{"title":"Alwyn Scarth","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the compelling narratives of Alwyn Scarth, master of historical analysis and geographical insight. Perfect for history enthusiasts and travel aficionados, explore his works and uncover hidden stories of the past.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"vesuvius-book-alwyn-scarth-9781903544259","title":"Vesuvius","description":"Vesuvius is one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth. Its story is fascinating - not only its rich geological and geographical history, but also the changing social, religious and intellectual impact that the volcano has always had upon the people living around it. Hence, this book is truly a biography of a formidable and richly colourful living entity.Volcanoes are not passive like other mountains, and Vesuvius has been less passive than most volcanoes. It is the paramount natural feature in the whole region of Campania in southern Italy, and the constant rival of the turbulent city of Naples that lies at its heart. Volcano and city have played a dominant role on the stage of Campania since the first literate Greek colonists settled there some 3000 years ago. The Campanians have never been able to remember with serenity, nor to orget with impunity, that theirs is a volcanic land. Vesuvius threatens in the east; a rash of smaller volcanoes riddle the landscape of the Campi Flegrei to the west; and between them lie Naples and a host of busy towns.For many centuries, the people believed that the Underworld lurked beneath the ground itself. The ways in which the people have interpreted the habits and behaviour of the volcano have given it a distinct personality, and an almost anthropomorphic quality. Vesuvius has been as capricious as a spoilt courtesan. During its more tempestuous outbursts, it has destroyed homes and whole villages, and sent thousands of people to the Underworld. In calmer times, the destructive lava and ash then weathered into soils of such exquisite fertility that they recalled legends of a Golden Age.Some of that character has been manifested in the behaviour of the Campanians. They have watched their volcano, and they have watched over it; they have suffered from its fits of temper; they have feared and revered it; they have taken out images of their patron saints to propitiate it; and they have taken it to their hearts. Vesuvius has played a part in Campanian society that has been perhaps surpassed only by the strongest of rulers - or, more recently, by the bosses of the notorious parallel government that holds sway in the region. And, of course, Vesuvius buried Pompeii. Vesuvius threatens its surroundings today.The development of contingency plans for its next great eruption shows that scientists can apply the latest techniques to discover when the next eruption is about to occur, but also how such plans meet with a range of opposition from the people under threat. 'Vesuvius: A Biography' is based on the latest research and also on a prudent appraisal of contemporary historical accounts. Wherever possible, the story is based on eye-witness accounts; many are graphic word portraits the equal of photography and television coverage. Fresh translation of classical source material features extensively. Written with the non-specialist reader in mind, the book will be compelling reading for not only geologists and geographers but also emergency planners and all those fascinated by the dramatic face of the Earth and eager to explore its rich human dimensions as much as its spectacular physical processes.This is a complete history of the relationship between one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world and the many people who live perilously close to it. With new translations of classical sources, the story comes up to today and the ominous future.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49514398384401,"sku":"GOR007741101","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50653380968721,"sku":"GOR010351787","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53622913663249,"sku":"GOR011665751","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1903544254.jpg?v=1750867181"},{"product_id":"vulcan-s-fury-book-alwyn-scarth-9780300075410","title":"Vulcan's Fury","description":"A description of 15 volcanic eruptions through the centuries, with first-hand accounts of the different ways people reacted to them. It reconstructs the physical experience of eruptions and examines the advances in technology and volcanic surveillance in the 20th century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49526982148369,"sku":"GOR001910080","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50096455123217,"sku":"CIN0300075413G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52108720767249,"sku":"GOR003182871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52729356943633,"sku":"CIN0300075413VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300075413.jpg?v=1751228155"},{"product_id":"la-catastrophe-book-alwyn-scarth-9781903544112","title":"La Catastrophe","description":"On May 8, 1902, on the Caribbean island of Martinique, the volcano Mount Pele loosed the most terrifying and lethal eruption of the twentieth century. In minutes, it killed 27,000 people and levelled the city of Saint-Pierre. In La Catastrophe, Alwyn Scarth provides a gripping day-by-day and hour-by-hour account of this devastating eruption, based primarily on chilling eyewitness accounts.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49552215081233,"sku":"GOR002554918","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1903544114.jpg?v=1751250037"},{"product_id":"savage-earth-book-alwyn-scarth-9780002201353","title":"Savage Earth","description":"This reference book puts earthquakes and volcanic activity into context by explaining the complexities of plate tectonics and continental drift using both text and helpful diagrams. Subsequent sections of the book go into more detail looking first at earthquakes, and then at volcanoes, using a mixture of historical and contemporary accounts of major incidents in order to illustrate the often devastating effects. Real-life accounts by many of the interviewees featured in the television series, \"Savage Skies\", are also included. The final section deals with the science of earthquake and eruption prediction and the difficulties it presents to scientists around the world. Full of dramatic photographs, stories and concise explanation, \"Savage Earth\" is a reference guide to readers interested in the forces of science and nature. It contains everything you wanted to know about earthquakes and volcanoes but were too embarrassed to ask your children.