The more I read Simon Winchester, the more I want to read. His style is accessible, human, and eclectic, dealing with complicated subjects in a manner that totally draws the reader into the topic. “A Crack in the Edge of the World,” you would assume from the cover blurb and photographs, focuses on the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Yes and no. Winchester deals with a wider topic first, global plate tectonics, narrows the field to earthquakes, narrows it again to earthquakes in the United States, further to the San Andreas Fault, and then zeroes in on the ’06 quake. Along the way, fascinating and informative digressions take place, little anecdotes that not only amused me but informed me.

Winchester doesn’t just focus on the physical geology of earthquakes, although there is plenty of that. A full social history of San Francisco, before and after the quake, is also presented, and as someone who knows a bit about the subject, I can say that the information is accurate and entertaining.

Winchester’s formal training at Cambridge was in geology, and, like John McPhee, took a sharp turn from that discipline into journalism. With both of them I find the same love of fact and detail, and luckily for us, the ability to weave facts into accessible prose. I’m gathering more of Winchester’s books to see what I’ve missed. ( )

Winchester is sometimes guilty of confusing wordiness with descriptiveness. All his books have a plodding element that prevents them from joining the ranks of their betters. His writing needs a braver editor to confront this and push back. He neither succeeds as a rigorous or inspiring writer of science, nor as an insightful observer of socioeconomic history. But he tries. Enjoyable but fails to impress. ( )

I will pretty much read anything Simon Winchester writes, so this might bias my review somewhat. Nevertheless, this is one of my favorites. The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire hits closer to home than the eruption of Krakatoa, and the effects on California history are fascinating. I didn't devour it the way I did some of his other works, but this book is ideal to read as a series of related vignettes. ( )

Covers the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as well as explores the history, cause, and other related topics of earthquakes and plate movement. Some of the side topics the author covers seem to be very far afield. ( )

Simon Winchester delivers another stellar non-fiction study of an historical event and its ramifications. As he did in "Krakatoa", Winchester delves deeply into the geological record to help the reader understand the mechanism that produced California's fault lines, including the San Andreas fault, and those fault lines' part in creating California's topography. Along the way, he provides a succinct history of San Francisco, from its origin as a squalid tent city at the beginning of the Gold Rush through its transformation into a sophisticated and sparkling urban center. Throw in local politics, crooked developers, and a little regional rivalry, and voila! A highly entertaining narrative of one of the most significant earthquakes in California's long history. Good stuff, and highly recommended. ( )

[Simon Winchester] is a marvelous writer and though this work is not the equal of [[The Meaning of Everything]] or of [[Krakratoa]] it has to be one of best ever written about an earthquake that ocurred before Winchester was born. He covers the earthquake from every angle and he does it in such a way that you feel like you were there to see it in person. He gives you the history of San Francisco, he gives you the science of earthquakes, he gives you the events of the day of the quake and he describes the panic of the people in the quake and the misery of the thousands left homeless. He tells about the government of San Francisco and the lack of any building codes and the disheveled fire department with its useless fire hoses because their was no water in the fire hydrants. Winchester gives you the complete story but he does it in such a way that you enjoy the building excitement and though you know the outcome you keeping wondering what else he is going to throw in the fire. The power behind Winchester's stories are the people which he describes convincingly and with enough character to either root for the good guys are turn thumbs down to the bad guys. And whether you want to or not you know a lot more about the science of earthquakes after reading this book. ( )

In a book that combines personal observations, travelogue and history, Winchester succeeds at being dull in all three. His is the only voice, and the quality of the insights from this globe-trotting correspondent underwhelm the reader. Even in catastrophe, Winchester cannot conjure any hint of human drama. What he does conjure is his own astonishment at the painfully mundane—driving east to west, Tennessee seems to go on for a long time; there are four families named Angel in the town of Paradise, KS; there is a seismograph in a general store in a small town in Oklahoma; both the fabulously wealthy and the wretched poor lived in San Francisco in the early 20th century; some people think that the earthquake (which was felt far away) began at 12 minutes after 5am, others insist it began 7 minutes after the hour. Wow.

