Audio only
A Crack in the Edge of the World
America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906By Simon WinchesterNarrated by Simon WinchesterLength12h 31m
About this audiobook
The international bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and Krakatoa vividly brings to life the 1906San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.
In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of California. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines throughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.
Perhaps more significant than the tremors and rumbling, which affected a swatch of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in its wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities -- as well as his unique understanding of geology -- to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.
A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (10.6K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreHistory, Science and Nature
Length12 hrs 31 mins
Narrated bySimon Winchester
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateOct 4, 2005
LanguageEnglish
More from Simon Winchester
LandSimon Winchester13h 47m3.9 (5.8K)$5 · $0.00
PacificSimon Winchester14h 3m4.1 (6.2K)$33 · $0.00
The Man Who Loved ChinaSimon Winchester9h 14m4.0 (6.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Breath of the GodsSimon Winchester13h 52m3.8 (615)$33 · $0.00
Knowing What We KnowSimon Winchester14h 19m3.9 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
AtlanticSimon Winchester14h 30m3.9 (13.8K)$33 · $0.00
The PerfectionistsSimon Winchester11h 46m4.2 (9.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Men Who United the StatesSimon Winchester13h 34m4.0 (5.6K)$33 · $0.00
The Alice Behind WonderlandSimon Winchester2h 44m3.7 (1K)$18 · $0.00
The Professor and The MadmanSimon Winchester7h 20m4.0 (178K)$24 · $0.00
The Meaning of EverythingSimon Winchester7h 19m4.1 (8.4K)$24 · $0.00
KrakatoaSimon Winchester12h 1m4.0 (37K)$8 · $0.00
The Map That Changed the WorldSimon Winchester10h4.0 (21.3K)$7 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of RevolutionAnand Gopal22h 36m4.7 (584)$34 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Medgar and MyrlieJoy-Ann Reid10h 52m4.5 (27.8K)$29 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Story of BirdsSteve Brusatte11h 49m4.6 (401)$29 · $0.00
Pastoral SongJames Rebanks8h 35m4.5 (12K)$26 · $0.00
How Stella Learned to TalkChristina Hunger7h4.5 (10.9K)$24 · $0.00
Craig & FredCraig Grossi8h 6m4.5 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Celebrating BirdsNatalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez6h 47m4.6 (330)$24 · $0.00
Saving JemimaJulie Zickefoose4h 59m4.5 (749)$20 · $0.00
Will's Red CoatTom Ryan8h 23m4.5 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Of Time and TurtlesSy Montgomery10h 34m4.5 (5K)$29 · $0.00
THE WOLF TRILOGY: Call of the Wild, White Fang & The Son of the WolfJack London17h 31m4.5 (2.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Zen and the Art of Saving the PlanetThich Nhat Hanh9h 20m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
BLACK BEAUTY (With Original Illustrations)Anna Sewell7h 31m4.5 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
IngrainedCallum Robinson8h 10m4.5 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
The Lion Tracker's Guide To LifeBoyd Varty3h 1m4.4 (4.8K)$18 · $0.00
Born for LoveBruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz11h 42m4.4 (4K)$29 · $0.00
The Mountains of California (With Original Drawings & Photographs) (Annotated)John Muir11h 35m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
The New GuysMeredith Bagby16h 50m4.4 (1.2K)$40 · $0.00
Blue PasturesMary Oliver3h 23m4.4 (3.8K)$18 · $0.00
The Rise and Reign of the MammalsSteve Brusatte13h 26m4.4 (11.1K)$33 · $0.00
You may also like
Smoke and AshesAmitav Ghosh12h 36m4.2 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
The Frontier in American HistoryFrederick Jackson Turner11h 38m4.0 (1.4K)Free
The Malay Archipelago (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)Alfred Russel Wallace25h 28m4.3 (2.2K)$3 · $0.00
The Amur RiverColin Thubron10h 13m4.1 (1.8K)$29 · $0.00
LandSimon Winchester13h 47m3.9 (5.8K)$5 · $0.00
The Men Who United the StatesSimon Winchester13h 34m4.0 (5.6K)$33 · $0.00
Lost WorldsPatrick Wyman14h 56m4.3 (104)$33 · $0.00
The Imperiled OceanLaura Trethewey7h 19m3.8 (127)$17
The Tonquin's Wake: Astor's Fur Empire and the Nations of the Lower ColumbiaDaniel R. Whitlock3h 59m$6
History of PhoeniciaGeorge Rawlinson17h 40m3.6 (89)$1.99 · $0.00
The Japanese Coffe MarketAdriana Roldán Pérez4h 33m$5 · $0.00
Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's LandMatthew Flinders2h 25m$2 · $0.00
Fountains in the Sand: Rambles Among the Oases of TunisiaNorman Douglas6h 8m3.5 (87)$2 · $0.00
The Congo and Coasts of AfricaRichard Harding Davis2h 59m4.1 (14)$2 · $0.00
ANDY ADAMS Ultimate Western Collection – 5 Novels & 14 Short Stories (Annotated)Andy Adams55h 25m$2 · $0.00
Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is (Annotated)George B. Bacon7h 22m$0.99 · $0.00
Life with Wildlife - 2, ADr M.K. Ranjitsinh7h 52m4.6 (29)$8
Englisch lernen Audio - Englische GärtenSpotlight Verlag1h 1m4.6 (15)$17
Canada and the Canadians (Annotated)Richard Henry Bonnycastle12h 8m$2 · $0.00
Canada and the Canadians (Vol. 1&2)Richard Henry Bonnycastle12h 5m3.2 (22)$1.99 · $0.00