48 Book Review
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
September 2021
CULTURE & ARTS
Reviewed by Michael Attard
I
read this book after reading three of Erik Larson’s other books, which I had enjoyed immensely. Otherwise, a history/science book about a hurricane would probably not have drawn my interest. I was not disappointed, although I found myself less punctilious when reading some of the scientific passages. But for those interested in science, particularly the weather, the discussion of isobars, barometric pressure, centrifugal force, and ocean swells may be appealing.
multitude of other characters depicting an optimistic life at the end of the 19th century. Everyone in Galveston had experienced storms, but for the most part, the citizens, including Isaac, did not fear that a hurricane could hit Texas.
The central character is the real Isaac Cline, born in 1861. Like most people of his time, he was born on a farm. But unlike others, Isaac pursued education and his love of science. He said, “I made up my mind that I would seek some field where I could tell big stories and tell the truth.” He chose the weather. In 1889, he took over the Galveston, Texas, weather station. The city is built on an island off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The highest point was 8.7 feet or 2.65 meters above sea level. We do not generally think about it, but all of our institutions had a beginning, including the weather service. In the United States it began under the auspices of the U.S. military’s Signal Corps in 1880. It may seem strange to us today, but at the time, its founding was controversial. Consider, this was a time when lightning was barely understood, tornadoes not at all. “Some critics argued men should not try to predict the weather, because it was God’s province.” Also, weather predictions had a poor record. It was a time when captains regularly sailed their ships into the worst of storms and weather forecasting was a list of probabilities. Along with Isaac, the author introduces his wife Cora, their three daughters, Isaac’s brother Joseph, and a
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In the first part of the book, there are many stories about earlier hurricanes, some of which had profound effects upon history. The author relates experiments by scientists such as Galileo, the results of which astonished the leading scientists of the day. In one such experiment, Galileo proved that air had weight. The significance of this was not immediately recognized, but it would have an immense meteorological significance.
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