Download or read book The Culture of the Quake written by Alex Bates and published by U of M Center for Japanese Studies. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of Taishō-era narrative fiction

Download or read book Imaging Disaster written by Gennifer Weisenfeld and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-11-14 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on one landmark catastrophic event in the history of an emerging modern nation—the Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and surrounding areas in 1923—this fascinating volume examines the history of the visual production of the disaster. The Kanto earthquake triggered cultural responses that ran the gamut from voyeuristic and macabre thrill to the romantic sublime, media spectacle to sacred space, mournful commemoration to emancipatory euphoria, and national solidarity to racist vigilantism and sociopolitical critique. Looking at photography, cinema, painting, postcards, sketching, urban planning, and even scientific visualizations, Weisenfeld demonstrates how visual culture has powerfully mediated the evolving historical understanding of this major national disaster, ultimately enfolding mourning and memory into modernization.

Download or read book Earthquake written by Andrew Robinson and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 devastating, tsunami-triggering quake off the coast of Japan and 2010’s horrifying destruction in Haiti reinforce the fact that large cities in every continent are at risk from earthquakes. Quakes threaten Los Angeles, Beijing, Cairo, Delhi, Singapore, and many more cities, and despite advances in earthquake science and engineering and improved disaster preparedness by governments and international aid agencies, they continue to cause immense loss of life and property damage. Earthquake explores the occurrence of major earthquakes around the world, their effects on the societies where they strike, and the other catastrophes they cause, from landslides and fires to floods and tsunamis. Examining the science involved in measuring and explaining earthquakes, Andrew Robinson looks at our attempts to design against their consequences and the possibility of having the ability to predict them one day. Robinson also delves into the ways nations have mythologized earthquakes through religion and the arts—Norse mythology explained earthquakes as the violent struggling of the god Loki as he was punished for murdering another god, the ancient Greeks believed Poseidon caused earthquakes whenever he was in a bad mood or wanted to punish people, and Japanese mythology states that Namazu, a giant catfish, triggers quakes when he thrashes around. He discusses the portrayal of earthquakes in popular culture, where authors and filmmakers often use the memory of cities laid to waste—such as Kobe, Japan, in 1995 or San Francisco in 1906—or imagine the hypothetical “Big One,” the earthquake expected someday out of California’s San Andreas Fault. With tremors happening in seemingly implausible places like Chicago and Washington DC, Earthquake is a timely book that will enrich earthquake scholarship and enlighten anyone interested in these ruinous natural disasters.

Download or read book After the Quake written by Haruki Murakami and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, the mesmerizing stories in After the Quake are as haunting as dreams and as potent as oracles. An electronics salesman who has been deserted by his wife agrees to deliver an enigmatic package— and is rewarded with a glimpse of his true nature. A man who views himself as the son of God pursues a stranger who may be his human father. A mild-mannered collection agent receives a visit from a giant talking frog who enlists his help in saving Tokyo from destruction. The six stories in this collection come from the deep and mysterious place where the human meets the inhuman—and are further proof that Murakami is one of the most visionary writers at work today.

Download or read book This Is Chance written by Jon Mooallem and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thrilling, cinematic story of a community shattered by disaster—and the extraordinary woman who helped pull it back together “A powerful, heart-wrenching book, as much art as it is journalism.”—The Wall Street Journal “A beautifully wrought and profoundly joyful story of compassion and perseverance.”—BuzzFeed (Best Books of the Year) In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis—the largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. For four and a half minutes, the ground lurched and rolled. Streets cracked open and swallowed buildings whole. And once the shaking stopped, night fell and Anchorage went dark. The city was in disarray and sealed off from the outside world. Slowly, people switched on their transistor radios and heard a familiar woman’s voice explaining what had just happened and what to do next. Genie Chance was a part-time radio reporter and working mother who would play an unlikely role in the wake of the disaster, helping to put her fractured community back together. Her tireless broadcasts over the next three days would transform her into a legendary figure in Alaska and bring her fame worldwide—but only briefly. That Easter weekend in Anchorage, Genie and a cast of endearingly eccentric characters—from a mountaineering psychologist to the local community theater group staging Our Town—were thrown into a jumbled world they could not recognize. Together, they would make a home in it again. Drawing on thousands of pages of unpublished documents, interviews with survivors, and original broadcast recordings, This Is Chance! is the hopeful, gorgeously told story of a single catastrophic weekend and proof of our collective strength in a turbulent world. There are moments when reality instantly changes—when the life we assume is stable gets upended by pure chance. This Is Chance! is an electrifying and lavishly empathetic portrayal of one community rising above the randomness, a real-life fable of human connection withstanding chaos.

Download or read book ArtQuake written by Susie Hodge and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An alternative introduction to modern art, focusing on the stories of 50 key works that consciously questioned the boundaries, challenged the status quo and made shockwaves we are still feeling today.

