Download or read book The Disastrous History of London written by John Withington and published by . This book was released on 2004-12-09 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of London

Download or read book Disaster written by John Withington and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2010-02-16 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tune into the news today, and one would think that human beings were at risk of being wiped from the face of the earth—by tsunamis, earthquakes, swine flu, or terrorism. One could be forgiven for thinking that we are in far more danger today than ever before. The fact of the matter is that danger has always stalked mankind. From ancient volcanoes and floods to the cholera and small pox, to Hitler and Stalin's genocidal murders during the twentieth century, our continued existence has always seemed perilous. Now, out of our horror comes an entertaining and epic journal through the history of disaster. Disaster! offers perspective on today's fears by revealing how dangerous our world has always been. Natural disasters and man-made catastrophes mark every era. Here is the Black Death that killed seventy-five million in Europe and Asia during the 1300s; the 1883 volcanic eruption on Krakatoa; the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century; the Nazi Holocaust; the 1970 storm in Bangladesh, now considered the deadliest in history; and more. Train crashes, air disasters, and shipwrecks litter human history. Sure to scare, inform, and entertain, Disaster! is a book of serious history that is as much fun as any horror film.

Download or read book The History of London written by Reginald R. Sharpe and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 1513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London and the Kingdom is a three volume historical study about the city of London throughout the history. First volume covers the history of London from circa 4th century AD and the late Roman period to the end of 15th century. Second volume covers the period from the accession of James VI of Scotland as a king James I of England in 1603 to the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third volume begins with the accession of George I and covers the history and social and cultural development of the city throughout the next century.

Download or read book An Historical Narrative of the Great and Terrible Fire of London Sept 2nd 1666 written by Gideon Harvey and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An Historical Narrative of the Great and Terrible Fire of London, Sept. 2nd 1666" by Gideon Harvey is a compilation of contemporary accounts of the London fire. Through these notes, it is a good contrast to the Continental thought process for rebuilding industrialized and residential areas after disasters. Though prior knowledge about the fire is good for context, you can be a novice as well and still be entertained.

Download or read book London Londoners and the Great Fire of 1666 written by Jacob F. Field and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Fire of 1666 was one of the greatest catastrophes to befall London in its long history. While its impact on London and its built environment has been studied and documented, its impact on Londoners has been overlooked. This book makes full and systematic use of the wealth of manuscript sources that illustrate social, economic and cultural change in seventeenth-century London to examine the impact of the Fire in terms of how individuals and communities reacted and responded to it, and to put the response to the Fire in the context of existing trends in early modern England. The book also explores the broader effects of the Fire in the rest of the country, as well as how the Great Fire continued to be an important polemical tool into the eighteenth century.

Download or read book London s Disasters written by John Withington and published by History Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London's disasters

Download or read book With Disastrous Consequences written by Wendy Neal and published by . This book was released on 1992-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of industrial explosions, fires, maritime accidents, rail crashes, terrorist attacks, collapsing buildings and panics in London in the last century. The book looks at rescue efforts and disaster management, and shows how victims were treated in the days reliance on others was a sin.

Download or read book The Great Fire of London written by Neil Hanson and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2002-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tragic story of the disastrous London fire is told here from both a human and architectural point of view, as the fire destroyed lives along with buildings such as the original St. Paul's cathedral.

