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Simon Winchester

A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 Paperback – Illustrated, October 10, 2006

by Simon Winchester (Author)

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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 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.

Print length

512 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

October 10, 2006
Dimensions

5.31 x 1.15 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060572000
ISBN-13

978-0060572006
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Unleashed by ancient geologic forces, a magnitude 8.25 earthquake rocked San Francisco in the early hours of April 18, 1906. Less than a minute later, the city lay in ruins. Bestselling author Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities to this extraordinary event, exploring the legendary earthquake and fires that spread horror across San Francisco and northern California in 1906 as well as its startling impact on American history and, just as important, what science has recently revealed about the fascinating subterranean processes that produced it—and almost certainly will cause it to strike again.

About the Author

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Illustrated edition (October 10, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060572000
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060572006
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.15 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #258,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #55 in Earthquakes & Volcanoes (Books)
- #74 in Library Management
- #217 in Natural Disasters (Books)

Customer Reviews:
279 ratings

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5 star		67%
4 star		16%
3 star		7%
2 star		5%
1 star		6%

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Top reviews from the United States

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carefulshopper1

A stunningly poorly conceived and executed book

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020

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I've read one or two of Mr. Winchester's books before and found them poorly written but worth my time because of the information I gained about their topics. This one, however, is breathtakingly bad. I'm now 40% through the book, according to Kindle, and am going to quit because, like beating one's head against a brick wall, it will feel so good when I stop.

At 40% through this wandering mess (really more than halfway through the actual content, since the Appendices start at 78%), I have read a great deal of pretty elementary stuff about plate tectonics. Mr. Winchester is clearly not a geologist, and neither am I. While I share his enthusiasm for the subject, I'm not qualified to write about it and neither is he. I also read a great many pages of his raptures on first sighting the city of San Francisco and the night he spent camping atop Mount Diablo. Oh, I should also mention the bizarre prologue in which he tries to tie together his thoughts about a small town in Ohio, space exploration, and geology. Hmm.

What I have NOT found yet is anything more than a few brief mentions of the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. If you are interested in the human, societal, and financial toll of that tragic event, I suggest you skip this book.

7 people found this helpful

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Rick

Welcome Gift

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2019

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I have enjoyed this book so many times and gave it to a friend who's late husband was a geologist. She remembered her husband excitedly coming back from a conference about Plate Tectonics. Her reading this book brought back many good memories and she's enjoyed it tremendously (as I have)

One person found this helpful

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Thomas Erickson

Lots of Earthquake,volcano info more than San Francisco 1906. Chinese "paper' people. Much more

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2011

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I bought this book to learn how the 1906 San Francisco earthquake ties into the giant Yellowstone "possible cataclysmic devastation" that might happen anytime. Yes, Simon Winchester does have a tie in this book.

Simon's writing is crisp, clear and interesting. He sprinkles some humor with lots of factual information of many topics of earthquakes, volcanoes and more. Much more than the San Francisco earthquake. Information on Alaska and the pipeline of today. Information of Plate Tectonics,the different plates that are moving and the various faults around the world. Volcanic Iceland is mentioned. Also a chapter on the evolution of the continents and the far distant past of the Earth.

There is information about some of the rich people that lived in San Francisco and the great tenor singer Caruso who was quoted saying "One hellava town" about San Francisco while he was there when the great 1906 Earthquake happened.

There is also information of the Chinese immigrants in Chinatown in San Francisco and the terrible racial prejudice against them and the terrible living conditions they had to live in. Also them as "paper people" as their dwellings were destroyed and their addresses lost in the great fire.

We see the great fire of San Francisco that destroyed much much more of the city than the earthquake did. We see the poor building construction and lack of adequate fire fighting facilities and equipment that contributed to the almost total loss of the city due to fire after the 1906 earthquake.

This book brought forth a history I never heard about in high school or college. Fascinating! There are some very interesting B/W pictures sprinkled throughout the book.

We learn that Simon believes that much of the western part of the US and Alaska are tied into earthquake happenings. What happens in one part of the country may influence another. Yellowstone has had 3 major eruptions. The latest about 600,000 years ago and could go at anytime thus wiping out much of the western US and maybe a worldwide cataclysm.

We learn that some volcanic eruptions can be predicted with the science of today but there is no sure fire way to predict earthquakes. A fascinating read with lots of different information some of which you may never of heard about. A great book with much more information in it than I expected. 5 stars and recommended.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sarah

Fantastic, In-depth Study of the History & Potential Future of the San Andreas Fault.

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2017

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Fantastic, in-depth study of the history and potential future of the San Andreas fault.

What some thought of as a fault--the deep delve into the topic as well as many related subjects-is one of the things I liked best about this book. As far as I'm concerned, this sort of coverage is one of Simon Winchester's great strengths as a writer.

I listened to the audio book, read excellently by the author, before reading the print version. Endlessly fascinating material!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

funner things

Winchester is a wonderful teacher of what might be considered challenging material

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2015

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Simon Winchester writes books on history from the Oxford dictionary to Krakatoa, to earthquakes to... He selects interesting, but relatively unknown, topics and combines the era with an episode and adds background from science. psychology, or language.. Winchester is a wonderful teacher of what might be considered challenging material. Winchester can make plate tectonics, for example, accessible and interesting. I even wished I had majored in geology, except for the disasters and dirt. The Crack book talks about the various rifts, faults, plates, land, and earlier events in the history of California and the West Coast. The San Andreas fault may not be the biggie as much as the crack most famous because of the news. So, anything by Simon Winchester is worth reading, but some topics are not as personally appealing. If you liked the Perfect Storm or read Erik Larson, Winchester's books like Krakatoa merit your consideration.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Keith Dickinson

... absorbing account of a timeless subject delivered in near perfect prose.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2015

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An absorbing account of a timeless subject delivered in near perfect prose.

NVB

Essenziale

Reviewed in Italy on March 14, 2019

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Un altro dei libri di Simon wintchester che torno a rileggere di tanto in tanto. Oltre ad un resoconto preciso del terremoto della città offre una pletora di informazioni e osservazioni sulla geologia e sociologia. Assolutamente consigliato

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Nick of Time

Past and present processes in plate tectonics are beautifully described here

Reviewed in Canada on May 4, 2016

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This book makes geology exciting! Past and present processes in plate tectonics are beautifully described here. I grew up in the foothills of Mount Diablo, California, which is a special example described in a chapter of the book. I had always wondered about how the rippling layers of rock could possibly have formed, and how fossils from the former sea floor made it up so high! I love this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in California, general history, geology or the natural world. Winchester writes well and tells a good story. The book is gripping.

Writing is not very good. It is a little too boring to read.

Reviewed in Canada on January 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

Writing is not very good. It is a little too boring to read. But if you are studying geology, you may consider it as a textbook, and you may get some useful information about the topic.

Neil Gammage

Disappointing

Reviewed in Canada on June 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

I approached this book with high hopes for it being a ripping yarn. Sadly so far it is a somewhat dull discourse describing the origins of California and the geography of the San Andreas fault among other things. Perhaps it will get better later but it's not in the same class as his earlier book on Krakatoa.