Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Though we think first of Java as an eponym for coffee (or, to some today, a computer language), it is in fact the trading of..." (more)
Key Phrases: remanent magnetism, pointed mountain, subduction zone, Sunda Strait, East Indies, Anak Krakatoa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It may seem a stretch to connect a volcanic eruption with civil and religious unrest in Indonesia today, but Simon Winchester makes a compelling case. Krakatoa tells the frightening tale of the biggest volcanic eruption in history using a blend of gentle geology and narrative history. Krakatoa erupted at a time when technologies like the telegraph were becoming commonplace and Asian trade routes were being expanded by northern European companies. This bustling colonial backdrop provides an effective canvas for the suspense leading up to August 27th, 1883, when the nearby island of Krakatoa would violently vaporize. Winchester describes the eruption through the eyes of its survivors, and readers will be as horrified and mesmerized as eyewitnesses were as the death toll reached nearly 40,000 (almost all of whom died from tsunamis generated by the unimaginably strong shock waves of the eruption). Ships were thrown miles inshore, endless rains of hot ash engulfed those towns not drowned by 100 foot waves, and vast rafts of pumice clogged the hot sea. The explosion was heard thousands of miles away, and the eruption's shock wave traveled around the world seven times. But the book's biggest surprise is not the riveting catalog of the volcano's effects; rather, it is Winchester's contention that the Dutch abandonment of their Indonesian colonies after the disaster left local survivors to seek comfort in radical Islam, setting the stage for a volatile future for the region. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

An erudite, fascinating account by one of the foremost purveyors of contemporary nonfiction, this book chronicles the underlying causes, utter devastation and lasting effects of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of the volcano island Krakatoa in what is now Indonesia. Winchester (The Professor and the Madman; The Map That Changed the World) once again demonstrates a keen knack for balancing rich and often rigorous historical detail with dramatic tension and storytelling. Rather than start with brimstone images of the fateful event itself, Winchester takes a broader approach, beginning with his own viewing of the now peaceful remains of the mountain for a second time in a span of 25 years-and being awed by how much it had grown in that time. This nod to the earth's ceaseless rejuvenation informs the entire project, and Winchester uses the first half of the text to carefully explain the discovery and methods of such geological theories as continental drift and plate tectonics. In this way, the vivid descriptions of Krakatoa's destruction that follow will resonate more completely with readers, who will come to appreciate the awesome powers that were churning beneath the surface before it gave way. And while Winchester graphically illustrates, through eyewitness reports and extant data, the human tragedy and captivating scientific aftershocks of the explosion, he is also clearly intrigued with how it was "a demonstration of the utterly confident way that the world, however badly it has been wounded, picks itself up, continues to unfold its magic and its marvels, and sets itself back on its endless trail of evolutionary progress yet again." His investigations have produced a work that is relevant to scholars and intriguing to others, who will relish it footnotes and all.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006093736X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060937362
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (224 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #714,838 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #58 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Geology > Volcanology
  #83 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Earthquakes & Volcanoes
  #97 in	Books > History > Asia > Indonesia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

133 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winchester Relates This Tragic Event with Masterly Vividness, April 5, 2003

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Hardcover)

By late summer of this year, 120 years will have passed since the greatest natural disaster to occur on this planet since mankind began recording history some 30,000 years ago.

It was exactly 10:02 a.m. on Monday, August 27, 1883 when the small volcanic island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra blew itself out of existence with an explosion that was heard thousands of miles away and that resulted in the deaths of over 36,000 people. That eruption is believed to be the loudest sound ever heard by human ears.

As Simon Winchester points out in this latest of his detailed historical-scientific investigative books, the vast majority of those 36,417 victims were killed not by the explosion itself, but by the enormous tsunami it created. This moving mountain of seawater wiped out whole towns; devastated the social and economic life of a region measured in thousands of miles; and was recorded on tide gauges as far away as France.

Winchester specializes in detailed accounts that shine light into odd or forgotten corners of history. His two most recent successful efforts in that genre were THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD and THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN. Now he has crafted a vividly written book of 400-plus pages about an event that was over in a matter of hours. KRAKATOA is certainly full of digressions that have only tangential relevance to its main subject --- but those digressions are so well researched, beautifully written and just plain interesting that they become assets rather than liabilities. The reader does not really object to the fact that the eruption doesn't begin until past the halfway point in Winchester's text.

The preliminaries that lead Winchester up to August 27th involve, among other things, giving proper credit to people like Alfred Russel Wallace --- whose theories of evolution paralleled those of Charles Darwin --- and Alfred Lothar Wegener, whose prescient views on continental drift, once ridiculed, were scientifically confirmed only in the 1960s. We get lengthy side-essays on subjects such as the science of plate tectonics; the spread of information technology spurred by the laying of the Atlantic Cable; the flora and fauna of the southwest Pacific; the history of colonial exploitation in that area by the British and Dutch; and the growth of international trade that placed Krakatoa directly on one of the busiest sea lanes in the world on that August morning. His thesis, backed by impressive geological evidence, is that Krakatoa had certainly erupted many times in the distant past --- before recorded history began --- and that it will inevitably do so again sometime in the unforeseeable future.

