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The Last Day

Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

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The Last Day

By: Nicholas Shrady
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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About this listen

 A riveting history of how the cataclysmic Lisbon earthquake shook the religious and intellectual foundations of Enlightenment Europe.

Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.

In The Last Day, Nicholas Shrady provides not only a vivid account of this horrific disaster but also a stimulating survey of the many shock waves it sent throughout Western civilization. When news of the quake spread, it inspired both a lurid fascination in the popular imagination of Europe and an intellectual debate about the natural world and God's place in human affairs. Voltaire, Alexander Pope, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among other eminent figures, took up the disaster as a sort of cause célèbre and a vehicle to express Enlightenment ideas. More practically, the Lisbon quake led to the first concerted effort at disaster control, modern urban planning, and the birth of seismology. The Last Day is popular history writing at its best and will appeal to readers of Simon Winchester's Krakatoa and A Crack in the Edge of the World.

©2008 Nicholas Shrady (P)2008 Tantor 18th Century Europe Nature & Ecology Spain Western Europe Natural Disaster Portugal Imperialism
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Critic reviews

"An elegant, pertinent study." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Smart, stylishly written history." (Publishers Weekly)

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Interesting and short book

A short historical summary of the impact and aftermath of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It is let down by the narrator who struggled with the Portuguese place named and names of people. He opted for Spanish pronunciations which really doesn’t work. He also got a couple of English words wrong. Such as quay. But the book is worth listening to despite that.

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