This Gulf Of Fire

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This Gulf of Fire

Author : Mark Molesky
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 030738750X
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis This Gulf of Fire by : Mark Molesky

Download or read book This Gulf of Fire written by Mark Molesky and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Phi Alpha Theta Best Subsequent Book Award A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist The captivating and definitive account of the Great Lisbon Earthquake--the most consequential natural disaster of modern times. On All Saints’ Day 1755, tremors from an earthquake measuring approximately 9.0 or perhaps higher on the magnitude scale swept furiously toward Lisbon, then one of the wealthiest cities in the world and the capital of a vast global empire. Within minutes, much of the city lay in ruins. A half hour later, a giant tsunami unleashed by the quake smashed into Portugal’s coastline and barreled up the Tagus River, carrying countless thousands out to sea. To complete Lisbon’s destruction, a hellacious firestorm then engulfed the city’s shattered remains, killing thousands more and incinerating much of what the earthquake and tsunami had spared. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, the latest scientific research, and a sophisticated grasp of European history, Mark Molesky gives us the gripping, authoritative account of the Great Lisbon Earthquake disaster and its impact on the Western world—including descriptions of the world’s first international relief effort, the rise of a brutal, yet modernizing, dictatorship in Portugal, and the effect of the catastrophe on the spirit and direction of the European Enlightenment.

This Gulf of Fire

Author : Mark Molesky
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 030738750X
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis This Gulf of Fire by : Mark Molesky

Fire on the Horizon

Author : John Konrad
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062063022
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Fire on the Horizon by : John Konrad

Download or read book Fire on the Horizon written by John Konrad and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A phenomenal feat of journalism. . . . I tore through it like a novel but with the queasy knowledge that the whole damn thing is true." —Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and War Blending exclusive first-person interviews and penetrating investigative reporting, oil rig captain John Konrad and veteran Washington Post writer Tom Shroder give the definitive, white-knuckled account of the Deepwater Horizon explosion—as well as a riveting insider’s view of the byzantine culture of offshore drilling that made the disaster inevitable. As the world continues to cope with the oil spill’s grim aftermath—with environmental and economic consequences all the more dire in a region still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina—Konrad and Schroder’s real-time account of the disaster shows us just where things went wrong, and points the way to a safer future for us all.

Fire in the Sea

Author : David A. McKee
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1623490316
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (234 download)

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Book Synopsis Fire in the Sea by : David A. McKee

Download or read book Fire in the Sea written by David A. McKee and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-27 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cold, stygian dark of the extreme sea depths is home to some of our planet’s strangest creatures. Even their names evoke a science fiction adventure: dragonfishes, greeneyes, viperfishes, mirrorbellies, lanternfishes. Marine biologist Henry “Hank” Compton (1928–2005) of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Rockport Marine Lab was present on some of the earliest Gulf of Mexico cruises on which these fishes were collected for the first time in Texas waters. Upon returning, Compton would retire to the darkroom he had constructed beneath a stairwell at the lab and photograph the specimens. A talented artist, Compton then painted watercolors based on his photographs. He allowed free rein to both his scientific judgment and his artistic vision as he constructed representations of how the specimens might have appeared in the crushing pressure of their alien environment. Compton dubbed the series of deep-water paintings “Fire in the Sea” because of the shimmering bioluminescence common to these deep-water species. Then, along with taxonomic descriptions, he drafted fanciful narratives to accompany the paintings: quirky, humorous, and sometimes cryptic stories of the fishes in their unreachable habitat. Professor, researcher, and author David A. McKee has taken Compton’s work, discovered in cardboard boxes following his death, and, along with others, provided chapters on bioluminescence, life in the deep, taxonomic arrangement, and life history information.

