Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Erik LarsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-07-11
ISBN: 0375708278
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Book Review: "No dangerous winds are indicated." William Stockman, U.S. weather bureau manager in Cuba
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a potboiler filled with interesting and horrifying facts, but also a bit too much journalistic and manipulative writing. Of the books I've read by Erik Larson ("Thunderstruck," "The Devil in the White City,") this one is the most sensational and clearly is stretching the facts to shock the reader. At least that's my impression.
Still, it's worth reading for sure. The terrifying story of the Galveston hurricane, which the cover of this book screams out to be "the Deadliest Hurricane in History," reflects racist views in America (Cuban forecasters were ignored), thick-headed government officials (Willis Moore), and sexism, as the men in Galveston laughed at their fearful wives in the face of the monstrous storm bearing down on the completely unprotected city. In fact, things haven't changed that much over one hundred years in America, as the events surrounding the onslaught and aftereffects of the beast Katrina have demonstrated. Some parts of this book really convey the horror, randomness, and madness of the storm, the flooding, and the incredibly powerful gales.
Larson has done his homework for this book. He's dug up a buried part of the American experience and done a good job presenting it. For that he gets four stars. For his short, melodramatic sentences that are supposed to leave the reader gasping, he gets a demerit.
Summary of Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devestating personal tragedy.Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
Reading in his signature dispassionate style, narrator Edward Herrmann brings an eerie calm to this powerful chronicle of the deadliest storm ever to hit the United States--a huge and terribly destructive hurricane that struck land near Galveston, Texas in September of 1900. Author Erik Larson re-creates the events leading up to the disaster in astonishing detail, tracing the thoughts and actions of Isaac Cline, a scientist with America's burgeoning U.S. Weather Bureau. Cline's unwavering confidence--"In an age of scientific certainty one could not allow one's judgment to be clouded..."--blinds the meteorologist to the deadly onslaught about to be unleashed. Herrmann's calculated performance reflects the impending doom and dangers inherent to an unquestioned and absolute faith in science. (Running time: 5 hours, 3 cassettes) --George Laney
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