Items related to The Johnstown Flood
Synopsis
The stunning story of one of America's great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
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Review
The history of civil engineering may sound boring, but in David McCullough's hands it is, well, riveting. His award-winning histories of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal were preceded by this account of the disastrous dam failure that drowned Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889. Written while the last survivors of the flood were still alive, McCullough's narrative weaves the stories of the town, the wealthy men who owned the dam, and the forces of nature into a seamless whole. His account is unforgettable: "The wave kept on coming straight toward him, heading for the very heart of the city. Stores, houses, trees, everything was going down in front of it, and the closer it came, the bigger it seemed to grow.... The height of the wall of water was at least thirty-six feet at the center.... The drowning and devastation of the city took just about ten minutes." A powerful, definitive book, and a tribute to the thousands who died in America's worst inland flood. --Mary Ellen Curtin
About the Author
David McCullough has twice received the Pulitzer Prize, for Truman and John Adams, and twice received the National Book Award, for The Path Between the Seas and Mornings on Horseback. His other acclaimed books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Brave Companions, 1776, The Greater Journey, and The Wright Brothers. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Visit DavidMcCullough.com.
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- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication date1968
- ISBN 10 0671395300
- ISBN 13 9780671395308
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages302
- Rating
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Johnstown Flood
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dust jacket missing. Book club edition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Boards betray fading and nicks and other signs of wear and imperfection commensurate with age. Binding is tight and structurally sound. Pages without any extraneous marks. Sealed in plastic for shipping. Secure packaging for safe delivery. 1.44. Seller Inventory # 1565561843
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Johnstown Flood
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dust jacket missing. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Wear commensurate with age and use. Clean unmarked copy. Bumping visible to corners of boards and ends of spine strip. Light scuffing and smudging across boards and spine strip. Secure packaging for safe delivery. 1.44. Seller Inventory # 1048708259
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Johnstown Flood
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Dust jacket missing. Book club edition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Boards betray fading and nicks and other signs of wear and imperfection commensurate with age. Binding is tight and structurally sound. Pages without any extraneous marks. Sealed in plastic for shipping. Secure packaging for safe delivery. 1.44. Seller Inventory # 1565562182
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Johnstown Flood
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.44. Seller Inventory # G0671395300I4N00
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Johnstown Flood
Published by
Simon & Schuster, 1968
ISBN 10: 0671395300
ISBN 13: 9780671395308
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. First Edition. Dust jacket missing. First edition, first printing. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Solid binding; Pages free of markings; Secure packaging for safe delivery. 1.44. Seller Inventory # 1658881123
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The Johnstown Flood
Seller: Half Price Books Inc., Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_423974150
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The Johnstown Flood
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Fair. Acceptable/Fair condition. Book is worn, but the pages are complete, and the text is legible. Has wear to binding and pages, may be ex-library. 1.4. Seller Inventory # 353-0671395300-acp
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The Johnstown Flood
Published by
Simon & Schuster, E-298, 1968
ISBN 10: 0671395300
ISBN 13: 9780671395308
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Last Exit Books, Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good+. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. 8vo. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1968 302 pgs. Includes section of black & white photographs, maps on endpapers. Signed and inscribed by David McCullough on the colophon page. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has shelf-wear present to the DJ extremities (DJ is faded along the spine with some chipping present to the edges of the DJ). Bound in cloth boards with titles present to the spine. Boards have light shelf-wear present to the extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hard-working families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity: among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 townspeople. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal. From research in the voluminous records, diaries, letters, interviews with numbers of survivors, and a rare, previously unknown transcript of a private investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania Railroad, David McCullough vividly re-creates the chain of events that led to the catastrophe, and then unfolds the incredible story of the flood itself and its aftermath. Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in 19th-century America, of overweening confidence, energy, and tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly. E-298; 9.5 X 6.2 X 1.4 inches; 302 pages; Signed by Author. Seller Inventory # 63699
Quantity: 1 available