The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

by Nicholas Shrady

A riveting history of how the cataclysmic Lisbon earthquake shook the religious and intellectual foundations of Enlightenment Europe

Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves, and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.

In The Last Day, Nicholas Shrady provides not only a vivid account of this horrific disaster but also a stimulating survey of the many shock waves it sent throughout Western civilization. When news of the quake spread, it inspired both a lurid fascination in the popular imagination of Europe and an intellectual debate about the natural world and God’s place in human affairs. Voltaire, Alexander Pope, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among other eminent figures, took up the disaster as a sort of cause célèbre and a vehicle to express Enlightenment ideas. More practically, the Lisbon quake led to the first concerted effort at disaster control, modern urban planning, and the birth of seismology. The Last Day is popular history writing at its best and will appeal to readers of Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa and A Crack in the Edge of the World.

Genres: History, Portugal, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Cities, Philosophy, 18th Century

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bury the dead...feed the living."

Thus spoke the Marquis of Pombal, who was the Prime Minister of Portugal when the Great Lisbon Earthquake struck on November 1, 1755. All Saints day. The quake lasted for several minutes, rupturing streets and creating chasms where pedestrians fell to their crushing deaths. Mother Nature wasn't done yet. Deciding that a long and catastrophic tremblor wasn't sufficient, fires started and burned down the few buildings left standing. In terror, people ran to the harbour hoping for relief, only to find a tsunami bearing down on them. Joy.

There are quakes, and then there are quakes. The Lisbon one is the latter. At the time, Portugal was a backwater, strangled by the New World wealth its legendary explorers had discovered but which wasn't being shared with the many. The Jesuits ruled with a firm hand, science was considered demonic, and the royal family was content to be led by others. Portugal's greatest disaster created an opportunity to create a new vision, a new land.

This book completes the task of providing the history of Portugal + the issues of Portugal + the said calamity + the opening of the modernization of the country. The Marquis de Pombal took over the reins of leadership and this book can be said to be as much about him as about the natural cataclysm itself. I never lost interest in the story. Other countries were also affected by the mighty shaker, but this was about Lisbon and the Portuguese and a great page turner it turned out to be.

Book Season = Autumn (an earthquake's favourite season)

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

O meu português está bastante enferrujado, por isso terei de usar algumas palavras em inglês. Este livro não é sobre o grande terramoto de Lisboa mas sim sobre o que veio depois em termos de estruturação dos bairros e da cidade de Lisboa. O livro todo ele é completamente “biased” contra a igreja católica ao ponto de cair no ridículo, numa das frases o autor refere que um dos viajantes ingleses que se encontrava am Lisboa pela altura do terramoto, ajoelhou a rezar com medo mas era uma reza de “teor protestante”, não fosse o leitor pensar que esse excelentíssimo cavalheiro era católico. Como se os católicos e protestantes não rezassem os mesmo Deus e não reconhecessem a mesma divina Trinidade.

O autor refere-se constantemente aos portugueses como um povo pouco educado, selvagem e sem capacidade de raciocínio intelectual - tudo como consequência de serem maioritariamente católicos.

O Iluminismo ( Enlightenment period) é exaltado sem limites como sendo dominado pelos melhores intelectuais, os mais racionais e civilizados senhores que claro está, estavam muito acima dos portugueses católicos. O que o autor não refere com o seu desprezo evidente pela religião e pelo catolicismo, é que muitas das figuras mais proeminentes do Enlightenment eram elas próprias extremamente religiosas e cristãs, como é o caso de Isaac Newton e tantos mais.

A descrição do terramoto, do incêndio e do maremoto que se seguiu ocupa apenas umas 5/6 páginas de todo o livro.

Decepcionante, to say the least.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is misleading in that the book is about a lot more than the earthquake and is aftermath in Portugal. Shrady gives a brief history of the country and the city as well so the reader can understand the cultural and religious sides of the effect of the disaster. He shows how and why Portugal was so backward while being so wealthy--the country, because of the immense diamond and gold wealth coming to it from its colony in Brazil, never developed industry. The wealth that came in did not "trickle down" to the people. Meanwhile, religious zealots, particularly the Jesuits, kept control of what little educational system there was and ensured that no math or science or anything else perceptibly "modern" was taught. Two of the things in the book that I also found interesting was the story of Sebastian Jose de Carvalho e Melo the hero/villain of the story and the discussion of the effect of the disaster in other countries. Carvalho was responsible for restoring order after the earthquake and making sure that food was distributed to victims. He also ensured the rebuilding of the city along more modern lines. But he was also wrathful man who killed many who got in his way.

