fire, including Fire in America.[via]More editions of The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account:
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicagoby Eric KlinenbergISBN 0226443221 (0-226-44322-1)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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In the Heart of the Seaby Nat PhilbrickISBN 0141001828 (0-14-100182-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Heart of the Sea'Book summary:The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essexby Nathaniel PhilbrickISBN 0670891576 (0-670-89157-6)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex'Book summary:The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk [via]
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Into Thin Airby Jon KrakauerISBN 1402809654 (1-4028-0965-4)
Hardcover, Barnes & Noble
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Into Thin Air'Book summary:Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions. [via]
More editions of Into Thin Air:
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster: ISBN 0385494785 (0-385-49478-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc - Into Thin Air: ISBN 0613663616 (0-613-66361-6)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Into Thin Air: ISBN 0679457526 (0-679-45752-6)
Hardcover, Villard Books - Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster: ISBN 0385492081 (0-385-49208-1)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group - Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster: ISBN 0375502807 (0-375-50280-7)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - Into Thin Air: ISBN 060628768X (0-606-28768-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media - Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster: ISBN 0676584020 (0-676-58402-0)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - Into Thin Air: ISBN 0783882858 (0-7838-8285-8)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - Into Thin Air: ISBN 1402809654 (1-4028-0965-4)
Hardcover, Barnes & Noble
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster: ISBN 0385494785 (0-385-49478-5)
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Isaac's Stormby Erik Larson, Isaac Monroe ClineISBN 0375708278 (0-375-70827-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Isaac's Storm'Book summary:On September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas. A tidal surge of some four feet in as many seconds inundated the city, while the wind destroyed thousands of buildings. By the time the water and winds subsided, entire streets had disappeared and as many as 10,000 were dead--making this the worst natural disaster in America's history.
In Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson blends science and history to tell the story of Galveston, its people, and the hurricane that devastated them. Drawing on hundreds of personal reminiscences of the storm, Larson follows individuals through the fateful day and the storm's aftermath. There's Louisa Rollfing, who begged her husband, August, not to go into town the morning of the storm; the Ursuline Sisters at St. Mary's orphanage who tied their charges to lengths of clothesline to keep them together; Judson Palmer, who huddled in his bathroom with his family and neighbors, hoping to ride out the storm. At the center of it all is Isaac Cline, employee of the nascent Weather Bureau, and his younger brother--and rival weatherman--Joseph. Larson does an excellent job of piecing together Isaac's life and reveals that Isaac was not the quick-thinking hero he claimed to be after the storm ended. The storm itself, however, is the book's true protagonist--and Larson describes its nuances in horrific detail.
At times the prose is a bit too purple, but Larson is engaging and keeps the book's tempo rising in pace with the wind and waves. Overall, Isaac's Storm recaptures at a time when, standing in the first year of the century, Americans felt like they ruled the world--and that even the weather was no real threat to their supremacy. Nature proved them wrong. --Sunny Delaney [via]
Isaac's Storm: The Drowning of Galveston, 8 September 1900by Erik LarsonISBN 0756765862 (0-7567-6586-2)
Hardcover, Diane Pub Co
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Johnstown Floodby David Willis McCulloughISBN 0844662925 (0-8446-6292-5)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Johnstown Flood'Book summary:The history of civil engineering may sound boring, but in David McCullough's hands it is, well, riveting. His award-winning histories of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal were preceded by this account of the disastrous dam failure that drowned Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889. Written while the last survivors of the flood were still alive, McCullough's narrative weaves the stories of the town, the wealthy men who owned the dam, and the forces of nature into a seamless whole. His account is unforgettable: "The wave kept on coming straight toward him, heading for the very heart of the city. Stores, houses, trees, everything was going down in front of it, and the closer it came, the bigger it seemed to grow.... The height of the wall of water was at least thirty-six feet at the center.... The drowning and devastation of the city took just about ten minutes." A powerful, definitive book, and a tribute to the thousands who died in America's worst inland flood. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
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Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883by Simon WinchesterISBN 0060838590 (0-06-083859-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded August 27, 1883'Book summary:In Krakatoa, the author of The Map That Changed the World and The Professor and the Madman focuses his considerable research powers on one of the most cataclysmic events of modern history: the volcanic eruption, in 1883, of the Southeast Asian island of Krakatoa, which resulted in the deaths of 36,000 people and sent shock-waves around the world. But what at the time was a mysterious, almost supernatural phenomenon has become, under the precepts of the contemporary science of plate tectonics, explicable if no less tragic. Winchester veers between eyewitness accounts by survivors and the limited scientific measurements of the time in an attempt to describe the indescribable. The event "is still said to be the most violent explosion ever recorded and experienced by modern man," he writes. "Six cubic miles of rock had been blasted out of existence, had been turned into pumice and ash and uncountable billions of particles of dust." Yet words and numbers can barely hint at the scale of the calamity, which resulted in tsunamis that washed whole villages into the ocean and forever changed the very topography of the area. The author also explores the social and cultural topography, noting, "Orthodox Islam, its revival in part triggered by tragic events such as the great cataclysm, was totally transformed in Java during the nineteenth century, with fundamentalism, militancy, and profound hostility to non-Muslims its watchwords." At times Winchester seems to overstate his case, and the link he finds between Krakatoa and the rise of anti-Western sentiment in the Islamic world isnt especially convincing. But, by weaving together the disaster with science, communications, politics, religion, and economics, he has come up with a comprehensive and often fascinating glimpse into the way the world, and our perception of it, can change in an instant. --Shawn Conner [via]
More editions of Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883:
- Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883: ISBN 006093736X (0-06-093736-X)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited - Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883: ISBN 0066212855 (0-06-621285-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883: ISBN 0786257296 (0-7862-5729-6)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded August 27, 1883: ISBN 0060838590 (0-06-083859-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883: ISBN 006093736X (0-06-093736-X)
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Lucifer's Hammerby Larry NivenISBN 0872234878 (0-87223-487-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lucifer's Hammer'Book summary:Monumental devastation will sweep across the globe if the newly-discovered Hamner-Brown comet collides with the one major obstacle in its path: Earth.
