10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, 4 Jan 2005
In times which are beset by profound natural disasters such as the 2004 Asian tsunami, works such as Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded have all the more relevance as a stand-alone study of what happens when the vast geological powers of the earth are brought to bear on the surrounding environment.
Winchester incorporates a slowly building sense of adventure and anticipation in his book, setting up a sense of colonial life with a sometimes over extended history of Dutch occupation of large areas of Indonesia following the departure of the Portuguese in the 1600s. The city of Batavia is described in full development from the most primitive of coastal villages up to its prime position on the coast at the time of the eruption in 1883. He also develops our understanding of the geological forces which worked against each other to cause the volcanic cataclysm. He looks, too, at the research of various scientists, equally lauded and rebuffed throughout the ages, such as Alfred Russel Wallace (who pre-empted Darwin's theories of evolution with extensive studies of Indonesian wildlife but was beaten to it by his contemporary) and Alfred Wegener (who devised the theory of continental drift years ahead of this process being fully understood).
But what the book really excels at is its depiction of the building explosions which destroyed an entire volcanic area, created 120 foot high tidal waves (the 2004 Asian tsunami waves were only 20 feet high, to put this into perspective) and wiped out entire coastal towns, villages and societies and even contributed to the growing political unease of the area which exists as Islamic-influenced tension today.
Krakatoa, the event, is all the more fascinating for the statistics: the pressure wave caused by the cataclysm circled the earth a full seven times, recorded on barometric pressure graphs the world over. The booms were heard as far as the eastern coasts of Africa; its recipients supposing gunboats were firing out at sea. Artists in Europe painted an endlessly fascinating series of works revealing glowing sunsets due to the atmospheric fallout for months after the eruption. But it is the scale of localised destruction which, as in recent news events, brings the names of towns such as Aceh to the fore once again. It can only be realised after completing this book that the death toll in 1883 would have been catastrophically high if the area was as heavily populated as it is today.
It is uncanny that the consequences of the destruction of Krakatoa have been mirrored so recently in the Asian subcontinent. However, this area of the world has been historically plagued with super-destructive events as it is placed within the Pacific "ring of fire", and Winchester's explanation that Krakatoa was only the 5th greatest volcanic event in known history sends shivers down the spine as we read of its destructive results.
If the book suffers a failing, it is that Winchester tends to prolong descriptions of the political ramifications of the geological events at Krakatoa in 1883 and, after such a vivid description of the environmental events, this comes as a something of a damp squib at the end of the text.
Even so, this work is a wonderful read and we are left to wonder when Krakatoa will breathe fire once again, as Anak Krakatoa slowly builds up again, year upon year, its cone reaching slowly towards the sky . . .
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The day the world exploded, 2 Mar 2006
This is a marvelous book. Winchester not only covers the explosion of Krakatao in 1883 but also every event surrounding and leading up to it. He sets off with telling us, why Krakatao (and every other volcano) happen to be there in the first place. There is also a full history on the mountain itself, which I found rather intriguing given that it cannot be easy unearthing non-geological (I don’t want to call it eye-witness) evidence going as far back as the fourth and fifth century AD. He then covers the ‘human’ history and settlement of the area before setting off on a very detailed description on what precisely happened in 1883. This includes a rather detailed description on the effects of all this on the local population – at times you may feel that the Tsunami recorded off Indonesia in December 2004 was a rather benign event compared to Krakatao. The most fascinating to me personally are the eye-witness reports made by captains passing within the vicinity (if you can call it that) of Krakatao.
The rising of Baby-Krakatao from 1928 sort of gives me a dubious feeling because every island previously had exploded at some point and it is all too predictable that Baby-Krakatao will do so, too.
Similarly to others here, I found the chapter on the ‘rebellion of the ruined people’ a bit out of place because there is no obvious link to the explosion of Krakatao and I couldn’t understand why there should be.
Apart from that reservation, this is an excellent book. You will enjoy every bit of it.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Roaming Through The Ring of Fire, 5 Dec 2003
Despite the title, "Krakatoa" isn't just about the "day the world exploded." Perhaps a third of the book is devoted to the cataclysmic detonations that took place on August 27, 1883 and their immediate aftermath. This part of the story is gripping and hard to put down, but the rest of the book is fascinating in its own right.
Winchester is a master of elegant digression. "Krakatoa" chronicles the Portuguese and Dutch exploitation of the East Indies, the spread of Islam as a political force in Indonesia, plate tectonics, subduction zones, the ice in Greenland, the post-eruption growth and re-vegetation of Anak Krakatoa (the "child of Krakatoa"), the evolutionary theories of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin, and a host of interesting topics and characters in between. In its amiable style, "Krakatoa" reminded me of Nicholas Clapp's "Road to Ubar" and "Sheba"--although neither have anything to do with volcanoes, both books resemble "Kraktoa" in that they are travelogues that explore history in a well-written and entertaining way. It's all in the journey, not in the destination.
If you are looking for a book about how volcanoes blow up and destroy the things around them, you'll probably enjoy only a few chapters of Winchester's book (although I think you will enjoy them a great deal). For those who want to learn about how volcanoes have changed history (which is at least part of Winchester's thesis), check out David Keys' "Catastrophe" and the fascinating companion video of the same name, as well as De Boer & Sanders, "Volcanoes in Human History" and Pellegrino's "Unearthing Atlantis." For a book about the destruction wrought by volcanoes, try "Vulcan's Fury: Man Against the Volcano," by Alwyn Scarth.
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