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be ‘Book One’ on your disaster bookshelf!

The Last Day is superb history of the All Saints Day earthquake of 1755 that destroyed the Portuguese capital of Lisbon and caused widespread damage as far away as North Africa. The powerful earthquake, which shook much of Lisbon’s buildings to ground, was quickly followed by a voracious firestorm that consumed the collapsed structures, killing many of those pinned within the rubble. Tragically, the earthquake also triggered a series of tsunami that drowned a good deal more of the quake’s initial survivors, who had sought shelter by the city’s waterfront to avoid the advancing fires. The level of catastrophe is hard to imagine, and author Nicholas Shrady paints a vivid portrait of the disaster and its awful aftermath.

For the professional emergency manager, The Last Day should be required reading; it is, in many ways, a ‘year zero’ event for both seismology and the modern disaster response movement. Much as America would see the destruction of New Orleans as inconceivable before Hurricane Katrina, for Europeans steeped in the Age of Enlightenment the idea that Mother Nature could lay waste to a modern European capital was an impossibility. The destruction shocked the assembled states and rewrote the priorities of the Portuguese government. Fortunately for the king of Portugal, he had Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo to play the role of the quintessential Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator (to use FEMA’s modern appellation for Carvalho’s responsibilities) and Carvalho grapples with many of the same issues that challenge the modern emergency manager: donated goods and relief supply distribution, issues of temporary housing, long-term recovery planning, and squabbles over property rights during reconstruction.

After the quake, the Portuguese king laments, “What is to be done?” To which Carvalho pragmatically responds, “Bury the dead and feed the living.” Modern progress may allow us to add “Rescue survivors, bury the dead, and feed the living” to Carvalho’s response, but we are not so far advanced from Carvalho’s advice. Similarly, the modern disaster research field has been much focused on the notion that catastrophic disasters may become ‘focusing events,’ opening a window for radical changes in public policy. Perhaps no one grasped this notion of ‘a narrow window of opportunity’ more than Carvalho, who long before the research, used the Lisbon earthquake as a detonator for sweeping economic, social and political reform.

Again, Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinators (FDRC) take note, this is a pretty good primer for the job (and also a bit of warning to what often happens to FDRCs who go, perhaps, a bit too far out on a limb).

Finally, I will add that while the Lisbon earthquake certainly serves as the fulcrum of The Last Day, Shrady also offers a pretty concise history of Portugal. Usually, digressions don’t appeal to me, but Shrady is the exception. Concise, engaging, and full of historical nuggets, Shrady’s compact history of the nation enriches, rather than detracts from the text, putting the Lisbon earthquake into the wider context of the story of Portugal, tracing the aftershocks of the upheaval through the social, political and economic fabric of the country.

One day a college is going to hire me (seriously … somebody? Anybody?) and I’m going to get to teach my dream course, Historical Disasters: Lessons From The Past For The Modern Emergency Manager, and I’ll use all the great disaster books I’ve read as my text. I think Nicholas Shrady’s The Last Day is where I’d like to start.

[José Campos · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are looking for a detailed account of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, this is not the book you are looking for. All details about the actual earthquake, tsunami and fire are comprised in about 6 pages, all together. That's a shame because the book's title entices the reader with such expectations.

Nonetheless, it's a pleasurable reading that offers a quite comprehensive view of the portuguese history and context prior, during and after the tragic event.