For millionaire Tim Hamner, the comet is a ticket to immortality. For filmmaker Harvey Randall, it's a shot to redeem a flagging career. And for astronauts John Baker and Rick Delanty, it's a second chance for glory in outer space.
But for a world gripped by comet fever, fascination quickly turns to fear. And only those who survive the impact will know the even greater terror, when rich and poor, politicians and killers, turn to each other or against each other--and the remnants of humanity grow savage to battle for what little remains . . .
Including an all-new introduction by the authors! [via]More editions of Lucifer's Hammer:
Night Lives onby Walter LordISBN 0896217922 (0-89621-792-2)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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A Night to Rememberby Walter LordISBN 0805077642 (0-8050-7764-2)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Night to Remember'Book summary:comprehensive telling of the Titanic disaster, including interviews with survivors and two page detail illustration of the ship. [via]
More editions of A Night to Remember:
- A Night to Remember: ISBN 0553278274 (0-553-27827-4)
Softcover, Bantam Books - A Night to Remember: ISBN 0030150760 (0-03-015076-0)
Hardcover, Holt, Rinehart and Winston - A Night to Remember: ISBN 0708958745 (0-7089-5874-5)
Hardcover, Ulverscroft Large Print Books - A Night to Remember: ISBN 0805077642 (0-8050-7764-2)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
- A Night to Remember: ISBN 0553278274 (0-553-27827-4)
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Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Seaby Sebastian JungerISBN 0060977477 (0-06-097747-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea'Book summary:Meteorologists called the storm that hit North America's eastern seaboard in October 1991 a "perfect storm" because of the rare combination of factors that created it. For everyone else, it was perfect hell. In The Perfect Storm, author Sebastian Junger conjures for the reader the meteorological conditions that created the "storm of the century" and the impact the storm had on many of the people caught in it. Chief among these are the six crew members of the swordfish boat the Andrea Gail, all of whom were lost 500 miles from home beneath roiling seas and high waves. Working from published material, radio dialogues, eyewitness accounts, and the experiences of people who have survived similar events, Junger attempts to re-create the last moments of the Andrea Gail as well as the perilous high-seas rescues of other victims of the storm.
Like a Greek drama, The Perfect Storm builds slowly and inexorably to its tragic climax. The book weaves the history of the fishing industry and the science of predicting storms into the quotidian lives of those aboard the Andrea Gail and of others who would soon find themselves in the fury of the storm. Junger does a remarkable job of explaining a convergence of meteorological and human events in terms that make them both comprehensible and unforgettable. [via]
More editions of Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea:
- Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 006101351X (0-06-101351-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins - The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 0061148466 (0-06-114846-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 039304016X (0-393-04016-X)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 0393050327 (0-393-05032-7)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 0786212179 (0-7862-1217-9)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 0060977477 (0-06-097747-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
- Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea: ISBN 006101351X (0-06-101351-X)
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Pompeiiby Robert HarrisISBN 0812974611 (0-8129-7461-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pompeii'Book summary:All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman empires richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The worlds largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii.
But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the rst time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augustas sixty-mile main linesomewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
Attiliusdecent, practical, and incorruptiblepromises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at workboth natural and man-madethreatening to destroy him.
With his trademark elegance and intelligence, Robert Harris, bestselling author of Archangel and Fatherland, re-creates a world on the brink of disaster.
