Jamie L. (geegee) reviewed on 10/12/2007 + 7 more book reviews

This is a hardcover book. It has a couple of small places on the front cover that were torn a little when someone took off the sticker price, I think. One small tear in cover on back cover. Otherwise, in good shape itself. The below review is NOT mine. This is NOT an advanced reader's copy. This book 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 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. 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 throghout 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 swath of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in their wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless.

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