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    Disaster!: A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
    Disaster!: A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
    Disaster!: A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
    Audiobook18 hours

    Disaster!: A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes

    Written by John Withington

    Narrated by Roger Clark

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history.

    If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events-as terrible and frightening as they are-have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth . . . and even before.

    From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's and Stalin's mass killings in the twentieth century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous. This volume offers a unique perspective on our modern fears by revealing how dangerous our world has always been-with examples such as: the Black Death that killed over seventy-five million people in the 1300s; the 1883 volcanic eruption on Krakatoa; the Irish Potato Famine; the 1970 cyclone in Bangladesh; and the long-ago volcano in Sumatra that may have wiped out as much as 99% of the world population.

    With this catalog of calamity, listeners will be engrossed, enlightened, and relieved to realize that despite all the disasters that have befallen humanity, we are still here.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 10, 2018
    ISBN9781977382900

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    Reviews for Disaster!

    3.5/5

    16 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A wide-ranging and enjoyable (if that's the word to use when reading a book about human suffering) book on the major disasters that have affected humans. In a broad sweep of history, we read of the volcanic eruption 100,000 years ago that almost wiped out humans (the volcano in question is now Lake Toba in Indonesia; a very pleasant place that I visited more recently than 100,000BCE), the various plagues, pestilences, wars and general evil that men do.While we're at it, we get first hand accounts of Pliny the Elder's death at Vesuvius and more ways to describe mass deaths than I thought possible. Some are actually quite poetic.As you read these and think of the past, with its tsunamis, fires and genocides, you realise that if you've learned anything in this life, is that it is only a matter of time before the next massive earthquake, plane crash and man man comes along and this book will have to be updated.
    • 5/5
      This is an excellent collection of narratives describing disasters, some historical and some within recent memory. The only criticism I would mention is that the author seems not to have anticipated that the book would be read by Americans, and so temperatures during heat waves in America are reported in celsius rather than fahrenheit.
    • 4/5
      This book represents a compelling account of all sorts of disasters - volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, shipwrecks, and what I would call "evil-dictator-death", among many other categories. Among the many accounts are some truly fascinating stories. Who knew that the human race was nearly wiped out 74,000 years ago by a mammoth volcano eruption? How often do 60-foot waves demolish a lighthouse in England?The early chapters deal with natural disasters, which are fascinating, but generally not too disturbing. As you move into the book, though, this changes, with accounts of massive plagues and purges caused by demagogues. These chapters are morbidly fascinating and bring us more into contact with the dark side of human nature, as well as presenting body counts that are truly astounding in many cases.Overall, the book is fascinating for anyone at all interested in this sort of thing. However, it can get a bit repetitive at times if you're reading it cover-to-cover. My advice would be to either read it in segments, putting it away and coming back to it when you feel the urge, or to pick and choose the kinds of events that you're most interested in. This repetitiveness is the reason that I didn't give it 5 stars. The research behind the book and the writing style are both of high quality. In short, a worthy purchase for anyone with an interest in learning about the worst disasters to afflict human history.