Rating: 
Summary: Idiocy, greed and heroism at a historical transition point
Review: This early work of David McCullough has all the pace, colour and excitement of his later works, even though the theme is much more concentrated in time and action. In contrast to the engineering triumphs that celebrated in "The Great Bridge" and "The Path between the Seas", the subject matter here is a piece of outright engineering idiocy, an inevitable disaster waiting to happen for several years. Cupidity and callousness also play a major part in the story and two of the players with the more disreputable roles, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick, will go on to even worse ones in the Homestead Strike, a few years after the events described here. McCullough's book first appeared in the 1960s, when the last of the survivors were still alive and this lends an immediacy to the story which still persists. Excellent use is made in the narrative of contemporary accounts and testimonies, with the author playing the role of judicious referee where contradictions or exaggerations may be in question. The pace and colour of the writing draws in the reader from the first page and by the time the dam is breached and the massive wall of water is roaring down the high-walled Conemaugh valley towards the doomed city it is quite impossible to lay the book aside. The individual stories of loss and survival, of heroism, cowardice, greed and sacrifice are blended to make an indelible impression. At the end one can only marvel that so few died in the catastrophe and that the ultimately responsible parties got off so lightly. This book deserves to stand as a minor classic, commemorating not only the disaster itself but also providing a freeze-frame picture of the United States at the point of transition from Gilded Age to Industrial Giant. A very memorable book - highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Interesting Story
Review: This is a terrific history book about an unimaginable disaster. And you just have to wonder, given some of the individuals involved in the big picture, how many more people and businesses would have been ruined if blood-drinking laywers back then had been as destructive as they are today.
Rating:
Summary: McCullough is a National Treasure!
Review: This is the third book by David McCullough that I have read and he has never let me down. His research is extensive as usual. It is his ability to tell his story in such a was as to make history come alive however that makes David McCullough such a treasure. The book starts out introducing the reader to several citizens of Johnstown. Some survive, others do not. For those who do survive the stories of their experences as the flood washed over them are amazing. You will be introduced to six year old Gertrude Quinn later in the book. She gets in trouble earlier that awful day for sitting on the porch with her feet in the water. To my suprise I found that the water was already past the flood stage in Johnstown before the dam broke. Gertrude's father was very worried about the rising water and had ordered his children to stay inside. For going out on the porch she got a couple of "quick spanks" and was hurried inside. When the real flood hit Gertrude's house was destroyed and she found herself floating on a mattress all alone. Soon a small white house floated by with a man clinging to the chimney. She called to him to help her but he ignored her after which she yelled at him that he was a terrible man and added, "I'll never help you." Gertrude did survive. These are the kind of stories that kept me reading this book long after I should have been asleep. The dam itself had existed for years but had broken in a minor way once before and had never been rebuilt. That is until the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was formed. The dam was repared in a sorry way by the club's founder Benjamin Ruff. He even failed to replace the missing discharge pipes so that the lake's level could not be regulated. The press may have been too critical of Ruff's dam after it broke, one reporter calling it a "mud pile". Still the fact remains that the part of the dam that was swept away was the part Ruff had rebuilt. The old portion of the dam held firm. There was much talk in Johnstown prior to the flood about the dam breaking. So much so that people had started to take it for granted that the dam was safe and ignored what little warning they did get. If you are at all interested is American history, are a Weather Channel fan who sits in front of the tube waiting for some natural disaster, or if you like to sit up late and watch old disaster movies you will love this book. Even if you don't fit into any of those descriptions you would still probably like this book. Don't like history at all? This is like no other history book you will ever read. Give it a try!
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping and intriguing book
Review: This work is a classic text of social history. It should be read by those who want to see what the neglect of the poor by the rich can cost. It is silly that those of wealth are often looked upon as being GREAT! They are human just like us all. Sometimes much more so!!!!
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