Apart from quite a few portuguese words misspelled, the think I most disliked in the book was the conspicuous aversion and biased view the author has towards the catholic church, judging by the way the author expresses his own opinions of the people's worldview of 250 years ago in the light of contemporary cultural and civilizational values.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very clear and well-paced book which told me all I wanted to know about its subject. The account of the earthquake itself is less interesting than Shrady's summary of Portugal's history up to All Saints' Day, 1755 and of the reconstruction of the city. Portugal was a really backward country in the mid 1750, neither the monarchy nor the Church especially having any motivation to educate the people or foster new industrial initiatives. Rich from the slave trade and Brazilian gold, the Portuguese elite did absolutely nothing for the country. The earthquake, tsunami and fires of late 1755 (there were many seismic events long after November 1) spared the life of King José I and his entire family, the Mint, and the fleet. On the other end the many buildings of the Inquisition fell down. Of course, as always, the poor were hit disproportionately because their homes were less solid. Britain and the city of Hamburg sent substantial aid, while France and the Netherlands didn't budge. Still, it was the first time in history that international aid met a crisis in this fashion. Reconstruction started immediately, spearheaded by minister Carvalho, a ruthless visionary of humble extraction. During more than a quarter of a century after the earthquake, he was the de facto king of Portugal, and during that period he drastically modernized the country. He expelled the Jesuits, abolished slavery (but not in Brazil), stopped persecution of the Jews, created state-funded factories manufacturing rope, glass, ceramics, paper, textiles, hats and playing cards. On the downside, Carvalho ruled with unrelenting cynicism and cruelty, and was responsible for countless executions. Anyone suspected of being an enemy of the crown, even on trumped up charges, was tortured and killed. The rebuilding itself was put in the end of military engineers, in particular Manuel da Maia, who was already 78 at the time of the disaster, but lived to be 91 and see quite a chunk of his plans take shape. Like Carvalho, Maia came from a very humble background and rose solely on merit. Maia's most able second was Eugénio dos Santos. What these men and a few others achieved has stood the test of time and is still widely admired today. Shrady argues (as many others before him) that in the end the earthquake was a blessing in disguise, allowing Carvalho to do a complete overhaul of Lisbon and deliver a city which would have been unthinkable without so much destruction. Maia got inspiration in part from Christopher Wren's unrealized plans for London, drawn after the Great Fire of 1666. Immediately upon King José I's death, Carvalho, by then the Marquês of Pombal, was stripped of all his wealth and posts by the king's successor, his daughter Maria. Pombal remains a controversial figure to this day, and it's sad that one of his devotees was Salazar, a despot with no redeeming qualities or achievements to his name.

[Tania Faria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure how well I really followed this book, I didn't really have any big takeaways from it, though it certainly seems that the earthquake described here was more of an event precipitating some changes that are later described in the book rather than the subject of the book itself.

2.5 of 5 stars

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this while browsing at the public library a few days ago. My partner and I visited Lisbon in 2000 and I learned a little about the earthquake at the time. When I saw this, I thought I'd take the opportunity to learn more.

This books is as much about Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal, as it was about the earthquake of 1755. Carvalho, with the blessing of King José I, spearheaded the initiative to rebuild Lisbon after the quake, instituting enlightenment-style reforms, while at the same time ruling with an iron fist. On one hand, he instituted reforms without which Portugal would have remained a medieval state, including banning slavery, introducing a civil service system, introducing new market systems, and creating a public schools system independent of the Church. On the other hand, he was ruthless in persecuting those who stood in his way.

An interesting little book. I got a lot from the author's discussion of the Lisbon earthquake in the context of different social, religious, scientific and political movements of the time. One of the more intriguing ideas he puts forth is that the relief provided by other countries in the aftermath of the quake was one of the earliest examples of an international relief effort.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere in a mental subprocess I wondered what happened to the Portuguese exploration powerhouse of the 17th and 18th centuries. Now I know. Huge earthquake followed by devastating tidal waves in 1755. Nearly every physical structure and maritime vessel in Lisbon was gone within a couple of hours. Economic, political, and social disaster.

Once the physical tremors and waves had gone, the cultural ripple-effect of the disaster gradually spread throughout Europe, affecting everything from public administration to philosophy. This is very readable history. Even if you don't read it in-depth, you can still learn a lot.

[Shawn Doyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting and informative, but ultimately falls short. Not half baked, but decidedly underdone.

In the disaster of Lisbon, Shrady has a compelling narrative with deep implications for the development of western thought. However, The Last Day is too shallow to be an academic account while also being too broad and devoid of cohesive narrative to make a satisfactory 'popular history'. As a result of its structural deficiencies, the book's climactic epilogue - a declaration of the singularity that Lisbon represented in western thought - is a celebration wholly unearned. Not without its merits - but it is far from the definitive history Lisbon deserves.

[Kjsbreda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a study of the catastrophic earthquake that hit Lisbon on All Souls Day in 1755 and the 20 years of rebuilding that followed. It begins with the quake on November 1, 1755 ends with the death of Sebastiao Carvalho e Mello, the Portguese statesman who was largely responsible for the effort to rebuild and recover, 22 years later in 1777. The book's final chapters and epilogue make this book worthwhile. When I got to the final chapters and epilogue, I realized that I had missed the themes underlying this work until then. I recommend skimming the last chapter and epilogue before reading the book through.

