Looking for books similar to Devil in the White City, The Ghost Map, etc.
September 5, 2010 9:36 AM Subscribe
I've recently realized that three books I've seriously enjoyed fall into a sort of common genre: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, and the Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I am looking for more books like this to read.
These are non-fiction books that take as their subject a major crisis or event in a big city at a critical historical point (Industrialization in London, Columbian Exposition in Chicago, etc.). Then they highlight the effort to solve this crisis or event. Oftentimes there's an attempt to contrast two individuals critical to the story, or to describe the way their lives connect to one another's and the larger story.
What are other books like this that you can suggest to me?
These are non-fiction books that take as their subject a major crisis or event in a big city at a critical historical point (Industrialization in London, Columbian Exposition in Chicago, etc.). Then they highlight the effort to solve this crisis or event. Oftentimes there's an attempt to contrast two individuals critical to the story, or to describe the way their lives connect to one another's and the larger story.
What are other books like this that you can suggest to me?
Sin In The Second City by Karen Abbott. Really good, and takes place in the same time period as Devil In The White City.
posted by bibliogrrl at 9:48 AM on September 5, 2010
posted by bibliogrrl at 9:48 AM on September 5, 2010
You might find this previous question helpful. It's not exactly the same, but I suspect there'll be lots of overlap, including the book I recommended.
posted by dizziest at 10:04 AM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by dizziest at 10:04 AM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
"The Lost City of Z" by David Grann. Percy Fawcett, the last of the Victorian British explorers, goes into the Amazon searching for El Dorado, and never returns. Many, many others go in looking for him, including the author. It's about obsession, but also about the end of an era of exploration, and the extinction of the solo, amateur explorer in favor of professional scientific expeditions. It's about "filling in the last blank spots on the map."
posted by Buffaload at 10:16 AM on September 5, 2010
posted by Buffaload at 10:16 AM on September 5, 2010
Longitude. Also not exactly a crisis moment, but fits the same "drama of science" mold as some of the works you cite.
posted by adamrice at 10:59 AM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 10:59 AM on September 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
definitely Poisoner's Handbook. The Great Influenza is also excellent. Longitude by Dava...Sobel? Michael Ruse's The Darwinian Revolution (this is an intellectual crisis, but it's very interesting). These next suggestions don't hew exactly to your request, but the theme of social crisis and individual response runs through them.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed along With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch. (coverage of the Rwandan genocide.)
The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould.
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (the events leadin up to WWI).
posted by Uniformitarianism Now! at 11:06 AM on September 5, 2010
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed along With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch. (coverage of the Rwandan genocide.)
The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould.
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (the events leadin up to WWI).
posted by Uniformitarianism Now! at 11:06 AM on September 5, 2010
I recently read The Fires by Joe Flood, and found it to be very good - it sounds like it falls into the categoy you describe. It's about New York's fire department during the city's economic and social crisis in the 1970s.
It often gets recommended on Ask Mefi, but The Power Broker, Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses, might also fit what you're looking for - it looks at the horrible problems of growth that NYC had developed in the 1920s and 1930s which Moses sought to address, the post-War traffic crisis and the ultimate disasters caused by Robert Moses' planning style.
Still on NYC (I have a penchant for this kind of book) - When The Lights Went Out by David Nye is a look at three catastrophic power failures in New York, what caused them, and what happened afterwards. My review of it.
posted by WPW at 11:26 AM on September 5, 2010
It often gets recommended on Ask Mefi, but The Power Broker, Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses, might also fit what you're looking for - it looks at the horrible problems of growth that NYC had developed in the 1920s and 1930s which Moses sought to address, the post-War traffic crisis and the ultimate disasters caused by Robert Moses' planning style.
Still on NYC (I have a penchant for this kind of book) - When The Lights Went Out by David Nye is a look at three catastrophic power failures in New York, what caused them, and what happened afterwards. My review of it.
posted by WPW at 11:26 AM on September 5, 2010
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. Set during World War II, as the Allies attempt to preserve an element of surprise in the planned invasion of the Continent. A fascinating look at wartime intelligence and counter-intelligence.
posted by ambrosia at 1:30 PM on September 5, 2010
posted by ambrosia at 1:30 PM on September 5, 2010
American Lightning by Howard Blum
Charlatan by Pope Brock*
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston*
The Lynchings in Duluth by Michael Fedo (or Our Town by Cynthia Carr ...similar stories)
King of Heists by J. North Conway
Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
Tulia by Nate Blakeslee
For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
The Devil's Gentleman by Harold Schechter
*Two of the best books I've ever read.
posted by BradNelson at 2:57 PM on September 5, 2010
Charlatan by Pope Brock*
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston*
The Lynchings in Duluth by Michael Fedo (or Our Town by Cynthia Carr ...similar stories)
King of Heists by J. North Conway
Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
Tulia by Nate Blakeslee
For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
The Devil's Gentleman by Harold Schechter
*Two of the best books I've ever read.
posted by BradNelson at 2:57 PM on September 5, 2010
The interpretation of Murde and 31 Bond Street might both be up your alley. Both are fictional accounts that use non-fictional circumstances or people in the storytelling. Neither involves a crisis as such, but both reflect a time of great change in society. I'm going to be adding some of these books to my own reading list!
posted by poissonrouge at 3:15 PM on September 5, 2010
posted by poissonrouge at 3:15 PM on September 5, 2010
"Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling " by Ross King deals with the painting of Sistine Chapel in Rome, and the politics of the Catholic Church, the chaos around Italy and how Michaelangelo and other artists like Raphael fit into all of it.
"Brunelleschi's Dome" also by Ross King, deals with the construction of the Duomo in Florence, at a time when sity saw flip-flopping back between rulers, and experimenting with different systems of government and ways of looking at religion as a civic force.
posted by EvilPRGuy at 6:22 PM on September 5, 2010
"Brunelleschi's Dome" also by Ross King, deals with the construction of the Duomo in Florence, at a time when sity saw flip-flopping back between rulers, and experimenting with different systems of government and ways of looking at religion as a civic force.
posted by EvilPRGuy at 6:22 PM on September 5, 2010
Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. Most of, if not all, of his books are along the lines of what you are looking for.
posted by jazy11 at 9:39 PM on March 19, 2011
posted by jazy11 at 9:39 PM on March 19, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jeather at 9:38 AM on September 5, 2010 [4 favorites]