Jelle Zeilinga de Boer is Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science at Wesleyan University
Review
Zeilinga de Boer and Sanders have provided us with evidence that natural phenomena, in this case earthquakes, can sometimes have long-term historical consequences in changing the fate of cultures. With examples ranging from biblical to modern times, they show how destructive earthquakes have interacted with wars, religious beliefs, and political movements in changing history. Each account is preceded by a generally accessible account of the geological processes that led to the fateful earthquake. A fascinating read and an antidote to the usual anthropocentric views of history such as that of Arnold Toynbee.
Summary
On November 1, 1755--All Saints' Day--a massive earthquake struck Europe's Iberian Peninsula and destroyed the city of Lisbon. Churches collapsed upon thousands of worshippers celebrating the holy day.Earthquakes in Human Historytells the story of that calamity and other epic earthquakes. The authors, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders, recapture the power of their previous book,Volcanoes in Human History. They vividly explain the geological processes responsible for earthquakes, and they describe how these events have had long-lasting aftereffects on human societies and cultures. Their accounts are enlivened with quotations from contemporary literature and from later reports. In the chaos following the Lisbon quake, government and church leaders vied for control. The Marquecirc;s de Pombal rose to power and became a virtual dictator. As a result, the Roman Catholic Jesuit Order lost much of its influence in Portugal. Voltaire wrote his satirical workCandideto refute the philosophy of "optimism," the belief that God had created a perfect world. And the 1755 earthquake sparked the search for a scientific understanding of natural disasters. Ranging from an examination of temblors mentioned in the Bible, to a richly detailed account of the 1906 catastrophe in San Francisco, to Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, to the Peruvian earthquake in 1970 (the Western Hemisphere's greatest natural disaster), this book is an unequaled testament to a natural phenomenon that can be not only terrifying but also threatening to humankind's fragile existence, always at risk because of destructive powers beyond our control.
Table of Contents
Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Table of Conversions xv
CHAPTER 1: Earthquakes: Origins and Consequences 1 Sidebar: induced earthquakes Sidebar: mark twain's earthquake
almanac
CHAPTER 2: In the Holy Land: Earthquakes and the Hand of God 22
CHAPTER 3: The Decline of Ancient Sparta: A Tale of Hoplites, Helots, and a Quaking Earth 45 Sidebar: euripides,
homer, and aristotle
CHAPTER 4: Earthquakes in England: Echoes in Religion and Literature 65
CHAPTER 5: The Great Lisbon Earthquake and the Axiom "Whatever Is, Is Right" 88 Sidebar: the wonderful
"one-hoss-shay"
CHAPTER 6: New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811: The Once and Future Disaster 108 Sidebar: a disastrous reprise?
CHAPTER 7: Earthquake, Fire, and Politics in San Francisco 139 Sidebar: causes of quakes in the bay area
CHAPTER 8: Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake: "Hell Let Loose on Earth" 170 Sidebar: the kamakura earthquake
of 1257 and the rise of the lotus sect
CHAPTER 9: Peru in 1970: Chaos in the Andes 194 Sidebar: in chile--tsunamis, devastation, and darwin
CHAPTER 10: The 1972 Managua Earthquake: Catalyst for Revolution 221
