Chronicle: a year of living dangerously -- The temporary city -- Chronicle: such almost modern times -- From plate to shining plate -- Chronicle: the state of the golden state -- How the west was made -- The mischief maker -- Chronicle: city of mint and smoke -- Overture: the night before dark -- The savage Interruption -- Ripples on the surface of the pond -- Perspective: ice and fire.
Summary
Winchester brings his storytelling abilities, as well as his understanding of geology, to the extraordinary San Francisco Earthquake, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion, but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake. He also positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of 20th-century California and American history.--From publisher description.
