Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, by Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed The World).
Absolutely fascinating. (Oh, more required? Ok, then.) Winchester tells the story of the volcanic explosion of Krakatoa, a six-cubic-mile island in the Sunda Straits, between Sumatra and Java (note: West of Java, not East, as the movie told you). It killed nearly 40,000 residents of coastal villages on both those islands, and was the first major disaster which occurred after the world had been interconnected by telegraph; the author makes a persuasive case that this was the first manifestation of that global village McLuhan talked about. He explains how the theory of tectonic plates came to be and who developed it, introducing the reader to a compelling cast of characters while not burying him/her in geologic strata. He doesn't dwell on the details of the disaster (despite the complaint of one reviewer at Amazon), but rather explains the impact of it on societies worldwide; did you know that volunteer firefighters in Poughkeepsie tried to find a fire which turned out to be a sunset? Or that the air shock wave circled the earth seven times? Those are just a couple of the things you'll find in here.
It's wonderfully readable and highly educational at the same time. Don't skip the footnotes; Winchester's got a wonderfully Puckish sense of humor, and those are where it's manifested.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 3, 2003 11:09 AMoff topic of your post: Happy Birthday!!!!
Posted by: deb at November 4, 2003 04:33 AM