Wrath of God

Author : Edward Paice
Publisher : Quercus Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Wrath of God by : Edward Paice

Download or read book Wrath of God written by Edward Paice and published by Quercus Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just after half past nine on the morning of Sunday 1 November 1755, the end of the world came to the city of Lisbon. On a day that had begun with blue skies and gentle warmth, Portugal's proud capital was struck by a massive earthquake. After a brief, two-minute tremor came six minutes of horror as Lisbon swayed 'like corn in the wind before the avalanches of descending masonry hid the ruins under a cloud of dust'. A third tremor shook most of the buildings still standing to the ground, causing catastrophic loss of life. Lisbon had been struck by a seismic disturbance estimated at 8.7 on the Richter scale - more powerful than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. An hour later, riverine Lisbon and the Algarve coast were engulfed by a series of tsunamis. In areas of the city unaffected by the waves, fires raged for six days, completing the destruction of Europe's fourth-largest city. By the time it was all over, 60,000 souls had perished and 85% of Lisbon's buildings, plus an unimaginable wealth of cultural treasures, had been destroyed by quake, fire or water. The earthquake had a searing impact on the European psyche. Theologians and philosophers were baffled by this awesome manifestation of the anger of God. How could the presence of such suffering in the world be reconciled with the existence of a beneficent deity? For Portugal itself, despite an ambitious programme of reconstruction (which gave birth to the modern science of seismology), the quake ushered in a period of decline, in which her seaborne supremacy was eclipsed by the inexorable rise of the British empire.Drawing on primary sources, Edward Paice paints a vivid picture of a city and society changed for ever by a day of terror. He describes in thrilling detail the quake itself and its immediate aftermath, but he is interested just as much in its political, economic and cultural consequences. Wrath of God is a gripping account from a master writer of a natural disaster that had a transformative impact on European society.

Blowout in the Gulf

Author : William R. Freudenburg
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262015838
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Blowout in the Gulf by : William R. Freudenburg

Download or read book Blowout in the Gulf written by William R. Freudenburg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how a chain of failures, missteps, and bad decisions led to America's biggest environmental disaster.

Oil Spill!

Author : Elaine Landau
Publisher : Millbrook Press
ISBN 13 : 0761374906
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (613 download)

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Book Synopsis Oil Spill! by : Elaine Landau

Download or read book Oil Spill! written by Elaine Landau and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The oil spill was the largest in U.S. history. In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank. Oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from a deep ocean well. For months, the energy company BP tried to control the leak. More than four million barrels of oil flowed into the Gulf before the well was stopped. Fishers, shrimpers, and many others along the Gulf coast lost their income as polluted water prevented fishing and stifled tourism. Meanwhile, countless workers tried to contain the spilled oil. Boat crews skimmed the oil slicks on the surface. Scientists poured chemicals into the water to break up the oil. Then bacteria could remove the smaller oil droplets from the water. Wildlife organizations rescued oil-slicked pelicans, turtles, and other animals. The government, together with BP and volunteers, rallied to help coastal areas recover. Oil Spill! explores the Gulf of Mexico disaster from the beginning. With vivid images and diagrams, it breaks down the murky mess to look at how it happened, how it affected the Gulf, how it compares to past spills, and how kids can help the area recover.

A Land on Fire

Author : James Fahn
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465013430
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis A Land on Fire by : James Fahn

Download or read book A Land on Fire written by James Fahn and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The future of Earth's environment will be decided in Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population and some of the world's fastest-growing economies. As an award-winning investigative journalist based in Bankok, James Fahn spent a decade grappling with the challenges facing the region's mega-cities, tropical forests, coastlines, and societies dashing toward modernity. In A Land on Fire , he shares his findings -- the profound implications for global issues such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the greening of world trade. He explores Southeast Asia's environmental battles through the eyes of the people fighting them, and recounts his many adventures while covering them. Whether chasing down log smugglers along the Thai-Burmese border, exposing the dumping of toxic mercury into the Gulf of Thailand by multinational oil corporations, or covering the controversy surrounding the filming of the movie The Beach , Fahn provides unique insight into the relationship between sustainable development and democracy, the crippling impact of corruption, and the environmental challenges facing us all.

