Rating: 
Summary: Questionable Research?
Review: While I found "Isaacs Storm" to be an entertaining read, the prose is often purplish. I did find one error in scholarship that caused me to question the veracity of the whole screed.On page 58 of the paperback edition, the author places Judge Roy Bean in Sweetwater, Texas (located in North Central Texas.) Every Texan knows that Judge Roy Bean was located in Langtry, Texas, down on the Rio Grande. To confirm, I telephoned the local historical center in Sweetwater, and they are blissfully unaware of the fact that Judge Roy Bean ever practiced jurisprudence there. I find Judge Roy Bean's astral projection of some hundreds of miles a far greater mystery than the fact that turn of the century weather forecaster might misdiagnose a hurricane.
Rating: 
Summary: Read like an adventure story.
Review: Wow! Impressive. I started the first page and before I realized it I was at the last page! In one sitting minus the time it took to take my Great Dane Tempo out to do his "business." Although Larson is not an academic historian, he is a thorough journalist with articles in several publications, including Time, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and The Wall Street Journal, and several books to his credit. His research of the topic is extensive, as witnessed by the bibliography, and his writing style is riveting. Isaac's Storm describes an intriguing, almost mythic time in history, the turn of the 20th Century. This was a time of expansion, a time when it seemed that western man, having colonialized most of the known world and traveled to the most inaccessible portions of the globe, would be able to conquer nature itself. It was nothing if not an exuberant and naive time, an adolescence full of questions. Darwin had questioned the tenets of faith and divine creation, Shaw the social and sexual hierarchy, Ibsen the values of the middle class, Marx the validity of capitalism. Cline and his fellows were busy questioning the basis of cimate and weather. It was a time of new inventions, a gadget age which witnessed the introduction of the telegraph, the telephone, and the automobile. The Titanic, World War I,the disillusionment of the Jazz Age, and the Great Depression were still in the offing, just beyond the horizon, but in September of 1900 nothing yet seemed impossible. Isaac Cline was a man of the times. He was a workaholic and polymath of considerable talent, having graduated from a local Tennessee college and a training program in meteorology conducted by the military in behalf of it's nascent Weather Bureau. He went on to get a medical degree and research the effects of climate on health while fulfilling his obligations as a meteorologist for the government. Later in life he studied art and became an artist, art connoisseur and dealer. It was evident by his thoroughness that he was proud of his work and shared the fundamental beliefs of his class and time. While Cline is an interesting individual and the thread that binds the story together, the real personality of Larson's book is the hurricane itself; the book is really the biography of a storm. The Galveston hurricane of September 1900 was of mythic proportions, an almost Armageddon event, and Larson tells its tale well. It has a "family tree," of sorts, beginning with experiences with Carribean hurricanes by men like Columbus and his arch enemy Don Jose Solano, and by those of amateur meteorologists in Cuba, and with the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal by European students of weather in India. It also has a "personal" history, and Larson follows it from its birth in Equatorial Africa to it's march through the Atlantic across Cuba and on to Galveston. Material as diverse as ships logs and the personal comments by captains and crews caught at sea by the storm add a sense of impending disaster to the description. The story of the Hurricane of 1900 is made very real to the reader through a narrative of the events from the perspective of survivors. Like tales of the Johnstown Flood, which had happened a few years earlier (and from whom the people of Galveston received relief aid after the storm) the stories of tragic loss and miraculous survival are moving. The characters of many the individuals are made vivid through information gleaned in diaries, letters, government documents, newspapers, and personal reminiscences. The reader is captured in the details of the daily life of the city and its in habitants in such a way that the outcome of the storm is not a matter of idyl curiosity but one of personal urgency. I found myself so taken by the story of one family, that when a woman was found dead, I had to make certain by reading back again, that she was not a member of "my" family. I felt relief in knowing she was not, but a sense of anxiety too, in not knowing the outcome of their tale. How many survivors of the 1900 debacle must have felt that same lack of closure even more intensely than I! The book reads like an adventure story!
Rating: 
Summary: Do You Watch the Weather Channel?
