Description
Earthquakes,
volcanoes,
tsunamis.
Headline-making natural disasters with devastating consequences for millions of people. But what do we actually know about these literally earth-shaking events?
New York Times bestselling author, explorer, journalist, and geologist Simon Winchester—who’s been shaken by earthquakes in New Zealand, skied through Greenland to help prove the theory of plate tectonics, and even charred the soles of his boots climbing a volcano—looks at the science, technology, and societal impact of these inter-connected natural phenomena.
A master nonfiction storyteller, Winchester digs deep into the powerful natural forces that shape the earth, exploring the how and why of world-changing events from the 19th-century’s infamous volcanic eruption at Krakatoa and the earthquake that flattened San Francisco, to the 21st-century tsunamis that devastated Indonesia and Japan. It’s a gripping story about what happens when our seemingly unmovable planet shakes, explodes, and floods—all richly illustrated with fascinating historical and stunning contemporary photographs.
About the Author
Simon Winchester, OBE, is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who resides in the United States. Through his career atThe Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. As an author, Simon Winchester has written or contributed to over a dozen nonfiction books and authored one novel, and his articles appear in several travel publications includingCondé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine,andNational Geographic.In 1969, Winchester joinedThe Guardian,first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becomingThe Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer forThe Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.Winchester's first book,In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book,American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book,Prison Diary,was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.Winchester's first truly successful book wasThe Professor and the Madman(1998), published by Penguin UK asThe Surgeon of Crowthorne.Telling the story of the creation of theOxford English Dictionary,the book was aNew York TimesBest Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used inThe Professor and the Madmanseveral times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book,The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's secondNew York Timesbest seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of theOxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything,as well as the best-sellingKrakatoa: The Day the World Exploded.Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake inA Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China(2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book,The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.- source Wikipedia
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