Bird on Fire

Author : Andrew Ross
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199912297
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Bird on Fire by : Andrew Ross

Download or read book Bird on Fire written by Andrew Ross and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-27 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phoenix, Arizona is one of America's fastest growing metropolitan regions. It is also its least sustainable one, sprawling over a thousand square miles, with a population of four and a half million, minimal rainfall, scorching heat, and an insatiable appetite for unrestrained growth and unrestricted property rights. In Bird on Fire, eminent social and cultural analyst Andrew Ross focuses on the prospects for sustainability in Phoenix--a city in the bull's eye of global warming--and also the obstacles that stand in the way. Most authors writing on sustainable cities look at places that have excellent public transit systems and relatively high density, such as Portland, Seattle, or New York. But Ross contends that if we can't change the game in fast-growing, low-density cities like Phoenix, the whole movement has a major problem. Drawing on interviews with 200 influential residents--from state legislators, urban planners, developers, and green business advocates to civil rights champions, energy lobbyists, solar entrepreneurs, and community activists--Ross argues that if Phoenix is ever to become sustainable, it will occur more through political and social change than through technological fixes. Ross explains how Arizona's increasingly xenophobic immigration laws, science-denying legislature, and growth-at-all-costs business ethic have perpetuated social injustice and environmental degradation. But he also highlights the positive changes happening in Phoenix, in particular the Gila River Indian Community's successful struggle to win back its water rights, potentially shifting resources away from new housing developments to producing healthy local food for the people of the Phoenix Basin. Ross argues that this victory may serve as a new model for how green democracy can work, redressing the claims of those who have been aggrieved in a way that creates long-term benefits for all. Bird on Fire offers a compelling take on one of the pressing issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability at a time when governments are dismally failing in their responsibility to address climate change.

Fire in the Night

Author : Stephen McGinty
Publisher : Pan Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0230738877
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis Fire in the Night by : Stephen McGinty

Download or read book Fire in the Night written by Stephen McGinty and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fire was visible from seventy miles away and the heat generated was so intense that a helicopter could only circle the rig at a perimeter of one mile. On the surface of the sea, a converted fishing trawler inched as close as possible, but the paint on the vessel’s hull blistered and burnt. In the water surrounding the inferno, men’s heads could be seen bobbing like apples as their yellow hard hats melted with the heat. On 6 July 1988 a series of explosions ripped through the Piper Alpha oil platform, 110 miles north-east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. Ablaze with 226 men on board, the searing temperatures caused the platform to collapse in just two hours. Only sixty-one would survive by leaping over 100 feet into the water below. Newly updated for the thirtieth year since the tragedy, Fire in the Night by journalist Stephen McGinty tells in gripping detail the devastating story of that summer evening. Combining interviews with survivors, witness statements and transcripts from the official inquiry into the disaster, this is the moving and vivid tale of what remains the worst offshore oil-rig disaster to date.

Firestorm

Author : Edward Struzik
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1610918185
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Firestorm by : Edward Struzik

Download or read book Firestorm written by Edward Struzik and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Frightening...Firestorm comes alive when Struzik discusses the work of offbeat scientists." --New York Times Book Review "Comprehensive and compelling." --Booklist "A powerful message." --Kirkus "Should be required reading." --Library Journal In the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the Canadian town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire "the Beast." It seemed to be alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it's not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. In Firestorm, Edward Struzik confronts this new reality, offering a deftly woven tale of science, economics, politics, and human determination. It's possible for us to flourish in the coming age of megafires--but it will take a radical new approach that requires acknowledging that fires are no longer avoidable. Living with fire also means, Struzik reveals, that we must better understand how the surprising, far-reaching impacts of these massive fires will linger long after the smoke eventually clears.

