Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections [Hardcover]

Charles R. Pellegrino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2004

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the subsequent destruction of the thriving Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum are historic disasters of monumental proportions, resonating across millennia and remembered to this very day. Now Dr. Charles Pellegrino -- the acclaimed author who unearthed Atlantis, returned readers to Sodom and Gomorrah, and revealed startling new secrets about the most fabled sea tragedy of all in his superb New York Times bestseller Her Name, Titanic -- takes us back to the final days of an extraordinary civilization to experience an earth-shattering catastrophe with remarkable and unsettling ties to the unthinkable disaster of September 11, 2001.

Through the modern wonders of forensic archaeology, astonishing facts about the everyday lives of the doomed citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum have been brought to light, revealing a society that enjoyed "modern" amenities such as central heating, sliding glass doors, penicillin, hot and cold running water -- and a standard of living and life expectancy that would not be achieved again until the 1950s. But these thriving twin cities would be buried along with every hapless citizen in less than twenty-four hours when Vesuvius came frighteningly alive, sending a fearsome column of smoke and fire twenty miles into the sky.

Employing volcano physics, Pellegrino shows that the Vesuvius eruption was one thousand times more powerful than the bomb that leveled Hiroshima, bringing to vivid life the frightful majesty of that volcanic apocalypse. Yet Pellegrino digs deeper, exploring fascinating comparisons and connections to other catastrophic events throughout history, in particular the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. As one of the world's only experts on downblast and surge physics, Pellegrino was invited to Ground Zero to examine the site and compare it with devastation wreaked by Vesuvius, in the hope of saving lives during future volcanic eruptions. In doing so, he offers us a poignant and unforgettable glimpse into the final moments of our own "American Vesuvius."

A stunning combination of science, history, humanity, and riveting storytelling, Charles Pellegrino's Ghosts of Vesuvius is an extraordinary accomplishment, an electrifying, edifying, astonishing, and powerful work of literary art.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A stunning and magical alchemy of science, philosophy, Bible study and brilliantly detailed on-the-scene reporting, Pellegrino's book moves effortlessly from the sweeping grandeur of infinite time and space to the briefest moment in the lives of ordinary men. In August A.D. 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and famously buried the city of Pompeii and, less famously, the city of Herculaneum. From this node of history, Pellegrino goes off on a sometimes cosmic search for the connections and ruptures that have shaped not only human civilization but the very course of life on Earth and the universe at large. Pellegrino includes easily understood nuggets of hard science, and his passion for his subject keeps the whole thing together. Rooted in the solid ground of rational investigation and intense research, the book never flies out of control but carries one along from point to point on a tour of Pellegrino's wide-screen thinking. The emotional heart of the book lies at ground zero in lower Manhattan, where Pellegrino and a small band of volcanologists put their skills to work making sense of the towers' collapse. As the column of white-hot volcanic ash descended on the ancient Roman cities nearly 2,000 years ago, so the 109 stories of the World Trade Center came crashing down, burying the dreams and aspirations of another civilization at the height of its power—or so says Pellegrino. This is a book to be savored, reread and passed along to future generations. Illus.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The Victorian readers who once thrilled to Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii would marvel at the secrets today's geologists and archaeologists are wresting from Vesuvius' long-cold cinders. With the same impetuous curiosity and vigorous style that he brought to his earlier investigations of the Titanic and Atlantis, Pellegrino probes Vesuvius' mysteries in an expository narrative of unmatched range and color. Weaving together accounts of ancient authorities with groundbreaking research by forensic archaeologists, Pellegrino captures the nightmarish final hours of Pompeii and Herculaneum, from the first ominous appearance of an "umbrella pine" eruption column above the mountain through the final lethal series of surge clouds and pyroclastic avalanches. But in the flash-fossilized remains of victims, Pellegrino sees powerful reminders of the abiding human hope to understand a brutal universe. Those hopes live still both in the science Pellegrino uses to interpret historic volcanic explosions as the distant consequence of the Big Bang and in the startling connections he makes between the two cities buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE and the Twin Towers destroyed by terrorists in 2001. These grim parallels between the deadly physics of volcanoes-- collapse columns, surge clouds, gravity bombs, shock cocoons--and the horrors of 9/11 are seen by Pellegrino as a valuable resource for these seeking life-saving strategies to deal with future calamities. A compelling fusion of pioneering science and poignant reflection. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First edition. edition (August 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380973103
• ISBN-13: 978-0380973101
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vesuvius in New York, or, How CRP Dealt with September 11, October 2, 2004