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49565012394257,"sku":"GOR003828621","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0002201356.jpg?v=1751427401"},{"product_id":"savage-earth-book-alwyn-scarth-9780002201063","title":"\"Savage Earth\"","description":"An examination of earthquakes and volcanic activity and a TV tie-in with the Granada television series Savage Earth, which includes an explanation of plate tectonics and continental drift; historical and contemporary accounts of major incidents and their effects; and a discussion of the science of earthquake and eruption prediction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49600080838929,"sku":"GOR004743145","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49628428009745,"sku":"GOR007534249","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0002201062.jpg?v=1751288979"},{"product_id":"vulcan-s-fury-book-alwyn-scarth-9780300091236","title":"Vulcan's Fury","description":"Volcanic eruptions are the most spectacular displays in the natural world. They also present humanity with devastating environmental disasters. This enthralling book describes fifteen of the most remarkable volcanic eruptions across the centuries and, using rare firsthand accounts, analyzes their impact on the people in their paths.  In 79 a.d. Vesuvius produced the most violent eruption recorded in European history. The eruption of Etna in 1669 marked the first known attempt to divert a lava-flow. In 1783, the eruption of Laki indirectly killed a fifth of the Icelandic population and sent a blue haze over Europe. The eruption of Krakatau in 1883 drowned most of its victims and destroyed much of the island as well. In 1980 Mount St. Helens produced a new type of eruption and scythed down a majestic forest. Alwyn Scarth explores these and other eruptions, reconstructing the physical experience of the disaster, its origins, explosion, and aftermath, and interpreting (in many cases for the first time in English) eyewitness accounts that bring their own vividness to the unfolding drama. The accounts tell of fear, panic, miscalculation, and inefficiency as well as emergency organization, self-sacrifice, religious fervor, and heroism, revealing how each affected population handled—or mishandled—its crisis. Scarth’s riveting survey shows that technology and volcanic surveillance have made enormous strides during the present century. But volcanoes remain indomitable: no one has yet learned how an eruption can be stopped.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347056922897,"sku":"CIN0300091230G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300091230.jpg?v=1750738453"},{"product_id":"vesuvius-book-alwyn-scarth-9780691143903","title":"Vesuvius","description":"Capricious, vibrant, and volatile, Vesuvius has been and remains one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. In its rage, it has destroyed whole cities and buried thousands alive. In its calm, its ashes have fertilized the soil, providing for the people who have lived in its shadows. For over two millennia, the dynamic presence of this volcano has fascinated scientists, artists, writers, and thinkers, and inspired religious fervor, Roman architecture, and Western literature. In Vesuvius, Alwyn Scarth draws from the latest research, classical and eyewitness accounts, and a diverse range of other sources to tell the riveting story of this spectacular natural phenomenon. Scarth follows Vesuvius across time, examining the volcano's destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D., its eruptions during the Counter-Reformation that were viewed as God's punishment of sinners, and the building of the world's first volcano observatory on Vesuvius in the 1840s. Scarth explores the volcano's current position overlooking a population of more than three million people and the complex attitudes maintained by the residents, at once reverent, protective, and fearful. He also considers the next major eruption of Vesuvius, which experts have indicated could be the most powerful since 1631. The longer Vesuvius remains dormant, the more violent its reawakening will be, and despite scientific advances for predicting when this might occur, more people are vulnerable than ever before. Exploring this celebrated wonder from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives, Vesuvius provides a colorful portrait of a formidable force of nature.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51326001840401,"sku":"CIN0691143900VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423575310609,"sku":"CIN0691143900G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52303830974737,"sku":"NGR9780691143903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53344952451345,"sku":"GOR011757067","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0691143900.jpg?v=1751199687"},{"product_id":"volcanoes-of-europe-book-alwyn-scarth-9781903544037","title":"Volcanoes of Europe","description":"Volcanoes have contributed in large part to the formation of the Earth's crust and atmosphere--and are intimately tied to the history of humanity. The most ancient civilizations of Europe have preserved the imprint of these spectacular and often terrifying phenomena. The explosion of Santorini, some 3600 years ago in the Aegean, undoubtedly inspired the Greek fables of Atlantis, the eruptons of Etna (Sicily) are the origin of the image of the forges of Cyclops and other myths, and the concept of Hades was linked to numerous volcanoes in the Mediterranean. Italy was the birthplace of the science of volcanology, and the Atlantic (Iceland and the Azores) volcanoes have given unrivalled opportunity for the study of volcanic islands recently formed. This book, both reference and guide, presents the causes, initiation, and growth of these volcanoes against a background of their environmental aspects and contemporary activity. Special attention is given to the impact on the people who live on or around them. The volcanoes of and volcanic activity in the Mediterranean basin, the Atlantic, and France and Germany are described in clear prose with a minimum of technical jargon. A glossary of volcanic terms used in the local languages is included, and the book is well illustrated with black and white photographs and maps, and an 8-page color insert.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53127519469841,"sku":"GOR007097428","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53267018383633,"sku":"GOR014846727","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781903544037.jpg?v=1771074567"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-alwyn-scarth.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}