History's Worst Disasters: And the stories behind them

by Eric Chaline

The world we live in is usually benign and forgiving, but on numerous occasions over the course of history it has also acted as a reminder of the precarious nature of our existence. Starting with the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction, author Eric Chaline takes you on a tour of humanity’s disasters, with triggers caused by nature as well as combined natural-human influences such as the HIV-AIDS pandemic and the Irish Famine, and even events dictated solely by human actions, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and 9/11. The scope of History’s Worst Disasters is to go beyond cataloging death and destruction in order to examine the consequences of these terrible events.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2013

About the author

Author, journalist and editor, winner of the Lord Aberdare Prize, 2018

Reviews

[Jed Leishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great! 50 disasters from the extinction of dinosaurs to the consequences of civilization. Each chapter discussed the details of each event, giving valuable context information and as such providing rich historical details of almost every continent!

Extinction of dinosaurs 65.5 million years BP
Toba eruption 70000 BP
Atlantis/SantoriniThera eruption 1500 BC
Collapse of the Bronze Age by the Vikings 1200 BC
Alaric's sack of Rome 410 AD
Collapse of Maya 900 AD
The Black Death 1346
Mehmet takes Constantinople (Byzantine) 1453
Colonisation of America's 1500s
Shaanxi Quake 1556
Slave Trade 1500-1800
Holocene extinction by humans 1662
London Fire 1666
Lisbon Quake 1755
Bengal Famine 1769
The Terreur 1793
Potato Famine 1845
Peshtigo Fires Wisconsin 1871
Krakatoa 1883 (Wow)
Titanic 1912
Genocide of Christian Armenians 1915
Battle of Somme 1916
Spanish Flu 1918
Rise of Fascism 1922- 1933
Kanto Earthquake 1923
Great Depression 1929 - 1939
China Floods 1931
Holodomor Stalin's Hunger 1932
Rape of Nanking 1937
Holocaust 1938- 1945
Operation Barbarossa Hitler invades Russia 1941
Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945
Partition of India 1947
Great Chinese Famine 1958
Nigerian Famine 1967
Killing Fields 1975
HIV Epidemic 1981
Ethiopian Famine 1983
Bhopal, India Gas Leak 1984
Chernobyl 1986
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 1989
Rwanda Genocide 1994
Screbrenica Massacre of Bosnian Muslims 1995
9/11 2001
European Heat Wave 2003
Indian Ocean Earthquake and Thailand Tsunami 2004
Hurricane Katrina 2005
Lehman Brothers and the Big Short 2008
Tohoku Earthquake and Fukushima accident 2011
Hurricane Sandy 2012

[Jacques Francois · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first picked the book up at the library, I didn't expect to have had such a great time while reading it. The writing style of the book is neither serious nor jesting and had a certain lightness to it which captivated me to it. I never expected that a person could deliver such serious facts about disasters in such a excellent manner. I applaud Eric Chaline on a great book which is sure to please others as it pleased me.