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A Crack In The Edge Of The World
America And The Great California Earthquake Of 1906
by Simon Winchester

A Crack In The Edge Of The World reviews


4.0

based on 17 reviews
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The bestselling author of books on Krakatoa and the Oxford English Dictionary turns his attention to the 1906 San Francisco temblor and the implications it had for earthquake science to follow.

HarperCollins, 480 pages
10/01/2005
$27.95

ISBN: 0060571993

Nonfiction
History
Science & Nature

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Ken McGoogan

[A] daring, brilliant extravaganza, the work of a master at the height of his powers.

The Independent David Phelan

Geology is not, at first glance, the most inviting of subjects, but in this book Simon Winchester makes it engagingly, captivatingly readable.

Houston Chronicle Lynwood Abram

A thoughtful and illuminating book by an author in impressive command of his subject.

Sydney Morning Herald Bruce Elder

For anyone interested in the San Francisco earthquake, this is a fascinating and informative book

Daily Telegraph Helen Brown

It is all fascinating stuff and indulgent readers will be happy to snaffle up the trivia along the way, as the bigger story unfolds.

Daily Telegraph Lawrence Norfolk

In this wide-ranging book, Winchester peers through the fault-line of one century-old earthquake to investigate our planet's seismic upheavals and gauge their immediate and far-flung effects.

USA Today Bob Minzesheimer

Expansive, global, at times philosophical and personal, an engaging blend of history, science and travelogue.

Boston Globe David Nasaw

Without slighting the human suffering of the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, and with full attention to the irreducible particularity of their pain, Winchester places their tragedies in an almost cosmic context.

Chicago Sun-Times Greg Lindenberg

In a time when there are questions aplenty concerning New Orleans' disaster plan, city officials in San Francisco just might want to read A Crack in the Edge of the World.

The Guardian Kelly Grovier

Anyone familiar with Winchester's bestsellers, including Krakatoa and The Surgeon of Crowthorne, will know how compellingly he can translate the most turgid jargon into purring prose. But in the wake of Katrina and Rita, what may interest readers most are the heartening tales of courage and sacrifice excavated here.

The Guardian Josh Lacey

Hurricane Katrina has shown what not to do when disaster actually strikes. A hundred years ago, the earthquake in San Francisco was handled much better. Simon Winchester describes the intelligence, vigour and generosity shown not just by the city's inhabitants and administrators, but by the whole country.

Wall Street Journal Debra J. Saunders

Much ado about fault lines.

PopMatters Zachary Houle

Like Winchester examining an event already a century removed, this book and its warnings are well-intended but feel like they both arrived out of time, a bit like pokey disaster relief aid.

Washington Post Kate Julian

Many readers of his best-selling "Krakatoa" and "The Professor and the Madman" clearly enjoyed this sort of ambling field trip. That much is a matter of taste. The extent to which Winchester's conclusions about 1906 deviate from recent historiography is not.

Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz

Arriving after Hurricane Katrina--which has arguably replaced the quake as America's worst natural disaster ever--"Crack" disappoints with its relative lack of human drama.

Christian Science Monitor Erik Spanberg

Amid the rubble of this plodding account a gripping tale could have been assembled, but "A Crack in the Edge of the World" suffers far too many faults to come anywhere close.

The New York Times Book Review Bryan Burrough

I hated it. I wanted to drop-kick this book across the backyard. If Doris Kearns Goodwin or David McCullough can lay claim to being the Miles Davis of popular history, Winchester is becoming the Kenny G.

The average user rating for this book is 4.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mike M gave it a7:
I still believe the best book for understanding the geology of California is Assembling California by John McPhee, but this is an interesting overview of plate techtonics and risk. A significant share of the book is devoted to fault lines around the globe, rock formations, and such, which can either be either interesting or deadly boring, depending on the reader's interest levels. Winchester is a servicable writer, and does a workman like job of illuminating complex concepts. But it does take work at times to slog through all of the concepts presented.

Hank M gave it a1:
Winchester has gone and done it again! Lost in Translation would be a more apt title of this Geoolgy 101 tome with 300 pages of unnecessary technical terms, observations, and other useless "stuff" UNLESS you are a sudent wishing to learn more about the San Francisco earthquake. The New York fireman's account of the 1906 Fires associated with the destruction of San Francisco is more engaging and out right interesting.

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A Crack In The Edge Of The World America And The Great California Earthquake Of 1906 by Simon Winchester

A Crack In The Edge Of The World
America And The Great California Earthquake Of 1906
by Simon Winchester