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

by Shrady, Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9780143114604
• ISBN10: 0143114603
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-31
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 was no run-of-the-mill misfortune—it was a watershed moment that shook the pillars of an inveterate social order and sent reverberations throughout the Western world. Earth, water, wind, and fire all conspired to produce a hellish catastrophe that lasted for a full five days and left Lisbon thoroughly annihilated. Nicholas Shrady’s unique account of this first modern disaster and its aftereffects successfully articulates the outcome of the earthquake—the eighteenth-century equivalent of a mass media frenzy giving rise to a host of other fascinating developments, such as disaster preparedness, landmark social reform, urban planning, and the birth of seismology.

Author Biography

Nicholas Shrady is a writer and journalist whose books include Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail and Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa. He has written for Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, Forbes, and The New York Times Book Review.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vi
All Saints' Day	p. 3
Order Out of Chaos	p. 25
Taking Stock	p. 49
Alis Ubbo ... Olisipo ... Al-Ushbuna ... Lisboa	p. 63
A Golden Age, of Sorts	p. 81
The Preacher and the Philosopher	p. 113
Like a Phoenix from the Flames	p. 147
Enlightenment at Any Price	p. 169
Epilogue	p. 203
Notes	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 221
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