The small volcanic island had given plenty of warning. There had been a serious eruption the previous May and the warning signs of the big bang of late August were obvious. Yet, as so often happens in both natural and manmade catastrophes, no one put the pieces of the puzzle together in time. The eruption actually began on Sunday the 26th, but no one was prepared for the incredible disaster of the next morning. The captain of a passing British ship, awestruck, wrote in his log: "A fearful explosion...I am writing this blind in pitch darkness...The eardrums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the day of judgment has come."

The island of Krakatoa --- six miles long and two miles wide --- was largely destroyed. Only tiny fragments of it remain today, along with an island, locally known as "The Child of Krakatoa," which has risen from the seabed where the volcano's crater once stood.

Winchester tells this story with masterly vividness. His research is thorough and he has the ability to translate things like the records of the pressure gauge at the gas works in Batavia (present-day Dakarta), 90 miles away, into telling historical evidence. He does seem, however, to be on somewhat shakier ground in contending that the catastrophe contributed to a rise in Islamic Fundamentalist fervor that has survived, grew and fed the political turmoil that grips independent Indonesia to this day. That may be stretching things rather further than is logical.

For American readers, KRAKATOA will serve as a vocabulary builder, with its references to genever (an alcoholic drink), godowns (warehouses), pye-dogs (??), solfataras (volcanic fissures) and other such technical terms. But readers will also learn about "subduction zones" and the prime role they play in the continuing slow-motion subterranean dance going on beneath the feet of all of us as continental plates rub up against each other, causing volcanic matter to gush up or be dragged down to await further Krakatoas. It seems that, if mankind somehow escapes blowing itself up, nature may do the job for us down the road in a few million years.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

47 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FASCINATING PAGE TURNER...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, April 22, 2003

By	"earthvolunteer" (Atlanta, Ga. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Hardcover)

At first glance Simon Winchester's true account of this absolutely catastrophic (surely an understatement) volcanic event of the late 1800s appears to be structured a bit like a text book with carefully chosen and interesting illustrations and maps...but after you are a few chapters into the book his rich narrative begins to grab you and won't let go! The compelling details of this infamous chapter in history (which claimed 40,000 lives mostly from tsunamis following the eruption) is fascinating enough. Even more interesting though are the correlations which Winchester examines between these events and the Dutch abandonment of the region resulting in the civil and religious unrest still existing today.

A surprisingly good read, carefully researched and full of rich historical details and illustrations. You'll want to spend at least a few evenings travelling to the South Seas for a real adventure in historical Krakatoa.

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes meandering but always fascinating account, May 4, 2004

By	J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded" Simon Winchester has produced a comprehensive account of one of the most widely known, but perhaps least understood, natural disasters of the last 200 years. While his account often drifts far afield of the title material, he has a knack for always finding his way back to the topic at hand. Which is a good thing because that topic, the largest explosion ever recorded by modern man and one that was responsible for the death of 36,000 people, is more than ample material for any book's purview.

What makes Winchester's writing appealing is that he uses the more conversational narrative style that has become the preferred approach in popular history and science today; one might call in the Stephen Ambrose Effect. Winchester largely paints his story with a broad brush (albeit across a host of topics), and as such, those who may be intimidated by science writing shouldn't avoid "Krakatoa". While the author does delve into a large variety of scientific disciplines, he is at heart a teacher, and the passion he has for the subject matter comes through as he strips down potentially complicated subjects to their basic elements.

That said, Winchester by no means "dumbs down" his material. His explanation of the geological pressures that created and ultimately lead to the demise of Krakatoa are comprehensive and detailed. Rather, he presents this material in a manner that is approachable for those without much of a scientific background, without detracting from it intellectually. As such, those (like myself) who are more disposed to a scientific bent should be no more discouraged from reading "Krakatoa" than those who are not. Winchester has basically laid out an intellectual smorgasbord and leaves it for the reader to determine how much they will consume. The beauty of the "Krakatoa" (much like Robert Zubrin's on space exploration) is that the reader can skim the heavier science without losing the narrative flow.

What makes the book most appealing, though, is how Winchester vividly describes the eruption and then most importantly places it within a historical context. This seems to be the area where some readers have felt he bogged down, but his descriptions of the region, its fauna and peoples, including a detailed consideration of Dutch colonial rule, provide critical information for understanding the scope and impact of the disaster. In particular, his descriptions of the impact of the eruption on the rise of a more militant brand of Islam in Indonesia were particularly engaging, and eminently logical in spite of the seeming stretch.

Moreover, this historical element accomplishes two things. The first is to put a human face on the tragedy: with 36,000 victims it is easy to lose one's frame of reference for the scale of the tragedy and suffering. By including individual stories, including background, Winchester is able to humanize what otherwise has the potential to be a statistic. The second is that it allows Winchester to explore the eruption not just as an event, but as a catalyst for the scientific community that had a host of long term impacts. Thus, the massive shockwaves and wave effects are again removed from scientific the realm of scientific arcana and grounded in what they meant to a community barely on the cusp of understanding the world around them.

"Krakatoa" is an eminently readable and thoroughly enjoyable account of a well known but little understood place and time. Winchester wanders through a host of different scientific disciplines and historical periods, and to be fair, there are probably those who will find this off-putting. However, if the idea of a book that explores biology, geology, politics and history all while detailing one of the most spectacular natural events the world has ever seen appeals to you, "Krakatoa" is definitely right up your alley.

Enjoy!

Jake Mohlman