“The only way one can make any attempt at rationally planning for earthquakes in places like this, where, generally speaking, earthquakes do not happen, is to look very closely at those places where they have, albeit very infrequently, taken place. By doing this, one has a faint hope of imagining what could take place at some infuriatingly unspecifiable time in the future: It is only by looking at what has occurred in years gone by that one can imagine what might yet occur.”

Blithering Idiot Barleywine
Mendocino Oktoberfest

As a native Californian who lived in San Francisco for many years, I really enjoyed reading this book. It contains lots of SF and California history in addition to the fascinating geologic and earthquake information. Highly recommended. ( )

http://pixxiefishbooks.blogspot.com/2...

There is no need to be an avid earthquake junkie to enjoy this book,* though it would be fair to say a passing interest in natural disasters helps. Former journalist Simon Winchester, who is trained in geology, has written an intensely compelling account of the famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The earthquake was simply devastating. Striking early in the morning on April 18, 1906, it reduced a large part of San Francisco, one of the United States' most vibrant cities, to rubble. And what the earthquake did not destroy, the widespread fires that subsequently broke out finished off. Many thought the city would not be able to rebuild, but within a few months, it was back on its feet.

This is not just a social history of the people of San Francisco, detailing how peoples' lives were interrupted by the earthquake. While that in itself might be interesting enough, it certainly would not be adequate to sustain my interest for ~400 pages. Instead, in addition to bringing the 1906 earthquake and its reluctant participants to vivid life, Winchester also takes us on a fascinating geological tour. To research this book, he in fact traveled from just outside Albany in New York State, and straight across the southern United States to California. He then continued his travels northwards, through British Columbia up to Alaska (which is frequently hit by large quakes), and then back down through the Rockies and across the North American plain to his starting point in New York State. Along the way, he visits some of the most important geological hotspots, and tells us about their most interesting histories. Who knew, for instance, that a little tiny town in Missouri has suffered tens of thousands of earthquakes in the years since it was rocked by some quite violent ones in 1811, and that someday (in another 100 years or so) it will be hit by more big ones? Also, have you ever stopped to think that Yellowstone Park's Old Faithful is really just biding its time before, one day, it will turn into a super-volcano?

Set against the backdrop of the 1906 earthquake itself, Winchester tells us about these quirks of geology, and also takes us on a fascinating tour through the history and world of earthquake science, plate tectonics. This book should be called 'Earthquake Science for Dummies (and It's Interesting, Too!)'. Winchester knows his subject, and he gives just enough of a personal touch to every part of his subject (throwing in anecdotes, etc.) that what ought to be dry geological theories become quite interesting.

In fact, I suspect Winchester could make the phone book sound interesting.

* Unlike your beloved reviewer. ( )

I've read and enjoyed several of Simon Winchester's books, and this is my favorite thus far. This story abounds in historical interest, geological drama, and the bizarre coincidences that delight both Winchester and his readers.

The early chapters paint the broad backdrop of the 1906 earthquake -- both a cultural portrait of 19th century San Francisco and a geological profile of Western North America. In some Winchester books, the sections on geology can be largely review for readers who are (now or have ever been) geology majors. Here, however, the basic earth science is mixed with the history of scientific discovery and Winchester's travelogue of seismologically notable America. It never fails to engage and intrigue.

Of course the earthquake itself is fascinating, and Winchester weaves a compelling story out of past destruction, present danger, and the mythos of frontier America. ( )

Another entertaining, highly informative book from Simon Winchester. He begins by musing about a small town in Ohio, the hometown of astronaut Neil Armstrong and the sea change to geology that resulted from his walk on the moon, the development of the theory of plate tectonics. He then goes on to give a chatty account of the history of geology and California, all the while veering off into fascinating and humorous side stories about people and places, as he winds his way towards April 18, 1906 and the destructive earthquake that devastated San Francisco. ( )

Winchester takes an oftentimes intriguing macro-view of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire, but the most interesting parts of this pop-nonfiction recount are not necessarily the seismic elements.

Though Winchester is apt to rehash--watch out for pedantic repetition if you already have even a passing understanding of plate tectonics--there are great passages about the human and physical history of San Francisco. Factoids abound, and some of the anecdotes are worthy of repeating to one's friends.