Download or read book MusicQuake written by Robert Dimery and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover music that dared to be different, risked reputations and put careers in jeopardy – causing fascination and intrigue in some and rejection and scorn in others. This is what happens when people take tradition and rip it up. MusicQuake tells the stories of 50 pivotal albums and performances that shook the world of modern music – chronicling the fascinating tales of their creation, reception and legacy. Tracing enigmatic composers, risqué performers and radical songwriters – this books introduces the history of 20th century music in a new light. From George Gershwin and John Cage to Os Mutantes and Fela Kuti; from Patti Smith and The Slits to Public Enemy and Missy Elliott – by discussing each entry within the context of its creation, the book will give readers true insight into why each moment was so pivotal and tell the stories surrounding the most exciting music ever produced. Some were shocking, others confusing, beautiful and surreal; some were scorned on release, others were chart toppers; and yet more inspired entire movements and generations of new musicians. These cutting-edge works, which celebrate novelty, technology and innovation, help define what music is today – acting as prime examples of how powerful songs can be. This book is from the Culture Quake series, which looks into iconic moments of culture which truly created paradigm shifts in their respective fields. Also available are ArtQuake, FilmQuake and FashionQuake.

Download or read book The Great Quake written by Henry Fountain and published by Crown Publishing Group (NY). This book was released on 2017 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 27, 1964, at 5-36 p.m., the biggest earthquake ever recorded in North America--and the second biggest ever in the world, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale--struck Alaska, devastating coastal towns and villages and killing more than 130 people in what was then a relatively sparsely populated region. In a riveting tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain, in his first trade book, re-creates the lives of the villagers and townspeople living in Chenega, Anchorage, and Valdez; describes the sheer beauty of the geology of the region, with its towering peaks and 20-mile-long glaciers; and reveals the impact of the quake on the towns, the buildings, and the lives of the inhabitants. George Plafker, a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey with years of experience scouring the Alaskan wilderness, is asked to investigate the Prince William Sound region in the aftermath of the quake, to better understand its origins. His work confirmed the then controversial theory of plate tectonics that explained how and why such deadly quakes occur, and how we can plan for the next one.

Download or read book The Earthquake Observers written by Deborah R. Coen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earthquakes have taught us much about our planet's hidden structure and the forces that have shaped it. This book explains how observing networks transformed an instant of panic and confusion into a field for scientific research, turning earthquakes into natural experiments at the nexus of the physical and human sciences.

Download or read book Magnitude 8 written by Philip L. Fradkin and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magnitude 8 is the archetypal natural disaster defined. To understand the cataclysmic earthquake that will tear California apart one day, Philip L. Fradkin has written a dramatic history of earthquakes and an eloquent guide to the San Andreas Fault, the world's best-known tectonic landscape. The author includes vivid stories of earthquakes elsewhere: in New England, the central Mississippi River Valley, New York City, Europe, and the Far East. Always, he combines human and natural drama to place the reader at the epicenter of the most instantaneous and unpredictable of all the Earth's phenomena. Following the San Andreas Fault from Cape Mecino to Mexico--canoeing the fault line in northern California and walking underground through the Hollywood fault--noted environmental historian Philip L. Fradkin reclaims the human dimensions of earthquakes from the science-dominated accounts.

Download or read book The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes written by Conevery Bolton Valencius and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-09-25 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From December 1811 to February 1812, massive earthquakes shook the middle Mississippi Valley, collapsing homes, snapping large trees midtrunk, and briefly but dramatically reversing the flow of the continent’s mightiest river. For decades, people puzzled over the causes of the quakes, but by the time the nation began to recover from the Civil War, the New Madrid earthquakes had been essentially forgotten. In The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, Conevery Bolton Valencius remembers this major environmental disaster, demonstrating how events that have been long forgotten, even denied and ridiculed as tall tales, were in fact enormously important at the time of their occurrence, and continue to affect us today. Valencius weaves together scientific and historical evidence to demonstrate the vast role the New Madrid earthquakes played in the United States in the early nineteenth century, shaping the settlement patterns of early western Cherokees and other Indians, heightening the credibility of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa for their Indian League in the War of 1812, giving force to frontier religious revival, and spreading scientific inquiry. Moving into the present, Valencius explores the intertwined reasons—environmental, scientific, social, and economic—why something as consequential as major earthquakes can be lost from public knowledge, offering a cautionary tale in a world struggling to respond to global climate change amid widespread willful denial. Engagingly written and ambitiously researched—both in the scientific literature and the writings of the time—The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes will be an important resource in environmental history, geology, and seismology, as well as history of science and medicine and early American and Native American history.

