Disaster: Major American Catastrophes

by A.A. Hoehling

8vo. Bump to spine ends. Dw has creasing to front flap, spine ends. From the Draft Riots of 1863 to Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1973

Reviews

[Melody Karle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disaster is a fascinating subject, and there are many facts and accounts in this books that made it an interesting read. However, it was very broad strokes: each chapter is brief and covers the main story, with small, random vignettes of people who died and survived mixed in. As other reviewers have pointed out, the choice of disasters was also odd: no San Francisco earthquake, but he includes the NYC draft riots of 1863? The others were appropriate, though, and gave me an overview of some major American events that I knew nothing about: the 1938 hurricane over New England; 1960 midair collision; the 1915 Eastland ship rollover. It also gave me more info on some disasters that I wanted to know more about: the famous Hindenberg disaster; the 1900 Galveston Tidal Wave; and the 1947 Texas City explosion (those last 2 being awfully close to home for me, so interesting). Since this book is over 40 years old it also lacks any disasters from those years.