Fire on the Water, Second Edition

Author : Robert J Haddick
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1682478033
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (824 download)

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Book Synopsis Fire on the Water, Second Edition by : Robert J Haddick

Download or read book Fire on the Water, Second Edition written by Robert J Haddick and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2022-08-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Robert Haddick wrote Fire on the Water, first published in 2014, most policy experts and the public underestimated the threat China’s military modernization posed to the U.S. strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region. Today, the rapid Chinese military buildup has many policy experts wondering whether the United States and its allies can maintain conventional military deterrence in the region, and the topic is central to defense planning in the United States. In this new edition, Haddick argues that the United States and its allies can sustain conventional deterrence in the face of China's military buildup. However, doing so will require U.S. policymakers and planners to overcome institutional and cultural barriers to reforms necessary to implement a new strategy for the region. Fire on the Water, Second Edition also presents the sources of conflict in Asia and explains why America's best option is to maintain its active forward presence in the region. Haddick relates the history of America's military presence in the Indo-Pacific and shows why that presence is now vulnerable. The author details China's military modernization program, how it is shrewdly exploiting the military-technical revolution, and why it now poses a grave threat to U.S. and allied interests. He considers the U.S. responses to China's military modernization over the past decade and discusses why these responses fall short of a convincing competitive strategy. Detailing a new approach for sustaining conventional deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region, the author discusses the principles of strategy as they apply to the problems the United States faces in the region. He explains the critical role of aerospace power in the region and argues that the United States should urgently refashion its aerospace concepts if it is to deter aggression, focusing on Taiwan, the most difficult case. Haddick illustrates how the military-technical revolution has drastically changed the potential of naval forces in the Indo-Pacific region and why U.S. policymakers and planners need to adjust their expectations and planning for naval forces. Finally, he elucidates lessons U.S. policymakers can apply from past great-power competitions, examines long-term trends affecting the current competition, summarizes a new U.S. strategic approach to the region, describes how U.S. policymakers can overcome institutional barriers that stand in the way of a better strategy, and explains why U.S. policymakers and the public should have confidence about sustaining deterrence and peace in the region over the long term.

Jarhead

Author : Anthony Swofford
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743254287
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis Jarhead by : Anthony Swofford

Download or read book Jarhead written by Anthony Swofford and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-11-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Swofford's Jarhead is the first Gulf War memoir by a frontline infantry marine, and it is a searing, unforgettable narrative. When the marines -- or "jarheads," as they call themselves -- were sent in 1990 to Saudi Arabia to fight the Iraqis, Swofford was there, with a hundred-pound pack on his shoulders and a sniper's rifle in his hands. It was one misery upon another. He lived in sand for six months, his girlfriend back home betrayed him for a scrawny hotel clerk, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, he pulled a gun on one of his fellow marines, and he was shot at by both Iraqis and Americans. At the end of the war, Swofford hiked for miles through a landscape of incinerated Iraqi soldiers and later was nearly killed in a booby-trapped Iraqi bunker. Swofford weaves this experience of war with vivid accounts of boot camp (which included physical abuse by his drill instructor), reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family. As engagement with the Iraqis draws closer, he is forced to consider what it is to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man. Unlike the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account subverts the conventional wisdom that U.S. military interventions are now merely surgical insertions of superior forces that result in few American casualties. Jarhead insists we remember the Americans who are in fact wounded or killed, the fields of smoking enemy corpses left behind, and the continuing difficulty that American soldiers have reentering civilian life. A harrowing yet inspiring portrait of a tormented consciousness struggling for inner peace, Jarhead will elbow for room on that short shelf of American war classics that includes Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War and Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and be admired not only for the raw beauty of its prose but also for the depth of its pained heart.

