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The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
by Steve Olson
Survival narrative meets scientific, natural, and social history in the riveting story of a volcanic disaster.
For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, sightseers, and nearby residents listened anxiously to rumblings in Mount St. Helens, part of the chain of western volcanoes fueled by the 700-mile-long Cascadia fault. Still, no one was prepared when an immense eruption took the top off of the mountain and laid waste to hundreds of square miles of verdant forests in southwestern Washington State. The eruption was one of the largest in human history, deposited ash in eleven U.S. states and five Canadian providences, and caused more than one billion dollars in damage. It killed fifty-seven people, some as far as thirteen miles away from the volcano's summit.
Shedding new light on the cataclysm, author Steve Olson interweaves the history and science behind this event with page-turning accounts of what happened to those who lived and those who died.
Powerful economic and historical forces influenced the fates of those around the volcano that sunny Sunday morning, including the construction of the nation's railroads, the harvest of a continent's vast forests, and the protection of America's treasured public lands. The eruption of Mount St. Helens revealed how the past is constantly present in the lives of us all. At the same time, it transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience, and, ultimately, our perceptions of what it will take to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet.
Rich with vivid personal stories of lumber tycoons, loggers, volcanologists, and conservationists, Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative built from the testimonies of those closest to the disaster, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.
"Starred Review. A riveting trek combining enthralling nature writing with engaging social history." - Kirkus
"Making it clear that these deaths could have been prevented by properly established restricted areas, Olson takes a detailed and human-centered look at a terrible disaster." - Publishers Weekly
"A first-class, meticulously crafted piece of reportage that is as exciting as it is informative - and will long stand as a classic of descriptive narrative of the biggest American volcanic eruption of all our lifetimes - or so we all hope!" - Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
"Steve Olson...has the gift of clarity and an enviable ability to find and make drama, present the human narrative, and engage his readers on multiple levels." - David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars
"This book, as welcome as it is amazing in the depth of its background and the strength of its storytelling, will stand as a stirring and stilling accomplishment." - Robert Michael Pyle, author of Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land and Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide
This information about Eruption was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Steve Olson is the author of Mapping Human History (a finalist for the National Book Award) and Count Down, among other books. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
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