[Frank Lockwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible and horrifying story. All Saints Day in Lisbon, one of the world's greatest cities. The churches are packed. The people are praying. Then an earthquake hits and the roofs cave in. Thousands die. Fires erupt and then a tsunami hits wiping out everything that isn't on high ground. I read this book during a trip to Lisbon in December, so I could see the places where the flames leaped and the waters raged and observe how the city was rebuilt in the years that followed. One of the world's most devastating disasters and Nicholas Shrady tells the story well.

[Grumpus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is based upon the audio download from [www.audible.com]

Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Like the output of a seismograph, my interest in this book bounced up and down all over the chart. There were some very interesting parts that captivated me but then as quickly as I was drawn in, my interest would subside. This see-saw effect was detrimental to my enjoyment and therefore, only 2 stars; meaning it was just OK.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially interesting to read this in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Here we have an example of the first modern government response to large scale devastation. As the author notes, the Bush administration could have used the Marques de Pombal to handle Katrina.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the name suggests, the book is organised around the event that literally shook Lisbon and figuratively shook its empire in the middle of the eighteenth century. The day itself is described well, albeit undramatically, and the Marquês de Pombal’s life and legacy gets laid out, including the grizzly bits. Smashing people’s arms and legs with hammers, burning them alive. Oh, and rebuilding the city in line with modern techniques. He’s… Well, to borrow another term from the young folk, “morally grey”.

Anyway, soo far so good, but it could have been more focused. I guess his thinking was that a lot of readers wouldn’t know the background so he gives us a tour of the main points of Portuguese history but he doesn’t section it off, he just sort of rambles back in the middle of the book. Maybe the general history stuff would have been better as an optional preamble to the main book. That way, he could have really drilled down both in the horror and chaos of the day itself and on the technical details of how they recovered. I want details, dammit!

My favourite aspect was his summary of how the different groups explained the event. We sometimes think our age is uniquely divided and that the two sides in our political disputes operate with different worldviews and different sets of facts, but in 1755 we have catholics fulminating about how God sent the earthquake for allowing the protestant heretics into Portugal and meanwhile in England, at memorials services for lost Port wine merchants, the vicars are telling their flocks it’s no wonder Portugal was ruined when it is full of dreadful popish idolatry.

Some things never change.

The audiobook reader gets a solid 8/10 for trying with the pronunciation. He obviously doesn’t speak portuguese, but he’s put the effort in to learn the ground rules of portuguese pronunciation and it shows. Instead of just saying all the names like they were Mexican drug lords in Breaking Bad, he pushes in the right direction. He gets a lot wrong, but he’s tried and I appreciate that.

[Keith Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents a statement of what the study of history is and what is its purpose. The book starts from two other texts by well-known historians: “The Historian’s Craft” by Marc Bloch, and “What Is History?” by E.H. Carr. Many references are made to the work of other historians, for example “The Practice of History” by G.H. Elton, and particularly “The Idea Of History” by R.G. Collingwood.

Gaddis covers many topics, the most important to me being
o the role of historian as both liberator and oppressor of the past (liberating it by preventing it from falling irrecoverably into oblivion, and oppressing it by limiting and ultimately often freezing it and characterising it within a narrative
o the strongly contingent nature of history
o the dissimilarity of history and other social sciences
o the similarity between history and those sciences which cannot test their subject in a laboratory (e.g. palaeontology, archaeology, astronomy, cosmology)
o the importance of viewing a statement of history as just a model or representation, and not as what actually happened
the similarities between history and biography, in that both require the practitioner to alternate between induction and deduction, to try empathetically to get inside the mind or the individual or inside the temper of the times, without carrying in prejudgments based on anachronistic sets of values, but then to come back out again and make independent judgments of what has been seen.

[Κατερίνα Τοράκη · Rating 4 out of 5]

Απίστευτα ενδιαφέρον! Ο συγγραφέας αναφέρεται στον σεισμό που συντάραξε την Πορτογαλία ανήμερα του Αγίου Πνεύματος 1 Νοεμβρίου 1755, με συνέχεια φωτιά και τσουνάμι, ισοπέδωσε τη Λισαβόνα και σκότωσε χιλιάδες ανθρώπους. Παράλληλα, ξεδιπλώνει την ιστορική, κοινωνική και πολιτική κατάσταση στη χώρα γυρνώντας αιώνες πίσω, τον ρόλο της καθολικής εκκλησίας, των Ιησουιτών και των αρχόντων, τον ρόλο της Ιεράς Εξέτασης, τις σχέσεις με τις αποικίες και κυρίως τη Βραζιλία, και εν τέλει τονίζει τον βαθύ συντηρητισμό που διαπερνά όλη τη διοίκηση της χώρας μέχρι τότε. Αναφέρεται επίσης, και αυτό αποτελεί πολύ σημαντικό στοιχείο ως παράδειγμα, στις μεταρρυθμίσεις για επαναφορά στην κανονικότητα ή καλύτερα για το μπόλιασμα της χώρας με τις ιδέες του Διαφωτισμού. Ορόσημο αποτέλεσε ο πολεοδομικός σχεδιασμός της Λισαβόνας που έγινε με επιστημονικά κριτήρια και που αποτέλεσε υπόδειγμα για τον σχεδιασμό άλλων ευρωπαϊκών πόλεων όπως το Παρίσι κ.ά. Αφαιρέθηκαν οι εξουσίες της εκκλησίας, καταργήθηκε η Ιερά Εξέταση, εφαρμόστηκαν φιλελεύθερες πολιτικές της εποχής, με καθοδηγητή τον Carvalho, μαρκήσιο του Pombal. Η "ανθηρή" κατάσταση (σε εισαγωγικά γιατί υπήρχαν πολλές αντιφάσεις στην εφαρμογή των πολιτικών) δεν κράτησε πολύ όμως. Τα υπόλοιπα στο βιβλίο. Σίγουρα ήταν μια καθοριστική εποχή για την Πορτογαλία, αλλά και για τη διεθνή επιστήμη της σεισμολογίας και γενικά τη μελέτη των φυσικών καταστροφών.

[Tony Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellently written history of the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, starting with the background of 18th century Portugal to the international effects that echoed around the world. Prior to the earthquake an insanely rich Portuguese royalty surrounded by a large impoverished peasant population. The earthquake destroyed most of Lisbon's stone buildings, followed by a fire that demolished all the wooden ones. The survivors fled to the river only to be engulfed by a tsunami. The effects of the tragedy led to the first international aid (from England, France, Spain, The Netherlands, etc), played an important part in Voltaire's Candide as he looked for meaning in Earthly existence and tried to understand the nature of God, and led to the recreation of the city of Lisbon's buildings and Portugal's institutions. The Marquis de Pombal, born in poverty yet rose to nobility, was given control of the state and reformed political civil rights, fought against religious authoritarianism, pushed for the creation of Portuguese scientific institutions, and created economic mobility for some of the poor. The earthquake is relatively unknown today but was a major event of Enlightenment Europe and this book is an interesting and readable history.

[Clay Olmstead · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of stories intertwined here. There's the earthquake and its physical effects, of course. There are the after effects, as some fight for control of the country and others try to integrate the disaster into their worldview. Another major thread is what happens when religion controls every aspect of a society [spoiler alert: it dies]. Still another is the lessons that we can draw today.

I picked this up to learn more about Portugal for our trip this summer, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. Naturally, it would mean more to those who have been to Lisbon, but I think any lover of history would find it interesting. The only group I can think of who wouldn't like it would possibly be devout Catholics; the Church, especially the Jesuit order, takes it on the chin. Some might take offense, but the author lays out his case point by point, so in my opinion, there's not much doubt.

There are a couple of minor gaffes, like referring to the British Foreign Minister as the Secretary of State, and using the Spanish word for "neighborhoods" (barrios) instead of the Portuguese "bairros," but if you let those slide, the rest of the telling is spot-on.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was All Saints' Day in Lisbon, 1755. An earthquake struck (estimated at a 9), causing massive damage. Then the tidal waves began. And finally, a fire swept through what was left of one of the major cities of Europe. Shrady writes about the earthquake itself -- but wait, there's more. The earthquake is just the pivot point. He backs up and fills readers in on what Lisbon was like in 1755 - and how it got that way. Then he presses ahead, detailing the reaction of the monarchy, the elite of Europe, the clergy, the philosophers, the scientists, and the remarkable man, Cavalho -- ruthless despot and a visionary urban planner -- who took charge and made Lisbon in so many ways what it is today. This was very interesting reading. Mostly new information for me. I realized that I knew almost nothing about the history of Portugal. I know a lot more now.

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is perhaps the greatest of our quirks as human beings that we find meaning in everything. The destruction and reconstruction of Lisbon is a damning story of the weakness of the narratives we tell: God did not destroy Lisbon because of its sin, nor did its saviors demonstrate that their enlightenment ideals were the final statement on human endeavor. The narratives live on in our cultural memory, so far removed from real history. The real events require us to provide the meaning that they seem bereft of upon looking with a closer glance.