Patriotic Fire

Author : Winston Groom
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1400095662
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Patriotic Fire by : Winston Groom

Download or read book Patriotic Fire written by Winston Groom and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: December 1814: its economy in tatters, its capital city of Washington, D.C., burnt to the ground, a young America was again at war with the militarily superior English crown. With an enormous enemy armada approaching New Orleans, two unlikely allies teamed up to repel the British in one of the greatest battles ever fought in North America.The defense of New Orleans fell to the backwoods general Andrew Jackson, who joined the raffish French pirate Jean Laffite to command a ramshackle army made of free blacks, Creole aristocrats, Choctaw Indians, gunboat sailors and militiamen. Together these leaders and their scruffy crew turned back a British force more than twice their number. Offering an enthralling narrative and outsized characters, Patriotic Fire is a vibrant recounting of the plots and strategies that made Jackson a national hero and gave the nascent republic a much-needed victory and surge of pride and patriotism.

Fields of Fire

Author : James Webb
Publisher : Canelo
ISBN 13 : 1788635191
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (886 download)

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Book Synopsis Fields of Fire by : James Webb

Download or read book Fields of Fire written by James Webb and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Webb’s classic, scorching novel of the Vietnam War. They each had their reasons for becoming a Marine. They each had their illusions. Goodrich came fresh from Harvard. Snake got the tattoo before he even got the uniform. Hodges was haunted by the spirits of family heroes. Three young men, from vastly different worlds, were plunged into a white-hot, murderous melting pot of jungle warfare in the An Hoa Basin, Vietnam, 1969. They had no way of knowing what awaited them. For nothing could have prepared them for the madness of what they found. And in the heat and horror of battle they took on new identities, took on each other, and were reborn in fields of fire... Fields of Fire is a searing story of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and non-stop combat, perfect for fans of Tim O’Brien, Karl Marlantes and Apocalypse Now. Praise for Fields of Fire ‘Few writers since Stephen Crane have portrayed men at war with such a ring of steely truth’ The Houston Post ‘A novel of such fullness and impact, one is tempted to compare it to Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead’The Oregonian ‘Webb gives us an extraordinary range of acutely observed people, not one a stereotype ... Fields of Fire is a stunner’ Newsweek ‘Webb pulls off the scabs and looks directly, unflinchingly on the open wounds of the Sixties’ Philadelphia Inquirer ‘The unmistakable sound of truth’ Time

The Gulf

Author : Belle Boggs
Publisher : Graywolf Press
ISBN 13 : 1555978347
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (559 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gulf by : Belle Boggs

Download or read book The Gulf written by Belle Boggs and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious send-up of writing workshops, for-profit education, and the gulf between believers and nonbelievers Marianne is in a slump: barely able to support herself by teaching, not making progress on her poetry, about to lose her Brooklyn apartment. When her novelist ex-fiancé, Eric, and his venture capitalist brother, Mark, offer her a job directing a low-residency school for Christian writers at a motel they’ve inherited on Florida’s Gulf Coast, she can’t come up with a reason to say no. The Genesis Inspirational Writing Ranch is born, and liberal, atheist Marianne is soon knee-deep in applications from writers whose political and religious beliefs she has always opposed but whose money she’s glad to take. Janine is a schoolteacher whose heartfelt poems explore the final days of Terri Schiavo’s life. Davonte is a former R&B superstar who hopes to reboot his career with a bestselling tale of excess and redemption. Lorraine and Tom, eccentric writers in need of paying jobs, join the Ranch as instructors. Mark finds an investor in God’s Word God’s World, a business that develops for-profit schools for the Christian market, but the conditions that come along with their support become increasingly problematic, especially as Marianne grows closer to the students. As unsavory allegations mount, a hurricane bears down on the Ranch, and Marianne is faced with the consequences of her decisions. With sharp humor and deep empathy, The Gulf is a memorable debut novel in which Belle Boggs plumbs the troubled waters dividing America.

A Paradise Built in Hell

Author : Rebecca Solnit
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101459018
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis A Paradise Built in Hell by : Rebecca Solnit

Download or read book A Paradise Built in Hell written by Rebecca Solnit and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Men Explain Things to Me explores the moments of altruism and generosity that arise in the aftermath of disaster Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster? whether manmade or natural?people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.