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Summary: Chilling history
Review: I sat with this book on the streets of Galveston and used the excellent maps to place individual tales of death and survival. The book creates images of events that defy belief when you are sitting in the warm Texas gulf coast sun trying to imagine the horror. When you stand in front of lots a few hundred feet from the seawall and reflect what happened here, you are left in awe of the power of the ocean. The research is meticulous and well laid out in the book.
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: Well researched, well written. Can't wait to see what else Larkin has written. I learned more from this book about hurricanes than experiencing Hurricane Andrew in Miami.
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Summary: Well written and informative
Review: This book will draw you in and keep you interested. I planned on reading a couple of chapters and would up reading the entire book in one sitting. A little gory at times (only when necessary to describe the scene) and fascinating at all times!
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Summary: The Law of Storms
Review: I thought this was a very interesting and well-written book. For my own tastes, I would have preferred a little less about the office politics of the U.S. Weather Bureau and more about the mighty hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas in 1900. The book doesn't really take off until the monster makes landfall, and then the story gathers speed and interest very quickly. The author, Erik Larson, has a good eye for detail and a good clean way of writing about terribly moving a tragic moments: a child's rocking horse washed up along inland railroad tracks, corpse pyres in the aftermath creating illumination along the beach like "suns about to rise", and many other moments like these flash throughout the second half of the book. The Galveston Hurricane was a watershed for the advancement of hurricane prediction, as it became an urgent matter to avoid the horrific death tolls such as this storm produced. One aspect of this book is a depiction of the U.S. Weather Bureau during the storm, and it is not a complimentary portrait. It is the author's view that the huge death tolls of this storm might have been avoided if the U.S. Weather Bureau had been willing to listen to the Cuban forecasters, which had predicted the advance of a large hurricane; that in fact, the US Bureau was stubborn and dismissive of the Cuban meteorologists. Yet, as the author writes, the Cubans seemed to call every puff of wind that crossed their island a "hurricane," so how could you take them seriously? I feel the author's need to find fault with the U.S. Bureau for the high death toll is simply an example of the very current need to place the blame, from the comfort of 20/20 hindsight, of every bad event on somebody. After reading this book, it seems to me that no one, anywhere, had the technology in 1900 to predict or track hurricanes effectively, and the Cuban Bureau, by calling every storm a hurricane, got this one right (as they were bound to eventually). Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it.
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Summary: Excellent read!
Review: I have been facinated by hurricanes since I was a kid and experienced Hurricane Agnes in 1972, which by the time it reached this area, was only a tropical storm, and still did major damage. I loved this book. The author gives such a vivid description of what is is like to be a mere human being at the mercy of such a powerful storm. I think this book should be required reading for middle school or high school students studying weather; it has all the elements of science and human drama.
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Summary: Dead Men Tell No Tales...
Review: so, legitimate historians, psychologizers, fiction writers and sensationalizers get to do it for them. Many other reviewers of this book have pointed out what an exciting read this books is, and of that there is no doubt. However, as a BOI (born-on-the island, as native Galvestonians are called), and as one who has made a hobby of studying the history of the Great Storm, Erik Larson's book is an alarming addition to the literature. That pig-headed bureaucrats in that day's weather bureau doomed much of the island's population is indisputable (nothing could have saved the island's structures from destruction). However, making Isaac Cline bear the burden of the storm's tragedy is scapegoating of the worst kind. Larson's setting up of Cline in the Introductory chapter of the book makes it clear that he is to be Larson's villan. None of Cline's noble, nearly heroic actions before, during, and immediately after, the storm can dissuade Larson from pillorying Cline. He has his antagonist, and is satisfied with him. In fact, at the end of the book, Larson admits that Cline was basically filled in by "detective work and deduction" using sources that provided only the barest of information about Cline's biographical facts. It is, in other words, a hatchet job. Should you read this book? If you are able to tell judiciously told history from historical fiction-sure! And, have a good time with a rollicking story. If you want an idea of what the true circumstances are around the storm, read Weems' *A Weekend in September,* or the section on the storm in Cartwright's or McComb's histories of the city. My fear is that other writers on the storm will note the popularity of this work, and write these distortions into the historical record of the city.
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Summary: LITTLE DECISIONS
Review: Erik Larson's research on the 1900 Galveston cyclone discovers many of the little decisions that led to catastrophe. A father stubbornly stays at home to weather the hurricane. Train passengers decide to remain with the train as the waters deepen. A man plans to rip off a door and float away if the storm forces him to escape. Another pushes his brood into an overturned roof as it passes by their home in the surging water. Some of these people lived. Some died. But the biggest little decision was made the day before and it preciptated the disaster. No hurricane warnings were given. The result? Six thousand dead. Larson proves that disasters can be avoided, but not if those in charge allow petty disputes and arrogance to influence their decisions.
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Summary: Petty Bureaucrats in the Gilded Age
Review: Great book,reads like a novel...the storm is,by far, one of the most interesting and compelling characters, from its humble beginning as a warm breeze on the edge of the African deserts, to its transformation into one of the most devastating hurricanes to ever strike the Texas coast. In their pigheaded jockeying for positions in the newly formed National Weather Service, the petty bureaucrats blew this one out of their collective wazoos. Their refusal to listen to, indeed, even squashing the advice from Cuban forecasters,who had been observing storms for a few hundred years, cost thousands of lives.This should be MUST reading for anyone living on the U.S.coast.
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Summary: A gripping tale that can't be put down
Review: Not being a non-fiction reader for several years, this book peaked my interest since I live near Galveston. What I wasn't ready for was the draw this book had. I couldn't put this book down once I began reading it. The story is written in a fictional style but is pure non-fiction. It will hook you from the first page and carry you across the century. Perhaps, if you reflect upon the circumstances of those caught off guard by this storm you will see, as I did, the arrogance of those who lived at the turn of the century (1900) and how closely we come today to repeating that mind-set. We feel invunerable and yet nature has proven time and again what a tricky adversary she is. Least we think ourselves above nature we are sure to see that in the heart of disaster we are, as always, vunerable beings. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: WELL WRITTEN
Review: The book was well written and followed a good chronological timeline. His depiction of the events leading to the storm, and his description of the state-of-the-art weather technology at the turn of the last century are clear. The harrowing escapes and flooding are dramatic, and the cleanup was heart-wrenching. A tale well told.
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