Disaster!

From Barnes & Noble

The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is among the most famous historical events of the American Century, but few of us know more than a place name and a date. Dan Kurzman, whose Fatal Voyage brought the sinking of the USS Indianapolis tragically alive for more than 150,000 readers, turns his attention to this country's worst peacetime calamity. His narrative is filled with revelations. He asserts, for example, that previous counts radically underestimated the fatalities, claiming that as many as 10,000 people died in the earthquake and subsequent fire. He unfolds individual survivor stories with minute-by-minute intensity and describes how a military dictatorship assumed control of the devastated city.

Chicago Tribune

Kurzman delivers a vivid account of the 5:13 a.m. quake and the calamitous hours that followed.

Morning News Dallas

[Kurzman] puts a human face on the 8.3 earthquake that rumbled through a sleeping city.

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

Groundbreaking . . . [a] fresh look at a watershed event.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

On the morning of April 18, 1906, a monster earthquake struck San Francisco, leveling virtually the entire city and sparking a fire that would burn for three days. In this harrowing, exhaustively researched account, Kurzman calls the catastrophe "probably America's worst peacetime disaster," with 10,000 dead. The author focuses on the human drama, following more than 100 different characters over several days, to illustrate the extremes of courage and cowardice that tragedy can evoke. Some tried to ignore it, like actor John Barrymore, who put on his white tails and strolled to a Union Square club for a brandy. Others were utterly absorbed by it, like the San Francisco Call reporter who dashed around the crumbling city in a frenzy, agog at the opportunity to "record the end of the world." And yet others went berserk, like the drunk prostitutes and pimps who staged an orgy on the steps of the U.S. Mint, apparently deciding to meet the world's end "in the style to which they were accustomed." Heroism also manifested itself in many forms, such as the exhausted firefighters who fought literally at the water's edge to keep the blaze from consuming the last pier connecting San Francisco to the rest of the world. Kurzman, a veteran chronicler of catastrophe (Fatal Voyage: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis; etc.) and winner of the George Polk Memorial Award and the National Jewish Book Award, has put his experience to good use here. A Titanic-like tragedy, absorbing characters and an astute and sympathetic storytellerthis book has it all. 16-page b&w photo insert; 1 map. (May) Forecast: Fatal Voyage sold a total (in cloth and paper) of 150,000. This new book, appearing exactly 95 years after the pivotal event, should be a natural in the Bay Area and among disaster enthusiasts, particularly those readers who enjoy the thrill of reliving danger from the safety of their favorite reading chair. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, destroyed most of the city. The fires afterward, however, leveled what remained and rendered the entire population homeless; perhaps ten thousand died all told. While the great opera singer Enrico Caruso rushed to save his clothes and valuables, the poor ran for their lives; and as firemen valiantly fought the firestorm in a futile effort to save the city, Mayor Eugene Schmitz organized an ad hoc committee to control panic, aid victims, and supervise relief efforts. The disaster made heroes out of beggars and beggars of rich men. Corruption reached new lows, and human generosity blossomed under adversity. Kurzman (former Washington Post correspondent and author of 14 books) portrays a city in panic as it faced the worst disaster in its history. Working from diaries and papers that survived the fires, Kurzman brings history alive as he weaves together individual stories. The concluding chapters summarize the new society that sprang from the ashes, based on a person's ability to work rather than the accident of birth. In addition, Kurzman reviews contemporary San Francisco's ability to combat disaster. This riveting history belongs in public and academic libraries. Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.