An index should facilitate access. Additional maps and fuller explanations of figures in captions would have made the content easier to follow. In spite of some moralistic segments and the final chapter on the "Big Bang," the book provides an intriguing look at historical cataclysms along with their causes, their effects, and possible safeguards against them.

From Booklist: "Part roll call of cataclysms, part building engineering, this short guide is animated by a simple human concern: saving lives. As the best defense is an intelligently built structure, the authors describe (nontechnically) strategies for absorbing shock waves, trends in retrofitting, and the causes of particular failures. In the narrative department, Levy and Salvadori examine famous instances of exploding volcanoes and devastating earthquakes, reliably giving the figures on casualties and Richter magnitudes and leavening the grimness with notes about why, for example, a Frank Lloyd Wright hotel withstood the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. Line drawings (but no photographs) visualize the scenes, and one practical section delivers Q & A's about survival tips for quaky areas of the United States.

 W W Norton & Co Inc 0-393-03774-6 / 9780393037746
Paperback As New Condition New York 

Price: 24.01 USD