The Johnstown Flood [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

~ David McCullough (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

David McCullough is an acclaimed author, teacher, and noted historian. A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for his biographies Truman (RB# 97254) and John Adams (RB# 96791), McCullough pens impeccably researched documentaries that are vivid, thought-provoking, and compassionate. The Johnstown Flood examines one of the worst disasters in our nations historya catastrophe and scandal that took the lives of 2,209 people in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1889.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• ISBN-10: 1419345702
• ISBN-13: 978-1419345708
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #925,972 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tells the Story Accurately and Vividly and Grapples with the Larger Issues Raised by the Flood, September 7, 2008

By	CJA "CJA" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

There is a saying, not original to me, that events are of record, but reality is a construct. McCullough does the research necessary to state the essential facts of this historical event. This is no mean task, given all the disinformation and misinformation in the historical record. But what is even more impressive is McCullough's ability to show why there is so much inaccuracy in the writing about this event.

The power of the new media, the insatiable appetite of Americans for a story, and the raw class tensions and social issues of the time combine to create all sorts of varied efforts to construct a reality to explain the Johnstown events. Those constructs often tell us more about ourselves than they do about what really happened in Johnstown.

The early constructions magnified the death toll tenfold and seized upon all sorts of fantastic survivor stories that were patently untrue. Some shades of 9/11 here. Then the focus turned to the responsiblity of the owners of the resort on top of the dam that had rebuilt the dam. This was the class card -- rich guys who had nothing better than to do than pursue leisure (a novel concept at the time) and isolate themselves from other Americans (tapping into ancient American attitudes against elites) running a poorly built dam doomed to fail and to kill the groundlings below. This story resonated with Americans.

McCullough is exceptionally balanced and thoughtful of his treatment of the issue, and picks apart the crudest and most inaccurate attacks against the dam owners. In the end, however, there is some core truth to the theme that the rich owners' neglect contributed to the tragedy. The dam had been originally built by the State, but the reconstruction job by the resort owners was poorly engineered. The biggest flaw was the lack of any way to control the level of the dam with outlets at the bottom of the dam to let out some water. Screens at the top to keep the fish in that led to a blockage and contributed to the problems, while the most strikingly callous measure (they cared more about fish than human life), probably was a minor matter in the whole tragedy.

What's also fascinating is that the rich were not brought to account. Tort and corporate law at the time allowed the rich owners to shield personal liability behind a shell owner of the facility and difficult issues of causality rendered all the lawsuits unwinnable. Today, there would be a different result, as McCullough points out. Those decrying the "flood" of litigation in modern days may do well to consider the real floods that fear of liablity (and the concomitant insurance, risk prevention, government regulation, and professional reviews such fears engender to prevent tragedy from occurring in the first place) has prevented. The failure of the press (who were owned by some of these rich guys) and the legal system to call the owners to account tells us a lot about the entrenched power the ruled the country at the time.

The book lends itself to the audio format and is easy to follow. Mr. Herrmann is one of the top readers and does an excellet job here.

McCollough tells the tale of the flood vividly, corrects the record to tell events truthfully, and then deals with the larger social issues raised by the event. This is a extraordinarily good book.