David McCullough has a genius for telling stories that compel, fascinate and engage. There was a flood, the damn broke and a town was flooded. McCullough elevates this sequence of events into high drama few fictions would rival. I frequently explain to students that history isn't what happened, it's the art of interpreting what it means and how we can use it. In this tragedy, McCullough holds a mirror to the society of the time. From the corruption that resulted in a weakened dam endangering thousands to the newspapers taking advantage to increase sales, McCullough tells the story and extrapolates significance. I absolutely love McCullough and sincerely enjoyed this book.

This is a highly human account telling the stories of regular people before during and after the tragedy. Sad, tragic, poignant, this tale is well worth a read.

First book by a fine historical author. It is a good recounting of the famous Johnstown, PA flood in 1889. Way to many names and details and recounting of the same thing over and over again. A good book but not an easy book to read due to a laborious style. I have a lot of his books and can only hope that he gets better at a narrative story style. He does lay out the problem with the dam in Johnstown, as well as those probably responsible for the dam failure -the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose members are a Who's Who of Gilded Age elites. And yet, the main culprit was the weather and the sheer amount of rain that came down, coupled with bad timber management, a poor rebuild of the damn, and South Fork's rather casual lack of concern with the problem that had been growing for years. Total devastation and I was living back home in PA when the 2nd Johnstown Flood occurred in 1977 and despite all the new engineering that went into making sure the 1889 flood would not happen again, Mother Nature and the topography of the land just cannot seem to stop flooding there. Informative book, but I wonder if in later years the author might have written a more easily readable book.

My first David McCullough book and his first book! Wow! I had never heard of this incident in American history and I am so glad that this gap in my knowledge was filled. Over 2,000 deaths. It is an unforgettable, haunting, horrific story of the powerful destruction that can be wrought by nature. Human behaviors and how they played out before, during and in the aftermath were very interesting. It was somehow familiar to modern times and how disasters are approached now. This really surprised me since this went down on May 31, 1889!
There was the pervasive denial and complacency of the citizens that the dam would not break. Even when warnings were sent that it WAS HAPPENING, they were not heeded. There were several forms of horror. Being swept up in the water, smashing into bridge, having debris in the water attack you, or burn to death when the fires began. Whole families were wiped out and the town was not recognizable. Thus followed, the shock and melancholy. And even a confirmed suicide. (Also, a birth happened in an attic amidst the rising waters. Wowzer.)
Disease began spreading, although not as bad as it could have been if it were warmer. There were unchecked rumors about crime and looting. Urban legends began.
The newspaper reporters got in there as soon as possible. The flood became the raging news story for weeks. 12 books were written and published very quickly. Also, many photographers came and set up at different angles. Therefore, quite a panoramic view of the destruction was created. However, some people actually started “staging” pictures with live people, yikes!
More yikes! The commerce—selling souvenirs and the upsurge of newspaper sales. Tourists coming on trains and taking picnics while surveying the area. Ugh.
Some positives: Outpouring of support across the U.S. and even internationally. The train system was helpful especially when there was a call for immediate action to clean up and rebuild. Clara Barton came in with her Red Cross crew. They were ceaseless, motivated, and organized until the work was completed. Andrew Carnegie rebuilt the library. (He was a shareholder and vacationer in the resort area (elite fishing and hunting club) who were responsible for the dam. So this is complicated. Can he (and his cohorts) be villainized for what happened? They were and are but we will never know for sure. Lawsuits and suing occurred but ONLY ONE was funded and that was for stolen whisky (witnessed) off of a train!
Poignant: the cemetery with the graves of all the unidentified bodies.
The research that went into this book was most remarkable. The content was difficult but the coverage by the author was very comprehensive. No wonder that McCullough is acknowledged as one of our great American historians!

I probably would not have ended up reading this had I not received it as a gift, but the eyewitness descriptions of thousands of tons of water rolling down a mountain as an unstoppable apocalyptic force and the ensuing cataclysm that make up the bulk of this are completely unforgettable. Industrialization, privilege, devastation, and media circus at the peak of the gilded age.

This was the first book I ever ready by David McCullough, and quite honestly, it put me off his writing for years. (I did finally give him another chance, and was pleasantly surprised to find he was not as horrible as I thought.)

The problem with this book is that really, the Johnstown flood does not deserve a book. Half a book, maybe, or a nice documentary film, but not a whole book. The events were simple: Johnstown decides to let rich people play around with their dam, dam gets into disrepair, torrential rains cause catastrophic flood. I was less than shocked at the sequence of events, and McCullough's apparent surprise and horror was . . . well, it was bothersome. I felt like he switched back and forth between cynical "of course this was going to happen" narrative and "dear sweet Jesus, what in the name of heaven is going on?" exclamations too quickly--perhaps even the fact that he switched between them at all is cause for worry and disappointment.

