etc.

I picked this one up not because I have any particular penchant for volcanoes, but mostly because Winchester writes natural history like you wouldn’t believe. I would read this guy’s grocery list.

On August 27, 1883, the Indonesian island of Krakatoa was obliterated after one of three volcanoes on it’s diminutive landmass erupted, and the tsunamis that resulted from this cataclysmic explosion killed 40,000 people. And yes, bodies washed up on distant shores, and shocks were felt all over the world, and ash rained down on foreign lands, and it was all very, very bad, and I don’t mean to trivialize these important details (which Winchester backs up by methodical use every primary source and historical record that he can get his hands on), but it wasn’t the most interesting part of the book for me. What WAS the most interesting thing about the book for me was that Winchester contextualizes the event against the backdrop of a world that was only recently connected by underwater telegraphic cables, which afforded almost instant communication between the colonies for the first time ever. He also argues convincingly that the eruption and the ensuing abandonment of the colonies by the Dutch resulted in the civil and religious tension and unrest that still plagues the area today. Winchester is a detailed historian and a meticulous geologist and you always get a whole lot more detail than you need in his books, and you either relish all those details or you don’t. I ate them up with a spoon.