Book Review: Catastophes and Heroes by Jerry Borrowman

Catastophes and Heroes by Jerry Borrowman

Book Description:

A century of the industrial age saw unprecedented leaps in technology and engineering, from the first flight of an airplane to the first flight of humans to the moon. But alongside these awe-inspiring achievements were horrible disasters caused by faulty engineering or careless judgement. Catastrophes and Heroes explores eight such disasters and recognizes the unheralded heroes who stepped up to save others in times of great danger.

Included in this collection are the stories of female phone operators who, despite being in the path of destruction after the Los Angeles St. Francis Dam collapsed in 1928, stayed on the job to warn others to evacuate, Ernest Hemingway, who assisted survivors in his own boat after a hurricane destroyed the Florida East Coast Railway in 1935, and Ernest Betts who, though knowing little first aid, saved thirty people after the streamliner train The City of San Francisco crashed in the Nevada mountains in 1939.

Filled with little-known stories and historical insights, this book explores the rich history of the marvels of engineering and technological advances in the span of a century and reveals how the perils, though disastrous, gave rise to heroism and compassion at a time when machines were supposed to do it all.

Rorie's Review:

I have to be in the right mood to read non-fiction, so I was a little hesitant to start this book, but I only got a few pages into it before I was hooked. I find history fascinating, especially when it's told in an entertaining way. Don't get me wrong, this book is not light reading material. The subject matter is pretty dark and depressing, honestly, but the author does a really good job of bringing the reader right into the situation.There were a few times when the technical terminology made it so I had a hard time picturing what was happening (mostly with the first bridge story) but overall, it was a quick and easy read.

I found myself heading to my tablet in-between stories to look up pictures and more information about some of the catastrophes, which I think is the perfect sign that it's a good story. I definitely recommend this book to all history buffs, or really, anyone who enjoys well-written non-fiction.

Andrea's Review:

I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting this book was. I don't typically seek out non-fiction, but I was immediately drawn in by the first story about the Steamship Sultana. It blew me away that the overcrowding was to such an extreme. The greed that lead to that awful choice, along with not getting the boiler fixed properly was inexcusable. So many people lost their lives, and it could have been preventable. It was even more sad in that most of the passengers had just been released as prisoners of war. As if they hadn't already been through enough.

I wasn't as drawn to the third story as the others, but on the whole the stories were very eye opening and interesting. I don't recall having learned about any of these stories before, and that surprised me with many of them being such large tragedies.

The bulk of the time in the book seemed to be spent on backstory to the catastrophes. That mostly held by attention, but I wouldn't have minded a little less of that in some of the stories, and more focus on the heroes. They played such an important role and didn't get as much time as I anticipated there would be given that "heroes" is part of the title. 

It was very nice to read that even though these horrible things happened that lessons were learned and many safety measures have been implemented so things like these don't happen again.

Tarah's Review:

History lovers, are you ready for this? This collection of 8 stories of tragedies that were catastrophic, but yet resulted in change for the better and for regular people to become hero's. I hadn't heard of any of these, but with how the book was written it does definitely make me curious enough to go look up more about some of them. 

With any book like this, I think it's typical that I found some of the stories more interesting than others. I also would have appreciated some pictures of each thing so I could better picture it. I did appreciate that the author included where I could find things like YouTube links and such.

I liked that the author told the backstory, and he also told what we learned about it and related it to nowadays. In the Tacoma Narrows Bridge story I found it fascinating that if they would have built the original bridge it would still be there today (they used modern technology to figure this out). 

This book was basically like watching a mini-series on the History Channel. I found that a chapter at a time was the best way for me to enjoy this book. If you are already thinking about Father's Day, I will just tell you that my father-in-law randomly picked this up and read what he could until I got back and had to leave. So there you go...perfect gift idea.

Title: Catastrophes and Heroes

Author: Jerry Borrowman

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Published: May 2020

ISBN: 1629727393

Source: Review copy from publisher. All opinions expressed are our own.

Purchase: Amazon | Deseret Book