Product Description
Environmental historian Philip L. Fradkin offers a vivid history of earthquakes and an eloquent guide to the San Andreas Fault, the seismic scar that bisects the Golden State's spectacular scenery. The author includes dramatic stories of legendary earthquakes elsewhere: in New York, New England, the central Mississippi River Valley, Europe, and the Far East. Combining human and natural dramas, he places the reader at the epicenter of the most invisible, unpredictable, and feared of the earth's violent phenomena. On the eve of the millennium, as cyberspace crackles with apocalyptic visions, Fradkin reaches beyond the earthshaking moment to examine the mythology, culture, social implications, politics, and science of earthquakes.

Amazon.com Review
"The tectonic history of any one part of the earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of boredom and short periods of terror." With this quotation from geologist Derek Ager, Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist Philip Fradkin, "a literary geologist with a notebook in one hand and a hammer in the other," begins his trip along the San Andreas Fault. His persistent question is how "a culture could ignore this powerful natural agent while simultaneously being shaped by it." Fradkin himself lives near the fault, and he understands the human reluctance to remember the past and to prepare for the inevitable. He looks at the history and impact of the major California earthquakes of the past 150 years, from Fort Teijin in 1857 to Northridge in 1994. Throughout, he exposes the problems caused by human shortcomings: the amnesia of the general public, earthquake engineers' conflicts of interest, and the failures of science. His discussions of the politics of earthquake prediction and of the "arcane systems" used to measure earthquake magnitudes are the best in print. "I wanted others to be aware of the fault's physical presence and its awesome power," Fradkin writes. He may also succeed at raising Californians' awareness of how to prepare for earthquakes--and at shortening their feelings of boredom while lengthening their periods of prudent terror. --Mary Ellen Curtin

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 5 reviews)

A 3.0 on the Richter Scale -- Barely Registers

The author-notes at the end of the book claim that the author once shared a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. He must have had one heck of an editor then, and he sure didn't have one for this book. Disorganized in the extreme, the prose can vary from scientific jargon to conspiracy theory to personal snarky-ness within a single paragraph.

You have a subject that should be inherently interesting -- the destruction of the state of California -- the true "Big One" that would make Katrina and New Orleans look puny by comparison. But work your way through chapter one, and you'll see why I found this one remaindered for 49 cents at Final Markdown!
May 30, 2007

An Important Work

This is an important work; well researched and well written. It should be required reading for all public officials in California. More illustrations would have been useful. Highly recommended.
October 23, 2000

Creates a personal visceral feel for powerful earth force

Yesterday, August 17, I was sitting in Point Reyes, CA., home of author Phil Fradkin, directly overhanging the San Andreas fault. I was on page 121 of Magnitude 8, when suddenly the house began to move. It swayed back and forth like a tree hut in a gale for about 15 seconds. Yes, it was a minor 5.0 magnitude quake centered in nearby Bolinas. Powerful Writing!

Great book by an author who has put his heart and soul into internalizing the meaning of these mysterious earth processes.
August 18, 1999

Enthralling, thoughtful, and sobering, but with a few warts

Fradkin travels the length of the San Andreas by car, by kayak, and on foot, describing its perils and its history. Into his story of the San Andreas he weaves parallel threads about earthquakes elsewhere, always playing up the public's denial of earthquake hazard.

As a seismologist, I found the book often irritating (right down to its title: there is no evidence that the San Andreas has ever suffered a magnitude 8 earthquake or that it ever will), and sometimes too dramatic, but in the end it left me with a feeling of chagrin. Fradkin put together a good, coherent story of the San Andreas' hazards, but to do so, he had to fight his way through arcane jargon. His comment that the scientists don't know how to communicate makes me squirm, but it is absolutely right.

Not only is this a must-read for anyone within 200 miles of the San Andreas, it should be required for all seismologists and emergency managers who ever have to talk to the public.
February 05, 1999

Facinating blend of narative and science

This book tells the story of California and it's geology in way that connects it with real life. It brings home how we conspire to ignore the earthquake threat. A must for CA residents.
January 09, 1999

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