Review: If you do, then this book will be especially interesting to you as it often dissects the very meterological aspect of the title character. In an era where we rely so greatly on news video footage and dramatic movie interpretation, it is refreshing to indulge in a book that so thoroughly chornicles the real-life human drama of a not-so-distant American catastrophe.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great...
Review: Many previous readers have already given in-depth reviews on the particulars of this book (history of weather forecasting, hurricanes, Galveston, etc.). What I found very lacking was the absence of photographs. After reading this book and then checking out some web sites that showed pictures of Galveston after the storm, I had no idea how bad the city looked after being ravaged by this terrible disaster. Larson himself mentions that the Galveston Library has over 4000 photographs pertaining to the storm. It would have increased the reader's appreciation of the storm to have included at least a few of them.
Rating:
Summary: Sweeping book on America's worst disaster
Review: In September of 1900, a major hurricane came ashore at Galveston, Texas. Thousands died, and it remains the worst natural disaster in US history. This book provides a broad, sweeping background to that event, the author seeing in what led up to it and what followed signs of the times as well as a simple historical reckoning. The Weather Bureau of the time was even more defensive than it is now, and with good reason: they weren't very good at forecasting the weather. Isaac Kline, their man in Galveston, was one of their best, and he even believed that his adopted city was topographically safe from such a disaster. Meanwhile, the Bureau stifled the native Cuban forecasters, who had many years of experience in predicting hurricanes. The result is almost an Aristotelian tragedy, as the hubris of Kline and his agency lead to disaster. Larson provides a background on numerous levels. The most straightforward one would be (and is) the Weather Bureau itself, which had just undergone a major reorganization and cleanup in response to massive corruption found in the local field offices. (One meteorologist filed all his observations for the week on Monday and took the rest of the week off; another turned his office into a photographic studio and took nude photographs of women; still others had to make his observations at the pawn shop because he'd hocked the equipment for gambling debts.) Now tightly controlled, the Bureau would be as good or as bad as the man in charge. Moore, however, is an autocratic leader who wants to centralize control and seems to see promising subordinates, like Kline, as rivals. Another background is on Kline himself, a disciplined, ambitious man, trained to the weather service and eager to make a name for himself. Given charge of the entire Texas region, he works hard to meet the demands of his job. Then there's Galveston, at the time an up-and-coming city, fighting with Houston for the privilege of being the major western port on the Gulf of Mexico while being one of the fastest-growing cities in the country between 1890 and 1900.
There are also the people of Galveston, and Larson picks out a few citizens, seemingly no one special, to describe in detail. Finally, there are hurricanes in general. Forming in the Atlantic or the Gulf from causes only roughly understood, they are among the most formidable forces in nature. Even today, as Larson relates, we do not understand why one tropical wave dissipates while another turns into Hurricane Andrew. The hurricane of 1900 in fact formed well out in the Atlantic, passing over Cuba on its way to the Gulf. The Weather Bureau confidently predicted that the storm would turn north and in fact issued warnings to North Atlantic fishermen of the approaching storm. Even when this error was realized, the storm was not considered to be significant. The Cuban weathermen, meanwhile, somehow recognized that this storm would be a major one, but, being natives, they were not listened to. (Even after the disaster, there were those at the Bureau who insisted that the Cuban storm and the Texas one were totally separate.) The stage is set for the disaster itself, which Larson relates in agonizing detail. He describes the ships at sea that encounter the storm, as well as Isaac himself walking along the beach and realizing that something is approaching. The winds blow, the waves rise, the sea comes to blanket Galveston as the townspeople first fight to save their property and then to save their lives. Eventually, the town is devastated and thousands are dead. Larson describes the spread of bodies and the horrifying cleanup afterwards. Though Isaac is chastened at that point, Moore at the Weather Bureau blithely takes credit for warning of the oncoming hurricane, even though the only warning authorized is for high winds. It's an extraordinarily gripping tale, all the more exciting because it's all true. Larson does an excellent job of telling the tale, perhaps only exceeding the mark when he puts thoughts in Isaac's head or seems to decide that everything he found out in his researches needs to be in the book. Included with the audiotape is an interview with the author, in which he talks about how he came up with the idea, how he went about his massive research, and how he found Isaac as the focus of the story. It makes for a very interesting addition to an extraordinary book. Highly recommended. (My review is based on an unabridged audio tape and possibly not the version currently available.)