Aside from the narrative style, the book is too long. McCullough goes into too much depth about the rich people who built the resort above the town, and too much into the culture that would allow such excess next to such negligence. Really, all he needed to do was explain what the resort was, that there were famous millionaires staying there, and move on. I was more curious about the working class families and the single men and women living in Johnstown than I was about Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers. There was simply not enough reason to care about the town, and by the time the dam broke and the town began flooding, I was ready to give up on the whole thing all together.

I did keep reading to the end, mostly because the carnage and violence of the flood was the most fascinating part of the book, but in the end, I still didn't care about the families who watched helplessly from the hills as their loved ones were swept into the debris, drowned, or set on fire by the burning debris and coal (Johnstown was a mining town). I didn't care about people trapped in attics for weeks, and I didn't care about the aftermath, even though the thought of families walking down aisle of dead bodies hoping to find someone the recognized was heart wrenching.

Basically, this book was too long, a little dry, and focused in the wrong places and on the wrong people.

It was after seeing something about this 1889 disaster on television that I decided I needed to know more about The Johnstown Flood, and David McCullough's chronicle couldn't have been more engaging or enjoyable.

To set the scene, a group of rich industrialists and businessmen, including Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, buy and develop the area surrounding and including Lake Conemaugh, a manmade lake created by damming the Southfork River, about 15 miles up the canyon from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, turning it into a private retreat for the wealthy and privileged. It is estimated that the lake holds roughly 20 million tons of water.

On Memorial Day 1889, the skies open up and a deluge ensues, testing the limits of the dam, which has been shortened (and weakened) by members in an effort to create a road across it. An estimated 10 inches of rain fall, not only raising the alarm of residents downstream, but the level of the lake. Of course, it eventually gives way, its contents coursing downhill with the force of ocean currents, gathering and consuming anything and anybody in its path.

By the time it passes through Johnstown (and neighboring upstream communities), there is barely a structure standing; even the trains parked alongside the canyon walls are washed from their tracks and ferried downstream on 40-foot waves. Largely ignoring the warnings they'd heard before or ignorant of them, nearly 2,300 people would lose their lives by the time the flood passed and the water and mud receded enough to search for survivors, ranking it among the worst natural disasters of all time. (To put it into context, roughly 6,000 perished in the Galveston Flood of 1900; 2,500 perished at Pearl Harbor.)

As devastated as all are, the resilience and courage of those left behind is as impressive a story as that of the flood. Clara Barton leads the newly-formed Red Cross into town for its first major disaster relief effort, and it ends up staying months as the town struggles to rebuild.

McCullough did an admirable job of piecing together the available accounts, many generated by a media frenzy unparalleled at the time as reporters and photographers converged from all corners of the globe. That said, I wish there'd been more attention given to the lawsuits that followed, filed largely by the survivors against the club whose (lack of) maintenance arguably led to the demise of the dam. Without revealing the results of those trials, suffice it to say that should a similar disaster take place today, it would takes years, if not decades, to determine who ultimately bore responsibility. Such was not the case then.

Well worthwhile. Enjoy.

A riveting telling of history. Once it gets going you can’t stop. You are there, reliving one of the greatest disasters of the 19th century. David McCullough expertly paints a picture of America entering the industrial age with its mix of ethnic backgrounds, emerging culture, farmers, shopkeepers, laborers and powerful elite. His vivid recounting of the flood and its impact is enthralling and heart-rending. Very highly recommended.

I very much enjoy reading David McCullough, and his book "The Johnstown Flood" is no exception. He weaves a great story while at the same time, educating the reader about an event (in this case) or important person in history. McCullough always manages to find the fascinating details that makes history so vivid in his hands. No need to review the events of this terrible disaster of May 31, 1889 - this book is a quick and engrossing read and will leave you with a great understanding of it.
I listened to the audiobook version as read by the late Edward Hermann, and it was excellent. I highly recommend either version.

No one writes history any better than David McCullough and having his book read by the late Edward Herrmann was a real treat. I have been meaning to read this book for years and it didn't disappoint. McCullough outlines the lead-up to the storm and subsequent dam break, then describes the harrowing experiences of the people of Johnstown and other smaller towns in the way of the flood, concluding with the aftermath and legal wrangling to place blame. It's all very compelling. I found myself vocally reacting in the car. The final day I listened my area was pummeled with storms, so I found myself looking around for any dams that might burst. A tragedy well told.

I have no idea how McCullough was able to find so much information about this incident and weave it into such an enthralling narrative, but this book is rich in detail and anecdotes that bring excitement to a depressing topic.

It is in part an age-old story of wealthy elites having little to no regard for the consequences of their extravagances. A dam was installed to create a lake that was eventually owned and maintained by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club whose members were mostly extremely rich men from the steel or railroad industries, including Andrew Carnegie. The maintenance of the dam was questionable at best, and when unusually heavy rain fell on the area, there was no way to lower the level of the water. As the water crested the top of the dam, it failed and unleashed an entire lake onto the valley down river, including Johnstown.

