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The Longest Minute
- Author
- Matthew J. Davenport
- Narrator
- Traber Burns
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 17 October 2023
- Run Time
- 17 hours 19 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
The true story of how a seismic shock sparked a devastating and preventable firestorm
At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep.
For approximately forty-eight seconds, shock waves 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 destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West.
Matthew Davenport draws on letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs, and previously unearthed archival records, as well as interviews with engineers and geologists, to combine history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.
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.
Critics Review
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“Burns’s anchorman style…may well resemble how national and local radio announcers would have covered the disaster back in the day of the burgeoning broadcast radio industry.”
AudioFile
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"This is heroic writing that balances the big picture with minute details.”
San Francisco Chronicle
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“A remarkably granular account of the city’s most devastating tremor and its aftermath.”
New York Times Book Review
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“A terrifying and propulsive account…Davenport seamlessly weaves detailed technical explanations of city infrastructure into gut-churning scenes, often drawing from primary sources to harrowing effect…A vivid and meticulous recounting.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Davenport brings fresh insights…A tale both captivating and cautionary.”
Booklist
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"[A] superb narrative…A kaleidoscopic and a comprehensive view of what happened and why.”
Dr. Stephen Tobriner, professor emeritus of architectural history, University of California Berkeley
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“Presents extraordinary research that weaves a thousand stories––from Jack London’s to a ten-year-old child’s––into one. Every page is intense.”
John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza
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“Narrative history of the highest order…A book that resurrects the courageous firefighters, first responders, military, and everyday citizens who risked their lives amid the rubble, flames and smoke. A stirring telling of a terrible event.”
Buddy Levy, award–winning author of Labyrinth of Ice
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Details
- Author
- Matthew J. Davenport
- Narrator
- Traber Burns
- Duration
- 17 hours 19 minutes
- Release Date
- 17 October 2023
- ISBN
- 9798212241861
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Natural disasters, History of the Americas, History of the Americas, Local history
Synopsis
The true story of how a seismic shock sparked a devastating and preventable firestormAt 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep.For approximately forty-eight seconds, shock waves 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 destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West.Matthew Davenport draws on letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs, and previously unearthed archival records, as well as interviews with engineers and geologists, to combine history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.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.
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