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Simon Winchester ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Simon Winchester A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
HarperCollins 2005 0060571993 / 9780060571993 First Edition Cloth New New
0060571993 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 From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In this brawny page-turner, bestselling writer Winchester (Krakatoa, The Professor and the Madman) has crafted a magnificent testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her. A master storyteller and Oxford trained geologist, Winchester effortlessly weaves together countless threads of interest, making a powerfully compelling narrative out of what he calls "the most lyrical and romantic of the sciences."Using the theory of plate tectonics introduced in 1968 by an obscure geologist, J. Tuzo Wilson, Winchester describes a planet in flux. Across the surface of the earth, huge land masses known as plates push and pull at each other. At 5:12 a.m. in 1906, the North American and Pacific plates did precisely that. Along a 300-mile fault east of the Gold Rush city of San Francisco, the earth, in Winchester's word, "shrugged." While the initial shock devastated large parts of the city, it was the firestorm that raged in the days following that nearly wiped San Francisco off the map. The repercussions of the disaster radiated out from the epicenter for years to come. Locally, Winchester finds in the records at City Hall that the destruction led to a huge rise in Chinese immigration. Winchester also cites the tragedy in the rise of the nascent Pentecostal movement, whose ranks swelled in the months and years after in the belief that the catastrophe had been a sign from God.With fabulous style, wit and grace, Winchester casts doubt on the very notion of solid ground and invites the reader to ponder the planet they live on, from both inside and out. B&w illus. and maps. (Oct. 4) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine Winchester?s latest work is a lesson in unfulfilled expectations. Though he presents the book as a history of the San Francisco quake, over the first 200 pages Winchester offers an abbreviated version of John McPhee?s Annals of the Former World. Where McPhee made clear his intentions to write a comprehensive geological history of the North American continent, critics feel duped by Winchester, or by the publisher?s marketing department. Many reviewers are dismayed to see him reusing information from Krakatoa (**** July/Aug 2003). Even more wish he?d return to the human elements that made The Professor and the Madman such a critical and commercial success. Here, exhaustive research begets a fault-filled book, with little human or thematic tension to bind it together. Copyright ? 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. From AudioFile This month of April 2006 marks the centenary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake. The author of this work, Simon Winchester, is an Oxford-trained geologist who has been featured as a commentator on at least one of the television programs that re-tell the story of this event. This work certainly displays his thoroughness in research and ability to tell a story. At first, the listener may be taken aback by Winchester's British accent; after all, this is an American event. However, Winchester quickly captivates his listener. He is confident and his delivery very measured. His narration is clear, and he seems to let the story speak for itself. M.T.F. 2006 Audie Award Finalist ? AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright ? AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition. From Booklist What Winchester did for the 1883 cataclysmic eruption of a South Pacific volcano in Krakatoa (2002), he now does for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake--that is, making a significant geological incident understandable and even exciting to the lay reader not only in its scientific terms but also within a broad historical, political, and social context. "The planet briefly shrugged" is how the author poetically describes the slippage along the San Andreas fault that resulted in the earthquake and subsequent firestorm that together devastated San Francisco--this in a year that, as Winchester points out, saw a particularly high number of earthquakes around the globe. His discussion of plate tectonics lays a geological foundation for a subsequent picture he paints of California immigration history up to 1906. Winchester insists the earthquake brought "the end . . . of San Francisco's supremacy among the cities of the American West." Krakatoa appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, as did The Professor and the Madman (1998), his marvelously engaging story of the man who essentially wrote the Oxford English Dictionary; so, the wise librarian might consider ordering a second copy of his new book. Brad Hooper Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved
Price:
7.99 USD
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