Download or read book The Great Fire of London written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fire written by survivors and government officials *Includes a bibliography for further reading "[A] wooden, northern, and inartificial congestion of Houses." - John Evelyn's description of London before the fire "So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of York what I saw, and that unless His Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop the fire. They seemed much troubled, and the King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor from him, and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way." - Samuel Pepys In the 17th century, the people of London could boast that they had developed some of the most advanced firefighting technology and methods in the world, including the use of primitive fire engines. There were even vendors of such machines who advertised in papers of their machines' abilities to quench great fires. Of course, even with trained firefighters and new devices, the most skillful efforts could still prove limited in the face of a giant fire, as Rome had learned over 1500 years earlier and as Chicago would learn nearly 200 years later. In fact, one of the primary reasons London developed ways to fight fires was the fact that the city was particularly vulnerable. Although London was over 1500 years old and sat at the heart of the British Empire, most of the buildings were made of wood, and the city was overcrowded, in part due to the fact that city planners worked with and around the ancient Roman fortifications that had been constructed to defend it. As such, while there were spacious areas for the elite and rich outside of the city, London itself had narrow streets full of wood buildings that were practically on top of each other. With some bad luck and bad timing, a potential disaster awaited the city, and that finally came in September 1666. As it turned out, the Great Fire of London was so bad that one author who studied the blaze described it as "the perfect fire," referring to the convergence in the largest city in England of spark, wood and wind in such a way that no one could stop the fire or even fight it effectively. John Evelyn, who had warned of the potential for a devastating fire given the layout of the city, noted that people seemed so stunned by the scope of the fire that they didn't know what to do: "The conflagration was so universal, and the people so astonished, that from the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly stirred to quench it, so that there was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures without at all attempting to save even their goods, such a strange consternation there was upon them." While the fire quickly spread throughout the heart of the city, the only thing that saved London's suburbs was an ancient wall built around the city to keep the enemies of Rome out, not the fire in. By the time it was finished, most of the city's homes and churches lay in ashes, and nearly 90% of the city's citizens were left homeless. The only consolation taken away from the devastation was an astonishing low death rate; although London had about 80,000 residents, only a handful died as the fire raged across the city. The fire lasted three days, and by the end of it, Londoners were shocked by the wide-scale destruction, which was so great that Samuel Pepys remarked, "It made me weep to see it." In the aftermath, people looked for scapegoats, ranging from King Charles II to the Pope and his Catholic supporters, while England's leaders looked to rebuild the city. The civil and foreign strife ultimately posed obstacles to new plans to rebuild London, which actually meant that the rebuilding efforts were designed in ways that mimicked the old layout that had invited such a disaster in the first place.

Download or read book Heat Wave written by Eric Klinenberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “compelling” story behind the 1995 Chicago weather disaster that killed hundreds—and what it revealed about our broken society (Boston Globe). On July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index—how the temperature actually feels on the body—would hit 126. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; records for electrical use were shattered; and power grids had failed, leaving residents without electricity for up to two days. By July 20, over seven hundred people had perished—twenty times the number of those struck down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Heat waves kill more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. Until now, no one could explain either the overwhelming number or the heartbreaking manner of the deaths resulting from the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Meteorologists and medical scientists have been unable to account for the scale of the trauma, and political officials have puzzled over the sources of the city’s vulnerability. In Heat Wave, Eric Klinenberg takes us inside the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct what he calls a “social autopsy,” examining the social, political, and institutional organs of the city that made this urban disaster so much worse than it ought to have been. He investigates why some neighborhoods experienced greater mortality than others, how city government responded, and how journalists, scientists, and public officials reported and explained these events. Through years of fieldwork, interviews, and research, he uncovers the surprising and unsettling forms of social breakdown that contributed to this human catastrophe as hundreds died alone behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies. As this incisive and gripping account demonstrates, the widening cracks in the social foundations of American cities made visible by the 1995 heat wave remain in play in America’s cities today—and we ignore them at our peril. Includes photos and a new preface on meeting the challenges of climate change in urban centers “Heat Wave is not so much a book about weather, as it is about the calamitous consequences of forgetting our fellow citizens. . . . A provocative, fascinating book, one that applies to much more than weather disasters.” —Chicago Sun-Times “It’s hard to put down Heat Wave without believing you’ve just read a tale of slow murder by public policy.” —Salon “A classic. I can’t recommend it enough.” —Chris Hayes

Download or read book The Great Fire of London written by Stephen Porter and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Fire of London was the greatest catastrophe of its kind in Western Europe. Although detailed fire precautions and firefighting arrangements were in place, the fire raged for four days and destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, and 44 of the City of London's great livery halls. The great fire of 1666 closely followed by the great plague of 1665; as the antiquary Anthony Wood wrote left London "much impoverished, discontented, afflicted, cast downe." In this comprehensive account, Stephen Porter examines the background to 1666, events leading up to and during the fire, the proposals to rebuild the city, and the progress of the five-year programme which followed. He places the fire firmly in context, revealing not only its destructive impact on London but also its implications for town planning, building styles, and fire precautions both in the capital and provincial towns.