From the Hardcover edition. [via]More editions of Pompeii:
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Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed Americaby John M. BarryISBN 0684840022 (0-684-84002-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America'Book summary:When Mother Nature rages, the physical results are never subtle. Because we cannot contain the weather, we can only react by tabulating the damage in dollar amounts, estimating the number of people left homeless, and laying the plans for rebuilding. But as John M. Barry expertly details in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, some calamities transform much more than the landscape.
While tracing the history of the nation's most destructive natural disaster, Barry explains how ineptitude and greed helped cause the flood, and how the policies created to deal with the disaster changed the culture of the Mississippi Delta. Existing racial rifts expanded, helping to launch Herbert Hoover into the White House and shifting the political alliances of many blacks in the process. An absorbing account of a little-known, yet monumental event in American history, Rising Tide reveals how human behavior proved more destructive than the swollen river itself. [via]
More editions of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America:
- Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America: ISBN 0684810468 (0-684-81046-8)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 And How It Changed America: ISBN 0844672947 (0-8446-7294-7)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc - Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America: ISBN 0684840022 (0-684-84002-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
- Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America: ISBN 0684810468 (0-684-81046-8)
The San Francisco Earthquakeby Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan WittsISBN 081281360X (0-8128-1360-X)
Hardcover, Stein and Day
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San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Firesby Dennis SmithISBN 0452287596 (0-452-28759-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Ship Ablaze : The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocumby Edward T. O'DonnellISBN 0767909054 (0-7679-0905-4)
Hardcover, Broadway Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ship Ablaze : The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum'Book summary:There were few experienced swimmers among over 1,300 Lower East Side residents who boarded the General Slocum on June 15, 1904. It shouldnt have mattered since the steamship was only chartered for a languid excursion from Manhattan to Long Island Sound. But a fire erupted minutes into the trip, forcing hundreds of terrified passengers into the water. By the time the captain found a safe shore for landing, 1,021 had perished. It was New Yorks deadliest tragedy prior to September 11, 2001.
[via]
The only book available on this compelling chapter in the citys history, Ship Ablaze draws on firsthand accounts to examine why the death toll was so high, how the city responded, and why this event failed to achieve the infamy of the Titanics 1912 demise or the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Masterfully capturing both the horror of the event and heroism of men, women, and children who faced crumbling life jackets and inaccessible lifeboats as the inferno quickly spread, historian Edward T. ODonnell spotlights an important incident with which most Americans are unfamiliar. Enhanced by moving photographs, Ship Ablaze brings to life a bygone community while honoring the victims of that forgotten day.More editions of Ship Ablaze : The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum:
The Sinking Of The Eastland: America's Forgotten Tragedyby Jay BonansingaISBN 0806526483 (0-8065-2648-3)
Softcover, Kensington Pub Corp
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Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935by Willie DryeISBN 0792241037 (0-7922-4103-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Story of the Titanic As Told by Its Survivorsby Jack Winocour, Lawrence BeesleyISBN 0486206106 (0-486-20610-6)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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The Titanicby Wyn Craig WadeISBN 0892560991 (0-89256-099-1)
Hardcover, Rawson Assoc
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Titanic: An Illustrated Historyby Donald Lynch, Ken Marschall, Robert D. BallardISBN 078688147X (0-7868-8147-X)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Titanic: An Illustrated History'Book summary:The tragedy of the Titanic has been captured in fiction, nonfiction, music, poetry, cartoons, official judicial inquiry, survivors' recollections, still photography, TV shows, and film; all of the above are covered to some extent in this good and popular book. But few Titanic books match the paintings by Ken Marschall, a specialist on the subject whose work can be found in other books by the ship's discoverer, Robert Ballard, who wrote the introduction here. The photos are notable--including shots of the red-paint-stained iceberg that may have caused the sinking, the pristine ship, the sunken wreck, the people involved in the case--but Marschall's dozens of large-scale paintings really do help to dramatize and explicate moments no camera glimpsed and few eyewitnesses agree upon.
There is much to recommend the text, too. You could make a movie just about Second Officer Charles Lightoller, who helped accelerate the lifeboat-launching process, saving lives; stepped off the ship's bridge into the Atlantic; was sucked down into a ventilator taking in water, vainly swimming against its suction; and then got expelled by a blast of air, like a human cannonball in a circus, and landed next to a lifeboat that had been knocked 20 feet clear of the sinking ship's deadly whirlpool by a huge ship's funnel that crashed into the waves nearby. Lightoller was marvelously clever in his courtroom interrogation by an attorney determined to maneuver him into admitting blame for the disaster.
