A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester, Paperback, 9780060572006 | Buy online at The Nile
Departments
 Free Returns*

A Crack in the Edge of the World

America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

Author: Simon Winchester and Author and Historian Simon Winchester   Series: P. S.

Paperback

The international bestselling author of "The Professor and the Madman" and "Krakatoa" takes an adventurous and informative look at earthquakes, focusing on the devastating San Francisco quake of 1906. Illustrations & maps throughout.

Read more
$41.47
Or pay later with
Check delivery options
Paperback

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

The international bestselling author of "The Professor and the Madman" and "Krakatoa" takes an adventurous and informative look at earthquakes, focusing on the devastating San Francisco quake of 1906. Illustrations & maps throughout.

Read more

Description

The international bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and Krakatoa vividly brings to life the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.

In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of California. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines throughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.

Perhaps more significant than the tremors and rumbling, which affected a swatch of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in its wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities--as well as his unique understanding of geology--to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.

A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.

Read more

About the Author

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

Read more

Back Cover

Unleashed by ancient geologic forces, a magnitude 8.25 earthquake rocked San Francisco in the early hours of April 18, 1906. Less than a minute later, the city lay in ruins. Bestselling author Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities to this extraordinary event, exploring the legendary earthquake and fires that spread horror across San Francisco and northern California in 1906 as well as its startling impact on American history and, just as important, what science has recently revealed about the fascinating subterranean processes that produced it--and almost certainly will cause it to strike again.

Read more

Product Details

Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers Inc | HarperCollins Publishers
Published
10th October 2006
Pages
512
ISBN
9780060572006

Returns

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.

$41.47
Or pay later with
Check delivery options