Written By : David McCullough
Narrated By : Edward Herrmann
Published By : Simon & Schuster
Runtime : 10 hours
Categories : American
Pre 1900
Social & Economic
Price : $39.95 $21.95
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of John Adams.
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. This is a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are behaving responsibly.
About the Author:
David McCullough, author of 1776, is twice winner of the National Book Award and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He has been called a "master of the art of narrative history." His books have been praised for their exceptional narrative sweep, their scholarship and insight into American life, and for their literary distinction. His John Adams, one of the most acclaimed American biographies ever published, hit the New York Times bestseller list at number one and remained on the list for more than a year. To date more than two million copies have been sold.
His new book, 1776, May 2005, tells the intensely human story of those who marched with George Washington in the fateful year of the Declaration of Independence.
Gordon Wood, writing in the New York Review of Books, said of John Adams, "By far the best biography of Adams ever written...McCullough's special gift as an artist is his ability to recreate past human beings in all their fullness and all their humanity."
Edwin Yoder, in The Washington Post, wrote, "If nations appointed historians laureate, David McCullough would surely be ours."
In the words of the citation accompanying his honorary degree from Yale, "As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breath, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character."
His books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman. As may be said of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print.
About the Reader:
Edward Herrmann's numerous theater credits include Mrs. Warren's Profession, (Tony Award) The Philadelphia Story, Plenty, Love Letters, and an Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement In Theater. His films include Intolerable Cruelty, Welcome to Mooseport, The Aviator, The Cat's Meow, Reds, and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Mr. Herrmann received an Emmy Award for his work on The Practice, and appears regularly as Richard Gilmore in the hit W.B. series Gilmore Girls.
Other titles you may be interested in
Written By : Frederick Douglass
Narrated By : Pete Papageorge
Published By : In Audio
Runtime : 4 hours 40 minutes
Categories : Autobiography
Historical
American
Pre 1900
Price : $22.95 $15.50
The powerful story of a slave who became one of the most effective African-American leaders. More info... |
Written By : Sir Winston Churchill
Narrated By : Edward de Souza
Published By : Select Music & Distribution
Runtime : 4 hours
Categories : British
Social & Economic
Pre 1900
20th Century
Price : $15.49
Here is a history of Britain by one of its finest statesmen, a man who had himself crucially shaped events during perhaps the greatest crisis of modern times.
Churchill's resonant prose... More info... |
Written By : David Starkey
Narrated By : Patricia Hodge
Published By : Harper Collins UK
Runtime : 6 hours 31 minutes
Categories : Historical
Royalty and Heads of State
British
Pre 1900
Biographical
Price : $16.99
The first of his wives was Catherine of Aragon, the pious Catholic princess who suffered years of miscarriages... More info... |
Written By : David Roberts
Narrated By : Robertson Dean
Published By : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 10 hours
Categories : Adventurers & Explorers
Pre 1900
Price : $34.95 $23.95
First it is the tale of four men who, in 1743, were marooned in the Arctic for six years with supplies for only one day, and secondly, it is a contemporary author's search to retrace their steps an... More info... |
Written By : John Jakes
Narrated By : Edward Herrmann
Published By : Simon & Schuster
Runtime : 6 hours
Categories : Historical
American
Pre 1900
Price : $29.95 $17.95
John Jakes, "the godfather of the historical novel" (Los Angeles Times), leaves the South to travel North for an epic tale of scandalous doings in the world's most famous resort ... More info... |
