© 2008
KRAKATOA - The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883
by Simon Winchester
Reviewed by Dorothy Black
Krakatoa. That volcano stands yet as the epitome of volcanic disaster and the one to which all others have been compared ever since.
On August 27, 1883, off the coast of Java, the island-volcano of Krakatoa exploded. The following tsunami killed over 40,000 people. The dust from the explosion wafted around the world for years, dropping temperatures and dramatizing sunsets. The sound was heard in India and Australia, and bodies washed up on far-off shores. The shock-wave travelled around the earth seven times, and lasted for 15 days. Not only was the island destroyed, but some after-effects were unprecedented, unexpected, and significant even today.
Simon Winchester is a world-travelled geologist and historian, author of many books. He tells this story with a good deal of background and obvious historical knowledge, adding many interesting facts. We dip into Darwinism and also learn that Darwin was a procrastinator. We learn about plate tectonics and continental drift, and that our planet was formed some 4,500 million years ago. Gutta-percha, we discover, was essential for durable trans-Atlantic telegraph cables. The significance of Morse Code in informing the world of the disaster is pointed out. Indeed, so many interesting sidelines are included that we reach the middle of the book and the explosion has not yet taken place!
With the explosion - finally! - we are shown how enormous the event was, not only in itself but in happening at that time in history. For mankind was rapidly developing and the world was indeed becoming a “global village”, due largely to many new means of communication. Telegraph cables had been laid through oceans, and communication developments such as Morse Code, Reuter’s News Agency, Lloyd’s Shipping, many newspapers and correspondents were all on hand to inform the world quickly about the Krakatoa disaster. Meteorologists doted on their instruments gone haywire and assorted other scientific instruments further enlarged on what was happening. Artists painted the dramatic skies and poets wrote about the event.
As well as the purely physical catastrophe of the explosion, the Krakatoa disaster had dramatic religious and political influence, manifestly changing the world. Religion described, warned, justified, and the people followed. The volcano’s explosion stimulated change and holy war, developing the first of Islamic killings of Westerners that society experienced.
Krakatoa is an interesting read for those liking history and accounts of human and natural experiences and events. While it does seem to take a wandering route to the actual explosion, it is nevertheless an interesting one! Probably my main complaint about the book is the poor quality of the maps, which often do not show the locations of the many places named. Arm yourself with a good map of Southeast Asia, therefore, and you will happier be.
HarperCollins Publishers Inc., of First U.S. Edition - 414 pages - ISBN 0-06-621285-5