By 

Andrea H. (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections (Hardcover)

I originally began reading this book out of a desire to find a thorough account of the exact events of the famous Vesuvius eruption in August 79 CE. I quickly realized that I had got more than I bargained for: along with a minute-by-minute report of those fatal 24 hours on the Bay of Naples, Charles Pellegrino provides a book that is equally a primer on the geological prehistory of the Earth and life on it; a melancholy meditation on some of history's most poignant what-ifs; a spiritual review of and an agnostic's indictment of the early (ugly) history of the Roman Catholic Church; a summary of the beliefs of Egyptian Gnosticism; and an impressionistic, rigorous account of the events of September 11 in New York City from the viewpoint of a volcanolgist-cum-paleontologist-cum-astrobiologist-cum-physicist-cum-ad infinitum. Along the way it becomes clear that Pellegrino has led one of the most interesting lives in recent memory; he name-drops a who's-who of the scientific community from Stephen Jay Gould to Stephen Hawking, and calmly recounts, in footnotes, such spectacular incidents as the time when he was nearly blown up with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Does this sound exhausting? It is, but more importantly, it is fascinating. "Ghosts of Vesuvius" is one of the most engrossing books I have read in a long time. Though the narrative follows an associative rather than linear logic, Pellegrino manages, for the most part, to keep the connections he wishes to illuminate clear in his reader's mind. Herculaneum, Pompeii, and New York City are in the end far more alike than they are different, and Pellegrino's largest point comes through perfectly, though he never says it in so many words: our civilization may be ending. And it's our own damn fault.

Still, "Ghosts of Vesuvius" has flaws, some of them worth mentioning. At a stylistic level, Pellegrino loves ellipsis...far too much... He never learned, or doesn't care, that three dots is not an acceptable end to a sentence, let alone to a sentence fragment, and the ellipses become wearying. (As do his endless paragraphic, paranthetical remarks.) Furthermore, Pellegrino makes a few factual errors: the books of Lucretius were not burned by the Roman Church; they were in fact copied and recopied by monks. The upheaval in the Byzantine Empire of 537 CE (which Pellegrino contends was caused by a volcanic eruption in the Pacific) did not lead to that empire's 'downfall,' as that polity continued to exist, albeit never so gloriously, for another nine hundred years. Similarly, Pellegrino makes much of the fact that Marcus Tullius Cicero 'disappeared' in 43 BCE, when any competent classicist (or student of third-semester Latin) can tell you that Cicero was murdered by Mark Antony's goons on the Appian Way, and his head and hands were displayed on the Rostrum in the Forum as a warning to others who opposed Antony.

Yet these are minor quibbles. In the end, although Pellegrino's book provides a treasure trove on information on many more topics than the 79 CE Vesuvius eruption, it is far more an account of Pellegrino wrestling with the fact of September 11 than it is a work of nonfiction. Much as Bruce Springsteen did with "The Rising," and Art Spiegelman did with "In the Shadow of No Towers," Pellegrino stares into the abyss of humanity's nadir, and emerges with a flawed but brilliant masterpiece.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars suspend your English Comp notion of how a book should be wri, September 22, 2004

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections (Hardcover)

