Bibliograph

The longest minute, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, Matthew J. Davenport

Type

Label

The longest minute, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, Matthew J. Davenport

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

mapsillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The longest minute

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1310766862

Responsibility statement

Matthew J. Davenport

Sub title

the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906

Summary

"Matthew J. Davenport's The Longest Minute is the spellbinding true story of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, and how a great earthquake sparked a devastating and preventable firestorm. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. Fires ignited and blazed through dry wooden ruins and grew into a firestorm. For the next three days, flames devoured collapsed ruins, killed trapped survivors, and nearly destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West. Meticulously researched and gracefully written, The Longest Minute is both a harrowing chronicle of devastation and the portrait of a city's resilience in the burning aftermath of greed and folly. Drawing on the letters and diaries and unpublished memoirs of survivors and previously unearthed archival records, Matthew Davenport combines history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history"--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Prologue -- Seeds of disaster -- The day before -- It seemed eternity -- Fire and no water -- Indescribable confusion -- The whole city will burn -- Black powder and dynamite -- Saving the waterfront -- A great city vanishing in flame -- Night as bright as day -- Too much for sleep -- The day of the end of the world -- Heroic efforts -- The second night -- The third day -- Extinguished -- Wilderness of ruins -- Undefeated -- Afterword

Target audience

adult

resource.variantTitle

Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906

Classification