The Johnstown Flood

One of the most famous natural disasters in America, the flood of 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania has been remembered by film and books for over a hundred years.

In The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough brings his love of research and detail, while weaving a riveting account of the people and events surrounding the bursting of the South Fork dam. Hardworking families, wealthy steel tycoons, ignored warnings, and tragic deaths combine in a readable volume.

My husband enjoyed this book enough to choose it for our book club to read. Many in the book club do not particularly care for history and this book was a challenge but they gamely joined in reading, The Johnstown Flood. We even took a field trip to Johnstown to see the setting of the book, but that is topic for another post.

If a good book leaves a reader hungry to learn more, then this one wins. Now I want to learn more about the Pennsylvania's coal industry, Andrew Carnegie and his steel crowd, and Clara Barton.

I wrote another view of The Johnstown Flood here.