McCullough does a thorough job of explaining the circumstances that led to this disaster, and the horrifying minutes, days, and weeks that followed. I am not super familiar with the history of the American Red Cross, so I particularly enjoyed the parts about Clara Barton and her relatively new-formed American Red Cross coming in to help in the aftermath.

The Johnstown Flood: The Incredible Story Behind One of the Most Devastating Disasters America Has Ever Known by David McCullough

302 pages

★★★★

I love David McCullough. He is a great historian and his books reach to all kinds of people (not just a big history geek like myself). He has had quite a career, writing history books for nearly 50 years. Johnstown Flood is his first book, published in 1968. This fascinated me because I have read mostly his recent work so reading his start and the changes through the years interested me. And of course, as usual, McCullough did not disappoint with this book! I really enjoyed it.

For whatever reason, I’ve always been fascinated by disasters (natural or otherwise), the bigger the better so this book was right up my alley. The Johnstown Flood, occurring in 1889, would be one of the United States biggest disasters in death count (It was later surpassed by fatalities in the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks) and is largely forgotten after 120+ years. Regardless, it is a story that deserves to be told and who better to tell it than David McCullough. This history is well researched and well written. I enjoyed reading the personal lives of the people involved. I felt McCullough was fairly fair in his assessment of the cause (I give him credit, I doubt I could be). I think the only thing that annoyed me was the author’s occasional use of the term “something like…” such as “something like 2,000 people….” Was it something like that? Using the phrase made me feel like he had no clue so just went with “something like” a reasonable answer (I just imagine if I had written such a phrase in my 40 page senior thesis in college, my professor would have walloped me over the head). You can definitely see the growth of the authors writing through the years. Enjoyable and an overall quick read.

Not every environmental catastrophe is the complete fault of nature. The greedy hand of mankind is usually involved as it was in the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889.

Most of the people in Johnstown never saw the water coming; they only heard it. And those who lived to tell about it would for years after try to describe the sound of the thing as it rushed on them.

The South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania was originally part of the cross-state canal system, which was so vital to commerce in the early 19th century. But once the railroads came along, the canals were no longer needed so the dam was sold to the railroad interests who in turn sold the dam to private interests. Sounds rather like today, doesn't it? These "private interests" were investors and speculators, mostly from the steel industry. They wanted a private reservoir for their vacations, where they could fish and boat without the intruding working class citizens bothering them. Since they didn't live near the area, they also didn't spend the money and the time to keep the dam in a safe condition. In the last days of May 1889, the largest rainfall event ever to hit the region caused the waters of the private lake to destroy the dam. Not to overflow it, but to simply "push it all out at once". That meant disaster for the little towns and communities down the hill.

n  n

The Town of Mineral Point was obliterated. Shaved off. Only bare rock was left. When the massive wave hit Johnstown, it was up to 75 feet high and was carrying houses, boulders, animals and everything else as it hit the first homes. The giant wave was so strong, it was actually rolling over itself, so that any living thing caught in the waters had no chance at all. In fact, when they eventually found some bodies, much later, they had been pounded deep down into the mud. Those were the lucky deaths. Others clung to debris or rolling homes, only to pile up against the town's bridge. There, despite the rain and water, fires broke out and survivors burnt to death.

n  n

Entire families, entire generations, were killed. Parents, grandparents, in-laws, children. And this was the age of large families, so six, seven, eight, nine children drowned or burnt to death. There were some survivors. A grandmother somehow survived, even though her scalp had been torn off from her forehead to the nape of her neck. A father and his son were swept downstream for four miles before they managed to leap to shore, only to later discover the mother and six other children had died. One man was swept from his home on to a spinning roof which carried him across the town where he was ejected headfirst...into his own office.

It was the worst death toll from a natural disaster in the United States until the Galveston Hurricane. Even after the waves died down, the rain continued to pour down upon survivors who had no shelter, no food, no fresh water, no dry clothes, and no medical supplies. In Pittsburgh, word came of the disaster and groups moved upstream to start the rescues. However, thousands ended up making the journey but did so without any sort of plan, which only created more of a burden for the few survivors.

You can imagine the outcome, regarding culpability. The bigwigs escaped with nary a hand slap. The Johnstown Flood did, however, lead to American law being changed from one of fault-based to one of strict liability. Little consolation to the thousands who died.

It is so easy to read a David McCullough book. He is a historian who writes for us, matter-of-factly without great histrionics or agendas. The reader already knows there is a disaster, no surprise, so the telling of it makes all the difference. After finishing the book, I realized that not much has changed. Today, one can make the correlation between an act of nature (Covid-19) and the lack of leadership worldwide resulting in hundreds of thousands of death. The bigshots don't care and they never will.

Book Season = Spring (always question authority)