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling non-fiction nature adventure
Review: An almost lyrical description of the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. You don't have to be a Weather Channel junkie to enjoy this. A wonderful history of weather forecasting set against a backdrop of tragedy, bureaucracy, bad luck, dumb luck and nature's fury. At times a little confusing trying to trace all the hunan characters' movements (the storm itself is the protagonist), the book could've benefitted from a better map. Nevertheless the reader feels he/she knows the place and people. The outstanding visual image: housewives chopping holes in their floors trying to keep the storm surge floodwaters from sweeping away their homes. A real page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: This is a very compelling book and progressively sucks you into its real-life drama. I've read alot of books on hurricanes, natural disasters and outdoor adventures and this is one of the best in my opinion. Larson does a good job of showing how the National Weather Bureau worked in a pre-Doppler age and how one man's choices could have dire effects on how people responded to a storm. I am reminded of the Hurricane of '38 when people perished on islands only a stone's throw away from the Connecticut shore. It's inconceivable to us that so many people could be caught unaware in this day and age with today's technology but there still remains a certain psyche of "weather denial" that existed in 1900. The book becomes even more gripping as the waters rise to 2nd floors of homes and people struggle against the currents rushing through the streets in complete blackness, no less. Larson also is thorough about the aftermath and the horrific aspect of many floating bodies to contend with, as morbid as it sounds, he paints a vivid picture. It all makes me wish I had studied metereology!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing!
Review: This was a book that I could not put down. The author brings you to a place and time where they didn't have the capability to predict storms. I learned some very interesting facts about hurricanes and the damage they can do. I certainly have more respect for them and their enormous ability to be so destructive. The author was so descriptive of the storm that you actually felt like you were witnessing the devastation first hand. Very well written. Enjoyed it immensely. I would reccommend this book highly.
Rating:
Summary: a gripping story of disasters and ideas
Review: This book chronicles two things: the hurricane that destroyed Galveston and Isaac Cline's underestimation of that storm. It skillfully weaves together one of the worst disasters in American history with a light, gripping story of why that disaster hit the island unprepared. Part history, part detective story, this book illustrates the importance of ideas and science in preserving human life. It also has a wealth of well-researched human detail that makes the storm and its terrible rage come alive. Do you have a friend who watches the Weather Channel obsessively? This is the perfect book for them... it shows how sexy weather forecasting can be!!!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful emotional read.
Review: I have such mixed reactions to this book; it's difficult to verbalize them.
Isaac's Storm is a powerful human story, one that leaves an imprint of death and sadness on the reader long after finishing the book. We can imagine what it must have been like for Isaac, who must have felt partially responsible for the loss of so many lives (including his wife and daughter). I could also vividly imagine what it must have felt like to watch the walls of the house breath with pounding water, and the desperate attempts to save family from the onslaught of wind, water, and debris. On the other hand, I was bothered by what seemed a bit of fictionalization. I was left to wonder whether Isaac and his brother, Joseph, were truly rivals or if the author expanded on that aspect of their relationship in order to make the book more interesting. Joseph seemed to take a back seat to his brother's importance, although it was Joseph who more accurately sensed the impending danger. It was Joseph who loved his brother enough to stay with him throughout the storm and even rescue his children. I also had a difficult time getting excited about the first half of the book. This may be due to circumstance: I read the first half in 15-30 minute spurts on lunch breaks. Or it may be because of the context changes from chapter to chapter s in the first half (from Galveston to the history of the Weather Bureau). The last half of the book, read in one sitting, was much more interesting-but it also focused on a single timeline, leading us from the heart of the storm and the devastation that followed, into the final years of both Joseph and Isaac. I'd recommend this book, but not as your first introduction to "historical" fictionalized non-fiction (if that made any sense at all).
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