Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Seismic City

  • An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake
  • By: Joanna L. Dyl
  • Narrated by: Ginger White
  • Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Seismic City cover art

Seismic City

By: Joanna L. Dyl
Narrated by: Ginger White
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Extreme Cities cover art
Rising Tides cover art
The Missile Next Door cover art
The Gilded Age cover art
A Brief History of London cover art
Red Meat Republic cover art
California cover art
Disasterology cover art
The Road Taken cover art
Americans Against the City cover art
Cities Are Good for You cover art
Nature's Metropolis cover art
Detroit cover art
Polymath, Volume 1 cover art
Smell Detectives cover art
Clean and White cover art

Summary

On April 18, 1906, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake shook the San Francisco region, igniting fires that burned half the city. The disaster in all its elements - earthquake, fires, and recovery - profoundly disrupted the urban order and challenged San Francisco's perceived permanence.

The crisis temporarily broke down spatial divisions of class and race and highlighted the contested terrain of urban nature in an era of widespread class conflict, simmering ethnic tensions, and controversial reform efforts. From a proposal to expel Chinatown from the city center to a vision of San Francisco paved with concrete in the name of sanitation, the process of reconstruction involved reenvisioning the places of both people and nature. In their zeal to restore their city, San Franciscans downplayed the role of the earthquake and persisted in choosing patterns of development that exacerbated risk.

In this close study of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Joanna L. Dyl examines the decades leading up to the catastrophic event and the city's recovery from it. Combining urban environmental history and disaster studies, Seismic City demonstrates how the crisis and subsequent rebuilding reflect the dynamic interplay of natural and human influences that have shaped San Francisco.

The book is published by University of Washington Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2017 University of Washington Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"The best history of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 you'll ever read." (Ari Kelman, University of California, Davis)

"Among the best accounts I've read of the endlessly fascinating San Francisco earthquake, fire, and aftermath." (Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All)

What listeners say about Seismic City

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.