Download or read book Illusions Of Safety written by Risa Palm and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. CMS-9542154 and CMS-9316749. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We wish to acknowledge the collaboration of Professor Shinobu Kitayama of Kyoto University in sharing in the design of the study. Kitayama developed the application of the concepts drawn from "cultural psychology" to the specific research topic of earthquake hazards response, conducted focus groups in Yaizu and Shimizu that resulted in the development of a cross-cultural questionnaire design, was in charge of the survey execution in Japan, and participated in every stage of the analysis of survey results. Professor Mayumi Karasawa of Shirayuri College in Tokyo coordinated the administration of the survey research in Japan. In Japan, an undergraduate, Takahiko Masuda of Kyoto University, managed the data analysis and coordination with the Oregon team. In Oregon, two graduate students in geography participated in the study design and execution: Tom Kochevar, and Daphne Minton.

Download or read book Vera written by Carol Edgarian and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Carol Edgarian delivers “an all-encompassing and enthralling” (Oprah Daily) novel featuring an unforgettable heroine coming of age in the aftermath of catastrophe, and her quest for love and reinvention. Meet Vera Johnson, fifteen-year-old illegitimate daughter of Rose, notorious proprietor of San Francisco’s most legendary bordello. Vera has grown up straddling two worlds—the madam’s alluring sphere, replete with tickets to the opera, surly henchmen, and scant morality, and the quiet domestic life of the family paid to raise her. On the morning of the great quake, Vera’s worlds collide. As the city burns and looters vie with the injured, orphaned, and starving, Vera and her guileless sister, Pie, are cast adrift. Disregarding societal norms and prejudices, Vera begins to imagine a new kind of life. She collaborates with Tan, her former rival, and forges an unlikely family of survivors, navigating through the disaster together. “A character-driven novel about family, power, and loyalty, (San Francisco Chronicle), Vera brings to life legendary characters—tenor Enrico Caruso, indicted mayor Eugene Schmitz and boss Abe Ruef, tabloid celebrity Alma Spreckels. This “brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized” (Booklist, starred review) tale of improbable outcomes and alliances takes hold from the first page, with remarkable scenes of devastation, renewal, and joy. Vera celebrates the audacious fortitude of its young heroine, who discovers an unexpected strength in unprecedented times.

Download or read book The Earth Dragon Awakes written by Laurence Yep and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2006-04 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eight-year-old Henry and nine-year-old Chin love to read about heroes in popular "penny dreadful" novels, until they both witness real courage while trying to survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Download or read book Quakeland written by Kathryn Miles and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journey around the United States in search of the truth about the threat of earthquakes leads to spine-tingling discoveries, unnerving experts, and ultimately the kind of preparations that will actually help guide us through disasters. It’s a road trip full of surprises. Earthquakes. You need to worry about them only if you’re in San Francisco, right? Wrong. We have been making enormous changes to subterranean America, and Mother Earth, as always, has been making some of her own. . . . The consequences for our real estate, our civil engineering, and our communities will be huge because they will include earthquakes most of us do not expect and cannot imagine—at least not without reading Quakeland. Kathryn Miles descends into mines in the Northwest, dissects Mississippi levee engineering studies, uncovers the horrific risks of an earthquake in the Northeast, and interviews the seismologists, structual engineers, and emergency managers around the country who are addressing this ground shaking threat. As Miles relates, the era of human-induced earthquakes began in 1962 in Colorado after millions of gallons of chemical-weapon waste was pumped underground in the Rockies. More than 1,500 quakes over the following seven years resulted. The Department of Energy plans to dump spent nuclear rods in the same way. Evidence of fracking’s seismological impact continues to mount. . . . Humans as well as fault lines built our “quakeland”. What will happen when Memphis, home of FedEx's 1.5-million-packages-a-day hub, goes offline as a result of an earthquake along the unstable Reelfoot Fault? FEMA has estimated that a modest 7.0 magnitude quake (twenty of these happen per year around the world) along the Wasatch Fault under Salt Lake City would put a $33 billion dent in our economy. When the Fukushima reactor melted down, tens of thousands were displaced. If New York’s Indian Point nuclear power plant blows, ten million people will be displaced. How would that evacuation even begin? Kathryn Miles’ tour of our land is as fascinating and frightening as it is irresistibly compelling.

Download or read book The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906 written by Philip L. Fradkin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this well-researched book, Fradkin contends that it was the people of San Francisco, not the forces of nature, who were responsible for the extent of the destruction and death."--"Booklist."

Download or read book Between Two Earthquakes written by Sir Bernard M. Feilden and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 1987-10-01 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook addresses three areas of concern for the museum administrator concerning the protection of historic buildings, monuments, and archaeological sites located in seismic areas. It proposes pre-disaster measures such as taking accurate and complete documentation (photogrammetry is discussed in one of the 13 appendixes), risk awareness, planning, maintenance and inspections, etc. Second, when an earthquake strikes, the immediate emergency steps necessary to protect life and property are indicated; and after the earthquake, the strengthening of valuable cultural property (based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, also in an appendix) should be included in the general program of prevention maintenance along with the repairs discussed in detail applicable to each architectural element, and to the site as a whole.