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362 ratings, 3.96 average rating, 66 reviews
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published
January 15th 1987
(first published 1968)
by Pocket Books
binding
Paperback, 304 pages
isbn
0671207148
(isbn13: 9780671207144)
description
The history of civil engineering may sound boring, but in David McCullough's hands it is, well, riveting. His award-winning histories of the Brooklyn ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 567)
Read in January, 2008
On May 31, 1889 an earthen dam on the Little Conemaugh River gave way after torrential rains and washed Johnstown, a small community east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania off the face of the earth. McCullough published his work on the disaster in 1968, for which he was able to interview survivors, getting first-hand accounts of the flood. McCullough, who would later win a Pulitzer Prize, researched historical records and publications to piece together a minute-by-minute recreation of the tragedy, m...more
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Read in June, 2008
This was an interesting historical read, especially because I have family in Johnstown and went to the flood museum as a child.
What I really find fascinating is how few of the general public know about the flood today. Reading this book informed me that the flood was not just national but was *international* news. Aide came in from France, Turkey, England, you name it and scale of the disaster was on par with Hurricane Katrina. How did it get so lost in our history?
What I really find fascinating is how few of the general public know about the flood today. Reading this book informed me that the flood was not just national but was *international* news. Aide came in from France, Turkey, England, you name it and scale of the disaster was on par with Hurricane Katrina. How did it get so lost in our history?
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McCullough tells a wonderful story. He is able to capture the time and place and people beautifully. Then he lets the events unfold, generally focusing on the experiences of individuals rather than presenting everything with an omniscient historian's eye. As the dam breaks, he gets across the excitement and the horror, and later the courage and hope of the people. As much as I enjoy history, I liked this one even more for just being a great, well-written story.
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Read in January, 2007
Excellent history of the flood of May 31, 1889. A dam supporting a lake for summer retreat for Pittsburgh’s finest (Frick, Phillips, Carnegie, Mellon) burst. The engineering is interesting. The dam was earthen, which is still very common. However, an earthen dam needs to be higher in the center (if a dam overflows, it should be at the edges), a spill way over rock (earth erodes under fast water), and a discharge system to maintain water level. In this case, the original Dam was properly...more
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Read in December, 2007
Normally a book about a flood follows a rather well worn path. People are unaware of the great risk they face, the day begins with no one the wiser, the waters rise, the dam breaks, people die, the clean-up begins, blame is apportioned, and the town attempts to rebuild to their previous levels. That being said, I found McCullough's account of the Johnstown Flood to be absolutely riveting. I could not help but think of the parallels to the great flood of this generation, the flood of New Orlea...more
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Read in June, 2006
Johnstown, PA, United States in May 1887 was a working class town in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania. Deeper in the hills was the South Forks Hunting and Fishing Club, a private resort for the very wealthy centered around a man-made lake. This story is about the breaking of the dam, and the flood that swept through the valley.
It is a fairly straightforward book. It follows the thinking of the club members, who wanted a hideaway they did not have to think about. The industrialists of t...more
It is a fairly straightforward book. It follows the thinking of the club members, who wanted a hideaway they did not have to think about. The industrialists of t...more
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Read in January, 2006
The Johnstown (Pennsylvania) flood of 1889 was to its era what Katrina has been to ours. A record rainfall and human negligence combined to produce the worst cataclysm of the 19th century in the U.S. Through a breach in the privately owned earthen South Fork Dam on the Conemaugh River, 14 miles upstream from Johnstown, 20,000 tons of water escaped to plunge down through the mountains. Not only Johnstown, but several other communities were obliterated by the force of the flood. More than 2,000...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who wants to know where their Pennsylvania Turnpike toll goes
I found the beginning of this book a little annoying- too many details before you know why they are important to know (a complaint I've had about McCullough before). But, it kind of picks up and turns into a dramatic narrative about people who survived, people who didn't, what happened after the water receded and who was to blame for the whole thing.
