Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... A crack in the edge of the world : America and the great California earthquake of 1906 (original 2005; édition 2005)par Simon Winchester (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreA Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 par Simon Winchester (2005)
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Like all of Winchester's works at times erudite, at times travelogue, at times geology lesson, at times history, at times chatty. A very good account not just of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, but plate tectonics in general, the North American plate in depth, and the San Andreas and related faults in particular. Another excellent book that left me the smarter for reading it. ( ) I'm a big Simon Winchester fan, but admit I didn't find this outing as engaging as some of his others. Yes, there's a ton of engrossing info here about the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, but you'll have to wade through some extraneous material to get to it. I'm a professional geologist, and even I found his chapters on the geology of California to be tedious! Apparently he's got a passion for geology and is unaware that, at least here in the U.S., the concept of plate tectonics is introduced in the 4th grade, rendering much of his hand-holding tedious. There are also several over-long sections devoted to his personal travels, interests, theories, and opinions. But this being a Simon Winchester book, this is also filled to bursting with fascinating detail, all of it extensively researched and entertainingly retold. Winchester's tangents - the settlement of California, the integration of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, the emergence of insurance agencies, the roots of Pentecostalism, etc. - are often as intriguing as his central narrative. Most folks will go into this with some prior knowledge of the earthquake and its consequences, but I guarantee they'll emerge with a much deeper appreciation of the historical, cultural, and geologic implications of this seminal event. My recommendation: definitely worth a read, but give yourself permission to skim the long chapters on plate tectonics and cut Winchester some slack for the parts that come off as self-indulgent or opinionated, because the payoff is worth the price. From soup to nuts, Simon Winchester's Crack in the Edge of the World tells the complete story of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 with humor, intelligence, and clarity. He begins with the humble birth of the city coupled with the scientific explanation for earth's volatile nature. Curiously, when talking about other disasters which have wiped out entire regions Winchester mentions Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but only hints at the destruction of a large portion of Manhattan after the attacks of 9/11. And speaking of the attacks on the World Trade Center, I imagine that witnessing the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake was similar to east coast residents watching the events of 9/11 unfold on their smartphones and television sets. If you were not suffering personal tragedy and your barometer for compassion was at an all-time low, you looked upon the destruction with awe and a strange but removed fascination. My favorite post-disaster response. The post office was the hero of my childhood, keeping me connected to friends and family miles away. San Francisco's post office employees made and all-out effort to save their building. As a result they were able to resume service two days after the earthquake. The postmaster understood the importance of communicating with loved ones; an early version of "marked safe." Dramatic, well-told story of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake/fire - its geological backstory and the ensuing societal fallout. Having lived in San Francisco during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, this story of the more powerful quake triggers terror at the awesome power of the earth and the plates that float just beneath the surface. I was a bit put off by all the geologic background, but the story and its myriad roots and detail are quite engaging, held my interest. I especially enjoyed the sections where Winchester inserts his own personal take on the journey that the investigation into the quake inspired.
Geology is not, at first glance, the most inviting of subjects, but in this book Simon Winchester makes it engagingly, captivatingly readable. Without slighting the human suffering of the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, and with full attention to the irreducible particularity of their pain, Winchester places their tragedies in an almost cosmic context. The earth is not a stable structure, he teaches us, but a living system. Me, I hated it. I wanted to drop-kick this book across the backyard. If Doris Kearns Goodwin or David McCullough can lay claim to being the Miles Davis of popular history, Winchester is becoming the Kenny G. Part tectonic textbook, part intimate travelogue, A Crack in the Edge of the World searches for the irrepressible primeval forces responsible for these periodic upheavals by examining the scars left along the temperamental North American plate, which stretches from Iceland in the east to the coast of California. Tugging the reader along from Greenland to Newfoundland, from New Madrid, Missouri, to Meers, Oklahoma, Winchester reconstructs a sequence of cataclysms as he closes in on the fateful events of that April morning. This legendary natural disaster and urban catastrophe -- with its rough parallels to today's events -- is the subject of Simon Winchester's "A Crack in the Edge of the World." Unfortunately, Mr. Winchester explores the events of 1906 only after he has taken the reader for a long road trip of geologically significant American towns and 200 rambling and tedious pages on the history of "earlier American geology" and geologists. Prix et récompensesDistinctions
A crack in the edge of the world is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake and a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)979.461051History and Geography North America Great Basin and West Coast U.S. California West central counties; San Francisco group San FranciscoClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |