A History of Civilization in 50 Disasters

by Gale Eaton, Phillip Hoose (Series Editor)

Short
The earth shakes and cracks open. Volcanoes erupt. Continents freeze, bake, and flood. Droughts parch the land. Wildfires and hundred-year storms consume anything in their paths. Invisible clouds of disease and pestilence probe for victims. Tidal waves sweep ashore from the vast sea. The natural world is a dangerous place, but one species has evolved a unique defense against the civilization.

Main
Civilization rearranges nature for human convenience. Clothes and houses keep us warm; agriculture feeds us; medicine fights our diseases. It all works—most of the time. But key resources lie in the most hazardous places, so we choose to live on river flood plains, on the slopes of volcanoes, at the edge of the sea, above seismic faults. We pack ourselves into cities, Petri dishes for germs. Civilization thrives on the edge of disaster. And what happens when natural forces meet molasses holding tanks, insecticides, deepwater oil rigs, nuclear power plants? We learn the hard way how to avoid the last disaster—and maybe how to create the next one. What we don’t know can, indeed, hurt us. This book’s white-knuckled journey from antiquity to the present leads us to wonder at times how humankind has survived. And yet, as Author Gale Eaton makes clear, civilization has advanced not just in spite of disasters but in part because of them. Hats off to human resilience, ingenuity, and perseverance! They’ve carried us this far; may they continue to do so into our ever-hazardous future.
The History in 50 series explores history by telling thematically linked stories. Each book includes 50 illustrated narrative accounts of people and events—some well-known, others often overlooked—that, together, build a rich connect the-dots mosaic and challenge conventional assumptions about how history unfolds.
Dedicated to the premise that history is the greatest story ever told.
Includes a mix of “greatest hits” with quirky, surprising, provocative accounts.
Challenges readers to think and engage.
Includes a glossary of technical terms; sources by chapter; teaching resources as jumping-off points for student research; and endnotes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2015

About the author

Gale Eaton has spent a lifetime with books for children and young adults, first as a children's librarian at the Boston Public Library and the Berkshire Athenaeum, and later as a professor of children's literature at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A neatly packed brief (because it had 50 disasters to cover and didn't want to be a dictionary) few pages on each of the more current environmental disasters that existed from oil spills and earthquakes to Ebola.

I really like the voracity of the material in that it's supposed to be an opportunity to talk about their impact and it's shaping of civilization for better or worse in showing the progression and reaction of people and cultures. Simple and straightforward as a way to pique interest, not know everything about a topic but the addition of the text boxes and pictures adds a nice touch to a bigger issue at large.

[Victor Sonkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit straightforward — you can't really expect much from a 50-everything book with each event talking up about 700 words — but decently researched and generally useful and interesting.

[Emilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A History of Civilization in 50 Disasters throws together the fates of a variety of countries through the light of massive global disasters. The book explores the effects of volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and more, halfway around the world from where they occurred and months after the initial damage was done. Readers will dive a little deeper into the small yet impactful disasters that inevitably occur when human society clashes with nature, from famine to plague epidemics. 50 Disasters even includes zany episodes like a tank of molasses exploding in tenement neighborhoods in the dead heat of summer. From BC to modern day, we can expect to battle Mother Nature until the clock ticks past the human era of time on this planet.

Perhaps the most exciting of its set, 50 Disasters may also well be the least focused. Spanning disasters from nature’s hurricanes and volcanoes to man’s infrastructural failures to biological devastation, it calls into question what defines a “disaster.” Fortunately, the introduction provides a definition, but it is difficult to reconcile the sharp grief that accompanies the death of thousands from irresponsible human action in comparison to the helpless acceptance of massive devastation one can expect from a record-breaking volcanic eruption. However, the unabashed blend of the man-made and natural disasters creates a broad springboard for youth to start exploring the effects of humans on the earth and on each other.

*Contains mild violence.

[Edward Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cut and dry.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it. It was classified as a children’s book but I’d disagree due to the small text and advanced vocabulary. Still, an interesting overview to lots of disasters and how the world reacted.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting snapshot of different disasters and their effects on our world. 50 was kind of a cheat though! Full review to come.

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I have this habit of going through the new release section of the public library catalog and putting a bunch of books on hold that I am interested in. Half the time, the books end up being YA/juvenile, despite me clicking specifically on the history section on the adult list. Sometimes I read the book anyway and this is just such an occasion.

First, I love these kinds of history lessons, these sort of lists that look at some sub-section of human history and how those pieces matter and come together to form one aspect - another good one is 'The History of the World in 100 Objects'. Very interesting.

Anyway, despite being about a depressing subject matter, the content was highly interesting and worked well for an adult, as easily as it would for a YA reader. The book covers a wide range of topics, from earthquakes, plague, volcanoes, to a molasses flood. For real. A flood of molasses. It would be funny if people had not died. I guess the phrase "Slower than molasses in winter" is not really accurate after all. I don't say this to be cheeky, I had never heard of this disaster and it was very interesting, I love that Santorini, the burning of Rome, and Pompeii were included, though the majority of the disasters that the author focused on were 13th century and beyond. This makes sense of course, those darn dinosaurs Neanderthals never bothered to write anything down.

Each chapter is between two and four pages long, so not overly detailed for the intended audience, but still giving enough information to keep the reader interested. This would be a great resource for research, or for a reluctant reader to find topics that might be of interest to them. In addition, there are a few further resources - a glossary for readers who might be unfamiliar with the terms in the book, and additional resources related to each topic, as well as a brief introduction to the research process. There are also tons of maps and photos throughout, great color photos that add to the content.

I like this series, I think it is an interesting way to hook those readers who have had a hard time finding things that they want to read about. Short chapters, with addition resources if they do find something of interest.

My only real, tiny complaint is in the form of the 50th disaster - it was actually called 'Disaster in the Making' and discussed climate change in our century and the possible ensuing consequences that will come if we do not reverse course and try to get global warming under control. So really, this is not actually a disaster that has happened, but one that is in the process of happening as I type this review. And even then, this is not major - more of an aside.

I recommend this both for those YA readers looking for something engaging, and those who are interested in learning more about these types of disasters and how they have impacted our history.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very accessible non-fiction book for YA readers (and for adult readers). I liked that the reading level wasn't too simple, but the information was presented in a way that made it easy to understand. Not a fan that the author used Wikipedia as a source, but I did like the explanation at the end of how Wikipedia should only be used as a starting point and that other sources cited in Wikipedia should be checked to ensure accuracy. The chapters are very short (about 1-4 pages depending), so this is a good reading choice for someone who is a reluctant readers since it doesn't take very long to finish a chapter.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book, despite the depressing topic, which is exactly what you would think it is about--death and destruction. I liked how the author chose natural disasters that may have altered the course of history as opposed to just being deadly. I was also weirdly excited to see the Boston Molasses disaster in here. Excellent focus on climate change as an overall theme as well.

[Mariella · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was free and aight.

[Rob Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eye-opening. Makes you hungry to read more.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much info and speculation.