Details Epithetical Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
| Title | : | Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 |
| Author | : | Simon Winchester |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 464 pages |
| Published | : | July 5th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published April 1st 2003) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Science. Geology. Environment. Nature |
Simon Winchester
Paperback | Pages: 464 pages Rating: 3.87 | 17207 Users | 1257 Reviews
Rendition In Pursuance Of Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round the planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all — in view of today's new political climate — the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.
Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.
List Books Supposing Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
| Original Title: | Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 |
| ISBN: | 0060838590 (ISBN13: 9780060838591) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Krakatoa(Indonesia) Java(Indonesia) |
Rating Epithetical Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
Ratings: 3.87 From 17207 Users | 1257 ReviewsArticle Epithetical Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
All gone. Plenty lives lost. That is the story of Krakatoa, only the 5th greatest volcanic explosion in history but probably the loudest. What intrigued me was Winchesters assertion that this natural disaster was the first world-wide social media event. It happened at a time when communication technology enabled the news to be transmitted world-wide in a few hours through undersea telegraph cables. In the Victorian age, science was sexy and many amateur science aficionados are fascinated byWow this book is too interesting.Love the science of volcanoes and geology!I must read if you are interested in the way the earth moves and how we are all globally connected!Super!
Reading Simon Winchester books is a bit like reading a web page. You start in one place, but soon succumb to sundry alluring links. On-line, of course, we are all much likelier to then wander off on yet more linked tangents, but thankfully, in his actual, paper and ink book, Winchester keeps bringing us back to the main page. And a large page it is. Simon Winchester - image from his Twitter pageOne can expect certain things in Simon Winchester books, a wide array of information, from a look at
One thing I can say about this book is that you have to read to page 227 before anybody dies. How the author can take one of the great calamities of the 19th Century and make it seem boring is a mystery to me, but he does it.
Wow. This has got to be the most out of topic (OOT) book Ive ever read. It saddens me to only award it two stars. I usually have a soft spot for nonfictions *sigh*Why on earth did I do that? Some of my friends rated it five stars, after all Heres a glimpse of my train of thoughts while reading this book. Youll see why.Beginning:Yay, finally I get to read this book. A nonfiction about (something major happened in) Indonesia, oh the excitement!...*reading the first pages* Hmm ok, spice trade
Dependable historical story telling can be a dry glass in a desert for many readers. Winchester is a very fine writer, fine to the point of absurdum with descriptions that sometime take him down a path that does not always work on the written page. Having heard him speak and listened to his reading of his works it both pushes my rating of this back to 3 stars and down to 3 stars at the same time.Nothing is left out it seems from this story, but where detail and richness of information is lacking
Entertaining, interesting and tedious (sometimes all at once), Winchester's take on the eruption of Krakatoa and its after effects is a smorgasbord of general geological history, historical re-enactment of the eruption and the end of Dutch colonialism in what is now known as Indonesia. With that said, my three star rating reflects some of my 'cons' with this book. He tends to repeat himself about specific things over and over and the chronology is off-putting (he goes back and forth between
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