First of all let me say that I really learned a lot from this book. I had read some of the forensic information on the victims of Vesuvius in a journal article written in the 1980s and have often wondered what else had come of the work there. When I discovered Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino, I felt I would at last learn a little more. I did indeed learn a great deal more but not all of it about Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Dr. Pellegrino is obviously a person of diverse interests and experience who has worked and corresponded professionally with researchers like Haraldur Sigurdsson (volcanology), Carl Sagan (cosmology), Issac Asimov (cosmology), Stephen Jay Gould (paleontology), Robert Ballard (marine science), Arthur C. Clarke (space engineer and astronomer), and Sara Bisel (forensic scientist). He also appears to be able to propound competently on both religion and philosophy and to speak knowledgeably about historical figures, events, politics, law and society. In short, he is an exceptionally well rounded individual. (E. O. Wilson would probably approve of his efforts towards consiliance).

The book is not probably for everyone, however, since it seems almost stream of consciousness in style. It took me a while to stand aside from the English Comp expectation that there be a beginning, middle and end with smooth transitions between concepts and a clear, up-front development of a central theme. I had the feeling that the author had a great deal to talk about and had decided to say it all in one book!

For those able to take information of various sorts and fit it into what they already know without necessarily needing a continuous thread, the author is a gold mine. Among other topics, he discusses the origin of the cosmos, the solar system, and the earth, the evolution of life, reveals our position in time by taking the reader backwards in leaps that double in length back to the big bang, discusses the mistakes and ambition of various Roman emperors and the development of Roman legal systems especially those regarding the rights of former slaves. He also discusses the effects of other volcanic events on the world, including that at Thera during the Minoan period and of Krakatoa during the 19th Century and analyzes the Old and New Testaments for indications of the psychological impacts of the AD 79 eruption on biblical stories. He outlines the various Gnostic sects of Christianity, their setting in the Roman world, and their beliefs vis a vis the Roman Catholic Church. He describes the historical background of the Vesuvian eruptions, points out the characteristics of what has become labeled a Plinian type of eruption, and describes some of the forensic data that provide insight into the human drama of the event. He narrates details of the 9/11 attack including the physics of the collapse of the buildings and of the odd pattern of survival of various individuals.

An excellent discourse, but suspend your English Comp notion of how a book should be written.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Editor, Schmeditor, January 18, 2006

By 

Baudelaire (Between a rock and a hard place) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections (Hardcover)

To the carpers below who have a difficult time reading a book whose scope extends beyond its beginning-point and title, the world is a complex place and always has been, and to limit those complexities and interconnectedness is unrealistically to reduce the scope of human understanding of how things work together. In fewer words, ----> :-P

More than almost any other author, Pellegrino has a sense of the diverse interconnectedness between and among events. Where other authors would take the less-complicated (and ultimately less-interesting) task of restricting their focus specifically to the events of AD 79, Pellegrino's vision stretches from Genesis to Apocalypse, from the big bang to the big crunch (or chill, as the case may be), from Pompeii and Herculaneum to the WTC and 9/11. The "connective tissue" linking these apparently dissimilar events is Pellegrino's discussion of force and change -- sometimes rapid and explosive change in the status of an apparently dormant volcano, and other times the change that this explosion wrought not only on the immediate surroundings, but on the story and progress of human civilization itself.

Pellegrino is a surprisingly accessible writer with the ability to have an almost binocular vision of events: one lens is focused on the vast expanse, the "big picture" of not only human history but the history of the cosmos, and the other lens is focused on the individual: Justa, Pliny the Younger, a young girl in the ashes holding not a valuable family idol, but a beloved doll to comfort her in the darkness. Never has this explosion come to life for me in this way; never has my understanding of the effects of a surge cloud or plate tectonics been so clear.

In short, the only carping in which I will engage is to say that to please the carpers, perhaps the book should have been given a different title beyond _Ghosts of Vesuvius_ -- maybe something that mentions how towers fall or the strange connections that can exist among apparently disparate events.

Oh, whoops. Guess it did already.