David McCullough is known to millions as the author of the critically acclaimed, best-selling books The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas, and Mornings on Horseback, and as host of the popular PBS television series "Smithsonian World?' The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough's first book, was praised by Time magazine as a "meticulously researched, vivid account of one of the most stunning disasters in U.S. history."

At the end of the last century, Johnstown,.Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hard-working 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 townspeople. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.

From research in the voluminous records, diaries, letters, interviews with numbers of survivors, and a rare, previously unknown transcript of a private investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania Railroad, David McCullough vividly re-creates the chain of events that led to the catastrophe, and then unfolds the incredible story of the flood itself and its aftermath.

Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in 19th-century America, of overweening confidence, energy, and tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.
The history of civil engineering may sound boring, but in David McCullough's hands it is, well, riveting. His award-winning histories of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal were preceded by this account of the disastrous dam failure that drowned Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889. Written while the last survivors of the flood were still alive, McCullough's narrative weaves the stories of the town, the wealthy men who owned the dam, and the forces of nature into a seamless whole. His account is unforgettable: "The wave kept on coming straight toward him, heading for the very heart of the city. Stores, houses, trees, everything was going down in front of it, and the closer it came, the bigger it seemed to grow.... The height of the wall of water was at least thirty-six feet at the center.... The drowning and devastation of the city took just about ten minutes." A powerful, definitive book, and a tribute to the thousands who died in America's worst inland flood. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Customer Rating:
Summary: Johnstown Flood
Comment: Johnstown Flood. David McCullough. 1967. 304 Pages.

This was a good book. I read it as a prelude to David McCullough's lecture on 21SEP2006 in Scranton. The book is 70% social history (it was written in 1967!). It is well written and the photos are interesting. About 15% is prelude to disaster, setting the scene. About 20% is post disaster, recovery. Some of that is quite interesting. Apparently the immigrant group moving in and taking cheap labor jobs were the Hungarians (Hunkies). Well, during the recovery there were reports in the press (vilifications really) of roving bands of looting, dead desecrating, raping, killing etc all done by these Hungarians. Except they were not called Hungarians, they were labeled the Huns. Though the drawings of them were stereotypical Hungarians with their big mustaches etc. The bulk then is on the disaster ... the big raging wall of water which passed through Johnstown in 10 minutes flat.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing Less Than The Definitive Account of the Johnstown Flood
Comment: I read this book subsequent to seeing the excellent Charles Guggenheim Academy Award winning 1/2 hour film that was expanded to One Hour and shown on TV as part of the excellent 'American Experience' series of documentary films.
This is the first book ever written by David Mc Cullough.
The Johnstown Flood is the single best, most enlightening, and accurate account of the scandalous, and trajic American Disaster that occured back on the last day in May 1889, and its aftermath, which speaks volumes about the generous nature, and wonder that are the American people. After the dismal disgrace of New Orleans after Katrina, this book is an account of how far we have declined as a nation in responding to our fellow Americans when they are desperate. I became a david mc Cullough fan after reading this, and any student of history will almost certainly feel the same after absorbing this book. I have recommended it to many freinds, and every single one thanked me profusely for having done so.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: gift
Comment: This book was very much enjoyed by the recipient. He really enjoyed reading about the area where members of his family grew up - tho a few years after the flood.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Read
Comment: The Johnstown Flood

The book dramatically describes how unusually heavy rains collapsed a poorly maintained earthen dam, releasing a massive flow of debris-filled water which literally destroyed everything in its path, including most of the city, and kllled over 2,000 of its people. McCullough starkly recounts the personal trials of many survivors, and the unprecedented outpouring of spontaneous relief efforts from across a horror-stricken mid-19th century America. A masterfully told tale, hard to put down before finishing.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Tells the Story Vividly; Grapples with the Larger Social Issues Raised by the Flood
Comment: There is a saying, not original to me, that events are of record, but reality is a construct. McCullough does the research necessary to state the essential facts of this historical event. This is no mean task, given all the disinformation and misinformation in the historical record. But what is even more impressive is McCullough's ability to show why there is so much inaccuracy in the writing about this event.

The power of the new media, the insatiable appetite of Americans for a story, and the raw class tensions and social issues of the time combine to create all sorts of varied efforts to construct a reality to explain the Johnstown events. Those constructs often tell us more about ourselves than they do about what really happened in Johnstown.

The early constructions magnified the death toll tenfold and seized upon all sorts of fantastic survivor stories that were patently untrue. Some shades of 9/11 here. Then the focus turned to the responsiblity of the owners of the resort on top of the dam that had rebuilt the dam. This was the class card -- rich guys who had nothing better than to do than pursue leisure (a novel concept at the time) and isolate themselves from other Americans (tapping into ancient American attitudes against elites) running a poorly built dam doomed to fail and to kill the groundlings below. This story resonated with Americans.

McCullough is exceptionally balanced and thoughtful of his treatment of the issue, and picks apart the crudest and most inaccurate attacks against the dam owners. In the end, however, there is some core truth to the theme that the rich owners' neglect contributed to the tragedy. The dam had been originally built by the State, but the reconstruction job by the resort owners was poorly engineered. The biggest flaw was the lack of any way to control the level of the dam with outlets at the bottom of the dam to let out some water. Screens at the top to keep the fish in that led to a blockage and contributed to the problems, while the most strikingly callous measure (they cared more about fish than human life), probably was a minor matter in the whole tragedy.

What's also fascinating is that the rich were not brought to account. Tort and corporate law at the time allowed the rich owners to shield personal liability behind a shell owner of the facility and difficult issues of causality rendered all the lawsuits unwinnable. Today, there would be a different result, as McCullough points out. Those decrying the "flood" of litigation in modern days may do well to consider the real floods that fear of liablity (and the concomitant insurance, risk prevention, government regulation, and professional reviews such fears engender to prevent tragedy from occurring in the first place) has prevented. The failure of the press (who were owned by some of these rich guys) and the legal system to call the owners to account tells us a lot about the entrenched power the ruled the country at the time.

McCollough tells the tale of the flood vividly, corrects the record to tell events truthfully, and then deals with the larger social issues raised by the event. This is a extraordinarily good book

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