McCullough writes a skillful narrative, but sometimes his argument is lost in the details of telling a story. Not here. This has a clear argument...more
McCullough writes a skillful narrative, but sometimes his argument is lost in the details of telling a story. Not here. This has a clear argument...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Any interested in history
My apology to Kathy for taking so long to get around to this. i started it last fall when she sent it to me but the tape player in my car quit. My new car stereo has bluetooth :) but no tape player. Now that winter is over i have been working in the flowerbeds and had a chance to listen to my walkman. I really enjoyed learning more about the Flood. Mom used to talk about Johnstown when we drove down to Virginia to see Christensens. It was fascinating to hear about the Dam being built, then...more
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A most excellent book full of surprising details one never hears of. I'll never feel the same about Andrew Carnegie! It's, of course, very well written. I was moved to tears more than once and furious a few times too. A couple of times I might have chuckled.
This is an extremely detailed (I mean that in a good way) account of one of America's worst disasters. It wasn't just a bad flood- it was the result of years of mistakes (some honest, some not), poor management and plain bad luc...more
This is an extremely detailed (I mean that in a good way) account of one of America's worst disasters. It wasn't just a bad flood- it was the result of years of mistakes (some honest, some not), poor management and plain bad luc...more
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I read this years ago and found it fascinating. I'm going to read it again.
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Read in October, 2007
McCullough's account of the Johnstown Flood is detailed and thorough without being dry. As he described the conditions leading up to the flood, I felt a sense of dread. As he described exactly what happened, I was amazed and horrified. He covered, too, the aftermath including how the press handled it, and how the legal system did. There was some speculation as to how the legal part might have been different today.
All in all, I found the book engaging, insightful, informative, well-resear...more
All in all, I found the book engaging, insightful, informative, well-resear...more
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Read in July, 2006
This was an absolutely amazing story, wonderfully told by David McCullough, of several working-class towns in central Pennsylvania that were wiped out in 1889 in a matter of minutes, in a catastrophe that was caused by the neglect of people much more powerful than the factory worker residents. It's a story reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. McCullough really brings to life the experiences of those who lived through the event, as well as some of the thousands who died in the flood.
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Read in August, 2008
McCullough researched diaries, letters, interviews with survivors, a previously unknown transcript of a private investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania Railroad and recreates the chain of events that led to the catastrophe. I especially enjoyed the accounts of some who survived under miraculous circumstances. At places the reading got a little tedious as he went into great detail establishing the background and setting, but I’d recommend it.
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Katie by:
Pennyrecommends it for: anyone
G got this for xmas and I got to it first. It's one of the only non-fiction books that I've been willing to stay up past my bedtime reading. Compelling, well-written and crazy to imagine that such disasters have happened (and can still happen) right here in the U.S. Author is amazing. Love his personal touch to everything... well researched, but not overly academic (actually not even a little bit).
I'll certainly read more of his books.
I'll certainly read more of his books.
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Read in August, 2008
Excellent account of the Johnstown Flood. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I heard a lot about the flood, but not a lot of detail. This book looks at many different facets of the disaster: the history of the dam, the men involved, the flood itself, and the recovery. It shows what can happen when people in responsible positions do not do their due diligence and the populace trusts them. Not much has changed in the 119 years since the flood.
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Like everything David McCullough writes, this was an engaging, easy-to-follow book. It really explains the reasons why Johnstown flooded and portrays the agony and suffering of the people who were victims of the flood. Since my family is from Johnstown, I was especially interested in this story. But anyone interested in natural disasters and how humans cope in the face of them will be captivated by this account.
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For anyone who enjoys history, this is a must-read. David McCullough is one of the best, most easily-understood authors of the genre, and the Johnstown Flood is, in my opinion, one of his most fascinating subjects. The book is about the tragedy of the flood of Johnstown in the 1800s, which was caused when a poorly maintained damn broke and dumped an entire lake downsteam onto the unsuspecting town.
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Read in July, 2008
This was fantastic! It kept me up reading, 2 nights in a row. I had read other accounts of the Johnstown flood, but McCullough's is the best by far. Well written, clear structure, good mix of fact and anecdote. Gripping, even though I already knew how it would end.
One of my top 10 disaster books, and would recommend it even to those who are not particularly interested in the genre.
One of my top 10 disaster books, and would recommend it even to those who are not particularly interested in the genre.
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Read in March, 2008
Ever since the Guilded Age, the lines have been drawn in this country between the rich beyond use and the poor. The dam bursting turned into quite a metaphor and the complaints between the two sides seemed all too familiar. The stories of things that happened as Johnstown was washed away read like Hollywood action script material but it's amazing thinking that by and large it all happened.
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