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About Vesuvius: A Biography
Product Description The volcano that has fascinated scientists, writers, and poets for two millenniaCapricious, vibrant, and volatile, Vesuvius has been and remains one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. In its rage, it has destroyed whole cities and buried thousands alive. In its calm, its ashes have fertilized the soil, providing for the people who have lived in its shadows. For over two millennia, the dynamic presence of this volcano has fascinated scientists, artists, writers, and thinkers, and inspired religious fervor, Roman architecture, and Western literature. In Vesuvius, Alwyn Scarth draws from the latest research, classical and eyewitness accounts, and a diverse range of other sources to tell the riveting story of this spectacular natural phenomenon.Scarth follows Vesuvius across time, examining the volcano's destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D., its eruptions during the Counter-Reformation that were viewed as God's punishment of sinners, and the building of the world's first volcano observatory on Vesuvius in the 1840s. Scarth explores the volcano's current position overlooking a population of more than three million people and the complex attitudes maintained by the residents, at once reverent, protective, and fearful. He also considers the next major eruption of Vesuvius, which experts have indicated could be the most powerful since 1631. The longer Vesuvius remains dormant, the more violent its reawakening will be, and despite scientific advances for predicting when this might occur, more people are vulnerable than ever before.Exploring this celebrated wonder from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives, Vesuvius provides a colorful portrait of a formidable force of nature. From Publishers Weekly Volcanoes in their full glory at the height of an eruption seem more a life force than one of inanimate nature. The temperamental monster Vesuvius, on the east side of the Bay of Naples, well deserves this lively and generously illustrated account of its past 2,000 years. Scarth ( Savage Earth) gives detailed accounts of each of the volcano's known eruptions, including the possible geological causes, remarkably precise (considering the large historical distance) analysis of lava and pyroclastic flow patterns, and the aftermath. Scarth discloses that the cone we call Vesuvius wasn't the mountain that buried Herculaneum and Pompeii; that mountain constantly rebuilt itself over the millennia. And more strangely, Vesuvius the destroyer is also Vesuvius the nurturer, as the lava and ash from each eruption eventually became fertile soil. Scarth also tells the fascinating story of Sir William Hamilton, famously cuckolded by his wife, Emma, and Lord Nelson. Hamilton left a more noble legacy: through his studies of Vesuvius, he established the science of volcanology. Readers interested in the earth sciences, antiquity or just a good read will find Scarth's book hard to put down. 101 b&w illus. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "In his latest book on volcanoes (after La Catastrophe, Vulcan's Fury, and Savage Earth), Scarth (formerly at Univ. of Dundee) confronts the legendary Vesuvius. A veritable eruption of words is required to do the story justice, and Scarth is up to the task. . . . Recommended to both general and academic readers." ---Walter L. Cressle, Library Journal "Now and again a book appears that offers a different perspective on volcanic eruptions. Alwyn Scarth's Vesuvius: A Biography is one such book, and it takes the reader on a fascinating journey through Vesuvius' history seen through the eyes of the people who witnessed the eruptions and who were often directly affected by them. . . . A gripping book." ---Lucia Gurioli, Times Higher Education "Scarth has successfully combined a chronicle of a famous volcano's eruptions with a discussion of the history of the eruptions in human terms--daily living, r
