The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman
and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring
and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the
coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa.
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of
Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic
disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed
nearly forty thousand people.
Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only
very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the
world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled
round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and
sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of
light.
The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as
France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went
haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the
island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on
islands thousands of miles away.
Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political
climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of
murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims:
one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings
anywhere.
Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as
well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely
new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he
brings it telling back to life.
