Devastation! The World's Worst Natural Disasters [Hardcover]

Lesley Newson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1998

Our understanding of the natural phenomena that cause these tragedies has made huge strides in the last 30 years. Devastation! Provides riveting accounts of what happened during the world's most spectacular natural disasters accompanied by stunning you-are-there photography. More than 400 color illustrations. Gazetteer of dates and details of more than 500 major natural disasters.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Devastation! covers all the natural disasters you might want to know about in one handy place. Lesley Newson describes everything from the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact to mad cow disease in vivid prose illustrated by some of the most astounding photographs ever printed. The book includes a gazetteer mapping more than 550 disaster sites around the world and giving information on historic disasters at each location. Newson covers the standard dangers from earth, air, water, and fire, but adds diseases, droughts, famines, ice ages, and mass extinctions--every large-scale threat to human life except war. Devastation! gives far more evenhanded coverage of disasters around the world than is usual for works of this type; it describes storms in Bangladesh as well as Florida, floods in China as well as Iowa, and fires in Australia as well as Yellowstone. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu said: "When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster"; the pictures and text in this book may not actually prevent disaster, but they are guaranteed to inspire awe. --Mary Ellen Curtin

From Scientific American

Not actually marketed as a children's book ("Mother Nature is an abusive parent," says the very first sentence), this sophisticated compendium of volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, hurricanes, storms, earthquakes, fires, tsunamis--with 400 eye-popping full-color photographs--will likely appeal all the more to kids already awed by special-effects versions via Hollywood. From gazetteer maps and clear diagrams, readers of all ages can learn where, when and why natural forces have wreaked havoc on Earth.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789435187
• ISBN-13: 978-0789435187
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,395,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Devastation, May 10, 2000

By 

m. banks (Mahwah, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Devastation! The World's Worst Natural Disasters (Hardcover)

Beautifully illustrated with color photos, this book vividly describes various catastrophic events that have occurred and continue to happen throughout the world. The events showing nature's often-horrific power include hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, fire, etc. Also discusses plagues, including AIDS, the Black Plague, as well as other diseases. Provides an international perspective on these events and discusses their causes, in addition to documenting their history and geographic areas where they occur. Includes a gazetteer pinpointing geographic locations of disaster areas. Will stimulate discussions about catastrophic events and will increase interest in geography by encouraging readers to locate the places where they occur. Good for school and public libraries. Ages middle school and up.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A pictures-only book. Don't buy it., January 1, 2006

By 

Jerald R Lovell (Clinton Township, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Devastation! The World's Worst Natural Disasters (Hardcover)

It is ironic that the publisher lauds this book as "expertly researched". Yet, I have never seen a book so rife with what are either typographical errors, plain misstatements of fact, erroneous map locations, and the like. I seriously wonder if anyone proofed this book before rushing it to publication.

For instance, the Soufriere volcano on Guadeloupe did NOT erupt in 1908 nor, obviously, did it kill 1,600 people that year. Hibok Hibok volcano is located in the Southern Philippines, NOT off the northern coast of Luzon. Many of the short narrative on Caribbean hurricanes are grossly in error. I could go on for quite some time, but you get the idea.

The color photographs are attractive, although, again, mislabeled all too frequently. The same would apply to the maps in the Gazeteer section of the book.

I cannot recommend this book for purchase, because there is simply too much misinformation in the contents. This is unfortunate, as the pictures are good. But many who would want this text would desire it for information on where they live, or intend to move or travel. This book would do those persons a disservice.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disaster lite, March 20, 2005

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Devastation! The World's Worst Natural Disasters (Hardcover)

The thing that attracted me to this book was the blurb on the back cover: "Easy-to-follow explanations help you understand the underlying causes of all types of disaster, from volcanic eruptions and tornadoes to runaway fires and worldwide epidemics."

Alas, the easy-to-follow explanations never go deeper than the Sunday-supplement level, but 'Devastation!' is a very cheerful (if that adjective can be applied to disaster books), colorful, quick read with lots of photographs.

The latter part of 'Devastation!' is taken up with a gazetteer that divides the world (excluding the arctic and Antarctic) into eight maps, and plots over 500 disasters on the maps. One possible lesson to be gained is that people who want to die peacefully in bed should never live near the coast of anything. Of course, this clustering of dots is a bit of an optical illusion since interior disasters are harder to show as points on a map. These include tornadoes, plagues, droughts, famines, fires, and something the author calls 'space threats.'

The main part of the book is interesting, but arranged in a rather confusing fashion. For instance, the section on ice ages and mass extinctions, e.g. the Cretaceous Extinction, is preceded by "Avalanches and Landslides." These are all natural disasters, but there is a vast difference of scale. Another example of this uneasy combination of scale is a section misnamed "Patterns of Chaos" which combines the American Dust Bowl (1930s), Pleistocene Ice Epoch (1.65 million years ago to 10,000 years ago), Mississippi River floods (1993), Cretaceous Extinction (65 million years ago), North Sea flooding (1953), Cote d'Azur fires (1985), Gomeç avalanches (1992), Ethiopian drought and famine (1981 - 1985), Permian Extinction (250 million years ago), Yangtze River floods (1991), and the Australian Ash Wednesday fires (1983).

Chaos? Yes! Pattern? No!

"Devastation!" is a chaotically organized book, but easy and fun to read. You might at least want to find it in the oversized books section of your library and browse through the photographs.