And yet, to quote the great ‘Attack on Titan,’ “It is we, the living, who can remember. We die here and entrust the meaning to the next living. That is the only way to resist this cruel world.”

[Kenneth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know about “The Last Day”, but I sure enjoyed popping in the last CD of this rambling, droning, account of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and about every other somewhat related detail in this never-ending dirge.
I can be patient with authors who occasionally wonder from the central theme, but this guy left my head and almost my stomach spinning in his constant jumping off the offramps to the side roads of whatever he wanted to write about.
I am certain that there will be a good book out there someday, somewhere about this historic and deadly quake, but it certainly is not this one. Avoid it and especially avoid the audio book

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fairly short for a history book. It focuses very clearly on the earthquake of 1755. It discusses the devastation, aftermath, recovery, and long-term effects of this natural disaster. There is an overview of general Portuguese history for context, but the focus remains on issues related to this famous earthquake. From what I understand, the foundation for a lot of what one sees in modern Lisbon and Portugal today can be traced directly to the response to this earthquake, which is something this book helps explain and demonstrate. This is an accessible exploration of the effects of a pivotal event. And it is, thankfully, not disaster porn.

[Liberis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Από τα πολύ λίγα βιβλία σχετικό με την Πορτογαλία από ιστορικής άποψης που έοχυμε στα ελληνικά. Ασχολούμαστε, όπως καταλαβαίνουμε, με τον σεισμό της 1ης Νοεμβρίου 1755, που κατέστρεψε τη Λισσαβώνα και μέσα από το γεγονός αυτό παρουσιάζει πτυχές της συμπεριφοράς των πολιτών, του βασιλιά, αλλά και την εφαρμογή των ιδεών του Διαφωτισμού σε μια κατάσταση έκτακτης ανάγκης. Μέσα από το κείμενο αναδεικνύεται ως αδιαμφισβήτητος πρωταγνωνιστής ο μαρκήσιος του Pombal, χάρη στον οποίο αποαλμβάνουμε μεγάλο μέρος της σημερινής Λισσαβώνας. Προτείνω να το διαβάσετε σε συνδυασμό με το Ποίημα για την καταστροφή της Λισσαβώνας του Βολταίρου.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for my University history class, and really enjoyed it. It's not a fictional novel, nor is it non-fiction that reads like a story; rather, it's a purely factual account of how Portugal recovered from the disastrous 1755 earthquake, and how this recovery transformed their society, pulling them into "The Age of Enlightenment."

I really enjoyed learning about the society's perseverance after the disaster struck. For anyone who wants an accurate, well-sourced account of the event and its consequences, this is it.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really informative and thought-provoking study of the role of disaster in the formation of national resilience. This was a fascinating read centered around an equally fascinating person, whose legacy is mixed: on the one hand, he hauled Portugal kicking and screaming into modernity, but on the other, he did so with an unprecedented level of vindictiveness, violence, and despotism. This book also does a great job of tracing the intellectual shock waves from the earthquake across Europe and their impact on the prevailing optimism of European intellectuals. All in all a great read.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5- Very interesting book, especially for people who have or will visit Lisbon to understand the making of the city. Although the book centers around the earthquake, Shrady does a great job delivering a brief overview of the history of Lisbon and Portugal overall. It can be a bit dense at times, but considering the amount of historical content, it is highly readable for anyone who has an average interest in history.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5- Very interesting book, especially for people who have or will visit Lisbon to understand the making of the city. Although the book centers around the earthquake, Shrady does a great job delivering a brief overview of the history of Lisbon and Portugal overall. It can be a bit dense at times, but considering the amount of historical content, it is highly readable for anyone who has an average interest in history.

[Louise Bergin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to read a book about Portugal today and had chosen The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 by Nicholas Shrady. Unfortunately, my book didn't arrive in time for me to read. The good thing is Portugal looks like it will continue on in the tournament, so I will have another chance to choose a book about this country.

Out of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), three of them struck the city of Lisbon at the beginning of November 1755. There was no wind storm, but an earthquake, fires, and tsunami all hit the city.

The amount of destruction to a sophisticated city was massive. During the time of Enlightenment in Europe the losses lead to many questions about God and man.

Although the choice didn't occur for today, I do look forward to reading this soon in the future.