Download or read book A Short History of London written by Simon Jenkins and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Fascinating and timely. Required reading for every developer, planner or councillor who holds London in trust today' Griff Rhys Jones 'Accessible, clear and readable' Rowan Moore, The Observer ________________________ LONDON: a settlement founded by the Romans, occupied by the Saxons, conquered by the Danes and ruled by the Normans. This unremarkable place - not even included in the Domesday Book - became a medieval maze of alleys and courtyards, later to be chequered with grand estates of Georgian splendour. It swelled with industry and became the centre of the largest empire in history. And rising from the rubble of the Blitz, it is now one of the greatest cities in the world. From the prehistoric occupants of the Thames valley to the preoccupied commuters of today, Simon Jenkins brings together the key events, individuals and trends in London's history to create a matchless portrait of the capital. ________________________ 'A vivid and deeply well-informed account of London's history' Charles Saumarez Smith, Professor of Cultural History, Queen Mary University of London 'Extremely informative and witty' Roy Porter, author of London: A Social History on Landlords to London 'A short, invigorating gallop over two and a half thousand years' Scotsman on A Short History of Europe

Download or read book An Historical Narrative of the Great and Terrible Fire of London Sept 2nd 1666 written by Gideon Harvey and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

Download or read book London Fog written by Christine L. Corton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Telegraph Editor’s Choice An Evening Standard “Best Books about London” Selection In popular imagination, London is a city of fog. The classic London fogs, the thick yellow “pea-soupers,” were born in the industrial age of the early nineteenth century. Christine L. Corton tells the story of these epic London fogs, their dangers and beauty, and their lasting effects on our culture and imagination. “Engrossing and magnificently researched...Corton’s book combines meticulous social history with a wealth of eccentric detail. Thus we learn that London’s ubiquitous plane trees were chosen for their shiny, fog-resistant foliage. And since Jack the Ripper actually went out to stalk his victims on fog-free nights, filmmakers had to fake the sort of dank, smoke-wreathed London scenes audiences craved. It’s discoveries like these that make reading London Fog such an unusual, enthralling and enlightening experience.” —Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review “Corton, clad in an overcoat, with a linklighter before her, takes us into the gloomier, long 19th century, where she revels in its Gothic grasp. Beautifully illustrated, London Fog delves fascinatingly into that swirling miasma.” —Philip Hoare, New Statesman

Download or read book Death in the Air written by Kate Winkler Dawson and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut Death in the Air is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing. London was still recovering from the devastation of World War II when another disaster hit: for five long days in December 1952, a killer smog held the city firmly in its grip and refused to let go. Day became night, mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and some 12,000 people died from the poisonous air. But in the chaotic aftermath, another killer was stalking the streets, using the fog as a cloak for his crimes. All across London, women were going missing--poor women, forgotten women. Their disappearances caused little alarm, but each of them had one thing in common: they had the misfortune of meeting a quiet, unassuming man, John Reginald Christie, who invited them back to his decrepit Notting Hill flat during that dark winter. They never left. The eventual arrest of the "Beast of Rillington Place" caused a media frenzy: were there more bodies buried in the walls, under the floorboards, in the back garden of this house of horrors? Was it the fog that had caused Christie to suddenly snap? And what role had he played in the notorious double murder that had happened in that same apartment building not three years before--a murder for which another, possibly innocent, man was sent to the gallows? The Great Smog of 1952 remains the deadliest air pollution disaster in world history, and John Reginald Christie is still one of the most unfathomable serial killers of modern times. Journalist Kate Winkler Dawson braids these strands together into a taut, compulsively readable true crime thriller about a man who changed the fate of the death penalty in the UK, and an environmental catastrophe with implications that still echo today.

Download or read book Attack on London written by Jonathan Oates and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2009-04-22 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Generations of Londoners from Roman times to the present day have confronted natural and man-made threats to their city. Disasters, rebellions, riots, acts of terror and war have marked the long history of the capital—and have shaped the character of its people. In this evocative account Jonathan Oates recalls in vivid detail the perils Londoners have faced and describes how they coped with them. Jack Cade's Rebellion and the Gordon Riots, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, Zeppelin raids, the Blitz, terrorist bombings—these are just a few of the extraordinary hazards that have torn the fabric of the city and wrecked the lives of so many of its inhabitants. This gripping narrative gives a fascinating insight into the tragic history of the city and it reveals much about the changing attitudes of Londoners over the centuries.

Download or read book Holmes s Great Metropolis Or Views and History of London in the Nineteenth Century written by William Gray Fearnside and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: