Books : Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (P.S.)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 551.2109598
EAN: 9780060838591
ISBN: 0060838590
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: July 01, 2005
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: July 05, 2005
Sales Rank: 31957
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Product Description:
Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author 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 author 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 biggest volcanic eruption in history using a blend of gentle geology and narrative history. Krakatoa erupted at a time when technologies like the telegraph were becoming 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 (almost 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 those 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 biggest 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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
While leading up to the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa, Simon Winchester goes to great lengths describing the cultural and economic history of Sumatra and Java and the geology of plate tectonics and the volcanic activity of the Pacific Rim. I found Winchester's accounts well-written and engaging but, as several reviewers have succinctly noted, those interested in a more direct account of the 1883 eruption should look elsewhere.
While I enjoyed the author's narrative, the publisher's niggardly approach to illustrating the work has detracted significantly from its value. The public-domain portraits, drawings, and sketches complement the text nicely, but the maps are quite another matter. Few of them appear to apply directly to the written text and the labels often don't correspond to events described or even those on other maps. The book's first map, for example, shows the land masses of Southeast Asia with China, Burma, Laos, Sumatra, Java, Australia, and the Philippines labeled. Krakatoa is not depicted. The second map shows Java and Sumatra and several islands between them; Krakatoa is one of them but, unlike some of the islands, is unlabeled. The third map is of three islands in the Krakatoa group, but, because the topography of Krakatoa changed with each subsequent eruption, the outline doesn't match any of the islands on the previous map. The third map is labeled, but some of the archaic spellings do not correspond to those in Winchester's text. This ... Read More
Rating:  -
It is rare that someone combines scientific expertise with great writing talent that takes in, not only the scientific part of a topic, but also the human part. Simon Winchester is that rare person. In the pages of this absorbing tale, you learn the geology behind the explosive eruption of the volcanic island Krakatoa in 1883, an event so loud it was heard 3000 miles away, so disastrous that the tsumanis it spawned swept away villages, people, and ships that happened to be in the Sunda Straits at the time.
But you get so much more than just fascinating information about the earth's geology and the formation and fate of an island located over a subduction zone. You get a history lesson about the Dutch East Indies and a city called Batavia (now Jakarta, capital of Indonesia). You learn how the Dutch kicked out the Portuguese and claimed these islands of Java, Sumatra, and other islands in the archipelago. You learn that black pepper grows on these islands and about the trading routes that were established to bring this and other spices back to Europe.
Here is a history of the exploration of these islands, including the observations of one Alfred Russel Wallace, who noted the flora and fauna were different on different parts of this island zone. A disciple of Darwin, Wallace studied the islands extensively and finally drew an imaginary line separating the two distinct types of life occupying the islands. This became known as "The Wallace Line." Years later, ... Read More
Rating: -
In grad school in the early 1980s I had a professor whose lectures unfailingly transported us around the world and across the centuries, integrating what theretofore had seemed to be at best only loosely connected places, people, events, and ideas. Every lecture was a gem. Simon Winchester's book, Krakatoa, is intellectually satisfying in the exact same way. I listened to the audio CD version four or five times, and recommend it unhesitatingly.
Rating: -
In "Krakatoa" author Simon Winchester examines the great explosion of August 27, 1883 from all angles, including historical, scientific, social, political and religious. He starts by explaining the social structure in the Dutch East Indies at the time. He then goes on to explain the scientific explanations for what happened and why. A fascinating portion is the story of the scientific studies which recorded the effects of the blast including water waves thousands of miles away and the air wave which circled the globe seven times during the first fifteen days. As the book progresses he impact the blast had on the natives and Europeans living in the area. He eventually suggests that the rise in Muslim devotion in the Dutch East Indies may have been the result of a fundamentalist turn to Allah after the catastrophe. The book ends by chronicling the volcanic activity and the island at the site of Krakatoa in the years since the explosion.
Krakatoa was the first major natural catastrophe to occur after the network of underground cables united the world. This made it a "World Event" which has fascinated readers ever since. I had long heard of Krakatoa and appreciate the opportunity to gain a better understanding it and its implications. It raised an interest in other scientific histories and the history of the Dutch East Indies. A book than can do that merits a recommendation.
Rating:  -
Gratuitous slaps at creation science didn't help to positively influence my opinion of this book, but ultimately this book just wasn't as well-written as expected from Winchester, renowned as he is for his popular scientific treatments such as
--The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary
--A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
The book takes too long to get going with too many side trails from the main subject that are only marginally interesting.
In the side trails that are of interest, we learn that
--amateur weather observers indulging in their newly-popular pastime helped record the shock waves that circled the globe seven times after the explosion.
--the explosion is believed to be the loudest ever in human history, and was heard nearly 3,000 miles away.
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