Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
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Product Description
Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling leader of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa, which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá 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. Krakatoa gives us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including leader interviews, recommended reading, and more.Amazon.com Review
It may seem a stretch to connect a volcanic eruption with civil and religious unrest in Indonesia today, but Simon Winchester makes a compelling case. Krakatoa tells the frightening tale of the largest volcanic eruption in history using a blend of gentle geology and narrative history. Krakatoa erupted at a time when technologies like the telegraph were apt commonplace and Asian trade routes were being expanded by northern European companies. This bustling colonial backdrop provides an effective canvas for the suspense leading up to August 27th, 1883, when the nearby island of Krakatoa would violently vaporize. Winchester describes the eruption through the eyes of its survivors, and readers will be as horrified and mesmerized as eyewitnesses were as the death toll reached nearly 40,000 (nearly all of whom died from tsunamis generated by the unimaginably strong shock waves of the eruption). Ships were thrown miles inshore, endless rains of hot ash engulfed persons towns not drowned by 100 foot waves, and vast rafts of pumice clogged the hot sea. The explosion was heard thousands of miles away, and the eruption’s shock wave traveled around the world seven times. But the book’s largest surprise is not the riveting catalog of the volcano’s effects; rather, it is Winchester’s contention that the Dutch abandonment of their Indonesian colonies after the disaster left local survivors to seek comfort in radical Islam, setting the stage for a volatile future for the region. –Therese Littleton
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The first sentence of the first chapter of Krakatoa should have served as a warning. It reads, “Though we reflect first of Java as an eponym for coffee (or to some today, a computer language) it is in fact the trading of aromatic tropical spices on which the fortunes of the fantastic island’s colonizers and Western discoverers were first founded”. What is this guy talking about? Does it have anything to do with volcanoes? And whoever knows what an eponym is? Does anyone care?
The book’s sub title, “The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883″ certainly suggests that Krakatoa is all ears on the cataclysmic events of that dark day. As a replacement for it meanders along at about the pace of the continental drift which, by the way, is very much discussed, along with such subjects as subduction zones, plate tectonics, magnetite crystals and convection zones. Also examined are Piper nigrum (pepper for the uninitiated), Dutch colonialism, the history of Islam in Indonesia, the exploits of Alfred Russel Wallace, the distribution of cockatoos, and various and sundry additional arcane and seemingly extraneous theme matters.
One hundred and fourteen pages have elapsed before the leader really starts to chat about the volcano and the events leading up to its eruption. And even then, digressions to consider such matters as the challenges of laying undersea telegraph cables annoyingly disrupt the narrative.
As a conglomeration of esoteric tidbits to prepare the reader for a excellent game of Trivial Pursuit, Krakatoa would surely earn a five star rating. But as the tale of “The Day the World Exploded” I can’t give it more than a two.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Way too many digressions with large amounts of unnecessary minutia. If the book was half the size I would have loved it a lot more. His Professor and the Madman was also too stretched out.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This work should be entitled “How to described an exciting and terrifying event in an intensely dull way”. Even my own brother, who has not much need for excitement, establish the book “kinda dull” and “mediocre in presentation”. Of course, the fact that the work is so pumped up in all the bookstores “new york times best seller” ..oh, it must be excellent, grab it. The leader’s patronizing stance as a professional historian who needs to clarify to us evolution and continental drift only inhances the excitement. he really presents nothing new for history. Basicly this “scholar” got away with properly marketing a well loved theme matter in order to rake in cash. kudos for that, delight in your reward. The work earned my scorn mostly because of the dull Modernist outlook which climaxes in a frenzy of platitudes when he briefly dismisses intelligent design and creationists as to be counted with flat earthers. But who am I? Some nut-case who questions the shibboleth of evolutionary theory (oh should be adage law?). I recommend looking elsewhere for your Krakatoa high.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Black smoke covering all that you can see, day
suddenly turns to night, and giant wave crushing your
houses. Krakatoa was an island made of 3 volcanoes
which exploded itself to nothingness in August 27, 1883.
Krakatoa is located in the Javanese islands where the
Dutch had colonies. The Dutch had colonies at the
Javanese island because that is where the Dutch grew
pepper. The explosion was the largest eruption in the
world. The immense sound was heard 2968 miles away.
The volcanic ash reached New York City.
There were humongous waves that toppled anything that
was in its way. To the Javanese people on the islands,
their world had exploded. There was Uprising against
the Dutch before the mighty Krakatoa spewed up the
lava and exploded. In the end, scientists go back to
Krakatoa to see what happened to the island that was
blown out of being, there was 4 islands in the
place of ancient Krakatoa called Anak Krakatoa.
This book was not that exciting. The book was too long
and the leader clarified the same things over and over
again. There was the exciting part where the island of
Krakatoa was blown to nothingness and was supposedly
blown out of being.
I would not really recommend this book because it’s
not really suitable to all ages. This book would only
be excellent if you were into learning about plate
tectonics. Also it is a excellent reference to see the
phases of a volcano.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
Q: How do you make the world’s largest explosion dull? A: By adding hundreds of pages of tangential material about everything additional than the volcano blowing up, and then giving fleeting shrift the details on the actual boom. I was expecting something more exciting. It’s too long on history and too fleeting on science.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5