Pruned a bit and without the somewhat tenuous personal-geological-discovery road trip subplot (especially the epilogue trip to Alaska, which seems shoehorned in), I'd give it four stars. ( )

A Crack in the Edge of the World (2005) by Simon Winchester tells the story of the Great Earthquake of San Francisco in 1906 (and much, much more) in a way only Winchester could tell it. Winchester has become one of my favorite writers simply because he writes about science, history, and travel in an engaging manner. He also has the James Burke-like talent of making connections among seemingly disparate things. For example, in the early chapters of this book he connects the website of Wapakoneta, OH and geologist Tuzo Wilson as well as making California's Mt. Diablo a symbol for pretty much everything to come in this book.

According to Winchester, 1906 was a year of seismic activity worldwide, the California earthquake just one of many events. Before we learn about the earthquake though, Winchester takes us deep into the geologic past. Winchester then takes a tour across the North American Plate starting in Iceland. As he travels the continent, Winchester visits the sites of numerous seismic events including such unlikely intraplate locations as Charleston, SC and New Madrid, MO. Finally arriving in California, Winchester takes us to Parkfield a hub of seismic activity and earthquake study.

Winchester prefaces the story of the 1906 quake with a fairly detailed, yet lively, history of San Franciso itself which rises from a wild west boomtown to the greatest city on the west coast. Finally, he relates the story of the quake itself, filled with first person stories of the people who experienced it. This includes some celebrities like operatic tenor Enrico Caruso, psychologist William James, writer Jack London, and four-year old Ansel Adams who broke his nose as a result of the earthquake. Amateur photography also captured the human perspective on the quakes and the ensuing fires.

Winchester also documents the human response to the earthquake. Scientist throughout the world use rudimentary devices to track the seismic activity (many of them in Jesuit institutions). Insurance companies tried to weasle out of paying their claims much to national disapproval, even in Congress. Long-term aftershocks of the earthquake include the rise of Los Angeles as the dominant western city due to its relatively more stable location. Winchester also theorizes that the belief in the earthquake as divine retribution sparked the rise in Pentecostal churches that still affects public discourse today. Another unfortunate aftereffect is the use of Angel Island to detain potential immigrants from China, many trying to claim relation to Chinese-Americans already living in the city because all the records were destroyed in the fires.

In an epilogue, Winchester continues his travels to Alaska where the famous pipeline traverses a fault and is susceptible to the viscious earthquakes of the state. The effects of Alaskan earthquakes can be seen all the way in Yellowstone Park, itself sitting on a volcanic caldera which could blow with disasterous results for the Western States. Winchester ties this up with the hubris of people building on land prone to seismic activity.

Since I'm commuting with my son and no longer have time to read on the subway, I got this as an audiobook to listen to while performing mundane tasks at work. It's narrated by Winchester himself in his charming, academic English accent. He also amusingly immitates the various accents of the historical figures he's quoting, such as Caruso's Italian. I enjoyed listening to this lively historical and geological work and reccomend it highly. I've previously read Winchester's Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, The Professor and the Madman, The Meaning of Everything, and The Map That Changed the World. You can read my reviews of these books at LibraryThing. ( )

This is a great book as long as you are interested not only in the history of the SF earthquake, but also plate tectonics and other geological information. Very thorough and ultimately very scary for anyone living in the part of the country. ( )

Winchester delivers another excellent mix of geology and history in this book about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Like all his books, it's a pleasure to read. ( )

Winchester really only begins to write about the subject of the title of the book when he is 170 pages in to the story....which gives you a good idea about how this book pans out. Far too much technical information about earthquakes etc for my liking, so much so that it becomes a little like a text book. There is some undeniably fascinating history involved here and there but on the whole I think Winchester gets bogged down in all the research he did for the book. ( )

Too tecnical--not for the average reader, diod have some interesting spots, however. ( )

I have been to San Francisco a lot and it is hard to imagine the tremendous power lying just below the surface. Winchester again does his meticulous research to bring people and events alive. ( )

I read this and gave it away to a friend who really loved it. Be sure to get the cover that opens out into a poster. ( )

San Francisco Earthquake ( )

