The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 - Softcover

Shrady, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143114603 ISBN 13: 9780143114604

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2009

Synopsis

The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 was no run-of-the-mill misfortune-it was a watershed moment that shook the pillars of an inveterate social order and sent reverberations throughout the Western world. Earth, water, wind, and fire all conspired to produce a hellish catastrophe that lasted for a full five days and left Lisbon thoroughly annihilated. Nicholas Shrady's unique account of this first modern disaster and its aftereffects successfully articulates the outcome of the earthquake-the eighteenth-century equivalent of a mass media frenzy giving rise to a host of other fascinating developments, such as disaster preparedness, landmark social reform, urban planning, and the birth of seismology.

About this title

Review:

"Admirable and perfectly paced."
- The New York Sun

"Shrady's account will find the same ready audience that delight's not only in tales of catastrophes but in smart, stylishly written history."
-Publishers Weekly

About the Author:

Nicholas Shrady is the author of Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail. His articles have appeared in Architectural Digest, The New York Times Book Review, Travel & Leisure, Forbes, and Town & Country.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0143114603
• ISBN 13: 9780143114604
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256