There is much more history in between the dramatic illustrations, facts both grand and trivial--if you're bent on knowing what actually happened to the dogs aboard, the answer is in this book. Definitely one of the better titles dealing with Titanic. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Titanic: An Illustrated Historyby Ken Marschall, Donald LynchISBN 1562829181 (1-56282-918-1)
Hardcover, Hyperion Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Titanic: An Illustrated History'Book summary:The tragedy of the Titanic has been captured in fiction, nonfiction, music, poetry, cartoons, official judicial inquiry, survivors' recollections, still photography, TV shows, and film; all of the above are covered to some extent in this good and popular book. But few Titanic books match the paintings by Ken Marschall, a specialist on the subject whose work can be found in other books by the ship's discoverer, Robert Ballard, who wrote the introduction here. The photos are notable--including shots of the red-paint-stained iceberg that may have caused the sinking, the pristine ship, the sunken wreck, the people involved in the case--but Marschall's dozens of large-scale paintings really do help to dramatize and explicate moments no camera glimpsed and few eyewitnesses agree upon.
There is much to recommend the text, too. You could make a movie just about Second Officer Charles Lightoller, who helped accelerate the lifeboat-launching process, saving lives; stepped off the ship's bridge into the Atlantic; was sucked down into a ventilator taking in water, vainly swimming against its suction; and then got expelled by a blast of air, like a human cannonball in a circus, and landed next to a lifeboat that had been knocked 20 feet clear of the sinking ship's deadly whirlpool by a huge ship's funnel that crashed into the waves nearby. Lightoller was marvelously clever in his courtroom interrogation by an attorney determined to maneuver him into admitting blame for the disaster.
There is much more history in between the dramatic illustrations, facts both grand and trivial--if you're bent on knowing what actually happened to the dogs aboard, the answer is in this book. Definitely one of the better titles dealing with Titanic. --Tim Appelo [via]
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To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fireby David Cowan, John KuensterISBN 156663217X (1-56663-217-X)
Softcover, Ivan R Dee
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› Find signed collectible books: 'To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire'Book summary:If burying a child has a special poignancy, the tragedy at a Catholic elementary school in Chicago almost forty years ago was an extraordinary moment of grief. One of the deadliest fires in American history, it took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels School, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and destroyed a close-knit working-class neighborhood. This is the moving story of that fire and its consequences written by two journalists who have been obsessed with the events of that terrible day in December 1958. It is a story of ordinary people caught up in a disaster that shocked the nation. In gripping detail, those who were therechildren, teachers, firefightersdescribe the fear, desperation, and panic that prevailed in and around the stricken school building on that cold Monday afternoon. But beyond the flames, the story of the fire at Our Lady of the Angels became an enigma whose mystery has deepened with time: its cause was never officially explained despite evidence that it had been intentionally set by a troubled student at the school. The fire led to a complete overhaul of fire safety standards for American schools, but it left a community torn apart by grief and anger, and accusations that the Catholic church and city fathers had shielded the truth. Messrs. Cowan and Kuenster have recreated this tragedy in a powerful narrative with all the elements of a first-rate detective story. [via]
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Triangle: The Fire That Changed Americaby David Von DrehleISBN 080214151X (0-8021-4151-X)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Triangle: The Fire That Changed America'Book summary:A New York Times Bestseller
On March 25, 1911, at quitting time, a fire broke out in the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village. Within minutes the building's upper three stories were consumed. Firemen's ladders weren't tall enough to rescue those trapped inside. In the worst workplace disaster in the city's history, 146 died - 123 of them women. This harrowing yet compulsively readable chronicle of that tragedy is also a vibrant portrait of an entire age. [via]
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Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullmanby Carl S. SmithISBN 0226764176 (0-226-76417-6)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman'More editions of Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman:
- Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman: ISBN 0226764168 (0-226-76416-8)
Hardcover, Univ of Chicago Pr - Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman: ISBN 0226764176 (0-226-76417-6)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
- Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman: ISBN 0226764168 (0-226-76416-8)
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Young Men & Fireby Norman MacLeanISBN 0226500624 (0-226-50062-4)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Young Men & Fire'Book summary:A work that consumed 14 years of Maclean's life, and earned a 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award, Young Men and Fire tells the story of a Rocky Mountain forest fire that that claimed the lives of 13 young smoke jumpers on August 5, 1949, at Mann Gulch, Montana. The firefighters perished in a "blowup"--an explosive, 2,000-degree firestorm 300 feet deep and 200 feet tall. The excruciating detail of this book makes for a sobering reading experience. Maclean--a former University of Chicago English professor and avid fisherman--also wrote A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, which is set along the Missouri River, one gulch downstream from Mann. [via]
Young Men & Fire/a True Story of the Mann Gulch Fireby Norman MacLeanISBN 0816157340 (0-8161-5734-0)
Hardcover, G K Hall & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Young Men & Fire/a True Story of the Mann Gulch Fire'More editions of Young Men & Fire/a True Story of the Mann Gulch Fire:
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