I grew up in San Francisco; now I'm nervous every time I go back for a visit! ( )

I initially started listening to it, but Winchester’s sentences are so long and adorned with such long lists of adjectives, and his writing so dense with information, that I constantly found myself re-winding the CD to get the full meaning. Nevertheless, as I found the subject matter quite fascinating, I promptly got the paper version of the book and continued.
This book is about much more than the title suggests. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 serves as a focal point for a treatise in Earth geology, earthquake geology, American history, history of California, urban development and many other things that are however vaguely connected to any of the above mentioned topics. It must be one of the most comprehensibly researched books on the subject, and even though it digresses for hundreds of pages, it still makes a coherent and fascinating whole. ( )

The international bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and Krakatoa vividly brings to life the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.

In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of California. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines throughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.

Perhaps more significant than the tremors and rumbling, which affected a swatch of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in its wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities -- as well as his unique understanding of geology -- to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.

A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.

Amazon.com
Geologically speaking, 1906 was a violent year: powerful, destructive earthquakes shook the ground from Taiwan to South America, while in Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupted. And in San Francisco, a large earthquake occurred just after five in the morning on April 18--and that was just the beginning. The quake caused a conflagration that raged for the next three days, destroying much of the American West's greatest city. The fire, along with water damage and other indirect acts, proved more destructive than the earthquake itself, but insurance companies tried hard to dispute this fact since few people carried earthquake insurance. It was also the world's first major natural disaster to have been extensively photographed and covered by the media, and as a result, it left "an indelible imprint on the mind of the entire nation."
Though the epicenter of this marvelously constructed book is San Francisco, Winchester covers much more than just the disaster. He discusses how this particular quake led to greater scientific study of quakes in an attempt to understand the movements of the earth. Trained at Oxford University as a geologist, Winchester is well qualified to discuss the subject, and he clearly explains plate tectonics theory (first introduced in 1968) and the creation of the San Andreas Fault, along with the geologic exploration of the American West in the late 19th century and the evolution of technology used to measure and predict earthquakes. He also covers the social and political shifts caused by the disaster, such as the way that Pentecostalists viewed the quake as "a message of divine approval" and used it to recruit new members into the church, and the rise in the local Chinese population. With many records destroyed in the fire, there was no way to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and thus many more Chinese were granted citizenship than would have otherwise been. Filled with eyewitness accounts, vivid descriptions, crisp prose, and many delightful meanderings, A Crack in the Edge of the World is a thoroughly absorbing tale. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this brawny page-turner, bestselling writer Winchester (Krakatoa, The Professor and the Madman) has crafted a magnificent testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her. A master storyteller and Oxford trained geologist, Winchester effortlessly weaves together countless threads of interest, making a powerfully compelling narrative out of what he calls "the most lyrical and romantic of the sciences."Using the theory of plate tectonics introduced in 1968 by an obscure geologist, J. Tuzo Wilson, Winchester describes a planet in flux. Across the surface of the earth, huge land masses known as plates push and pull at each other. At 5:12 a.m. in 1906, the North American and Pacific plates did precisely that. Along a 300-mile fault east of the Gold Rush city of San Francisco, the earth, in Winchester's word, "shrugged." While the initial shock devastated large parts of the city, it was the firestorm that raged in the days following that nearly wiped San Francisco off the map. The repercussions of the disaster radiated out from the epicenter for years to come. Locally, Winchester finds in the records at City Hall that the destruction led to a huge rise in Chinese immigration. Winchester also cites the tragedy in the rise of the nascent Pentecostal movement, whose ranks swelled in the months and years after in the belief that the catastrophe had been a sign from God.With fabulous style, wit and grace, Winchester casts doubt on the very notion of solid ground and invites the reader to ponder the planet they live on, from both inside and out. B&w illus. and maps. (Oct. 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ( )

As with everything Winchester writes, the background for Crack in the Edge is extensive. Many pages are spent describing the mechanics of earthquakes, plate techtonics, and general geology before the earthquake & fire ensue. It is so will written, that I kept reading long after I had the background I needed. I actually skipped a few pages, since I was anxious for the shaking to begin, but I did read the footnotes, which are worth abook in themselves. ( )