Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa.
Read more
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round the planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogota and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all — in view of today's new political climate — the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.
Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.
Liked Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens Shares nonfiction, science, history -
Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls Shares nonfiction, science, history -
Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938 Shares nonfiction, history, science -
Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History Shares nonfiction, history, disaster
“People who read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded tend to reach for these next.”
-
When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes
-
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
-
The Day the Universe Changed: How Galileo's Telescope Changed the Truth
-
The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850
“If you want more of the same (science about nature), start with these.”
-
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
-
Your Flying Car Awaits: Robot Butlers, Lunar Vacations, and Other Dead-Wrong Predictions of the Twentieth Century
- Challenger: An American Tragedy: The Inside Story from Launch Control
-
A Splintered History of Wood: Belt Sander Races, Blind Woodworkers, and Baseball Bats
“If it was the history that hooked you, try one of these.”
-
Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault
-
The Puzzle of Ancient Man: Advanced Technology in Past Civilizations?
-
The Book of Origins: Discover the Amazing Origins of the Clothes We Wear, the Food We Eat, the People We Know, the Languages We Speak, and the Things We Use
- The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
