Krakatoa : the day the world exploded 27 August 1883 / Simon Winchester
By: Winchester, Simon
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: London ; Penguin Books, 2004Description: xiii, 432 p. : ill. maps ; 20 cm.ISBN: 0141005173.Subject(s): Volcanoes -- Indonesia -- History -- 19th Century | Krakatoa (Indonesia) -- Eruption, 1883DDC classification: 551.21 | Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General lending | MTU National Maritime College of Ireland Library Lending | 551.21 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00110048 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Simon Winchester's brilliant chronicle of the destruction of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in 1883 charts the birth of our modern world. He tells the story of the unrecognized genius who beat Darwin to the discovery of evolution; of Samuel Morse, his code and how rubber allowed the world to talk; of Alfred Wegener, the crack-pot German explorer and father of geology. In breathtaking detail he describes how one island and its inhabitants were blasted out of existence and how colonial society was turned upside-down in a cataclysm whose echoes are still felt to this day.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"An island with a pointed mountain" -- The crocodile in the canal -- Close encounters on the Wallace Line -- The moments when the mountain moved -- The unchaining of the gates of Hell -- A league from the last of the sun -- The curious case of the terrified elephant -- The paroxysm, the flood, and the crack of doom -- Rebellion of a ruined people -- The rising of the son -- Epilogue : the place the world exploded -- Recommendations for (and, in one case, against) further reading and viewing.
Considers the global impact of the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, documenting its cause of an immense tsunami that killed 40,000 people, its impact on the weather for several years, and its role in anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism.
Cian Ó Sé Collection.
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Simon Winchester was born in London, England on September 28, 1944. He read geology at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. After graduation in 1966, he joined a Canadian mining company and worked as field geologist in Uganda. The following year he decided to become a journalist. His first reporting job was for The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1969, he joined The Guardian and was named Britain's Journalist of the Year in 1971. He also worked for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times before becoming a freelancer.He is the author of numerous books including In Holy Terror, The River at the Center of the World, The Alice Behind Wonderland, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and.Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to journalism and literature.
(Bowker Author Biography)