Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of The Longest Minute in exchange for my review.

We’ve all heard of the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires that changed the face of San Francisco. During a visit to the city, I went on a walking tour and remember seeing melted bricks that looked like glass and being told they survived the fire. But I had no sense of the people who lived in the space between “Before” and “After.” This book gives them the chance to tell their stories.

The book starts with a brief overview of the forces that shaped San Francisco in the early days. Its gold rush origins led to a bustling city with unequal resources, insufficient infrastructure, and lax building codes.

The earthquake caught most people in bed and for some the end came quickly. However, most of the book is devoted to telling heroic stories of trying to contain the fires and the fight for survival in the week following the initial shocks.

This book is valuable because it gives modern day readers the chance to learn from those who experienced 1906 firsthand. It provides details of an unimaginable tragedy on a human scale. It also calls out the hubris, racism, and complacency that compounded the natural disaster. It makes me wonder if our society is any better prepared for such disasters over a century later.

I read an e-book version and would have given the book five stars but for the fact that I wish it had some visuals to go with the story. A map or maps, photos, etc., would have brought things into even clearer focus. Perhaps the print version will have something more. In any case, I wholeheartedly recommend reading The
Longest Minute.

The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 by Matthew J. Davenport is a very highly recommended, well researched and authoritative account of the historic 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck San Francisco at 5:12 on April 18, 1906 and the days of fires which followed. The Longest Minute reads like a novel at times. The fear is intense as the huge earthquake hits early in the morning and devastates the city. Then the fires begin and the terror starts.

This is a well written and researched account of the natural disaster, but more importantly this is about the extensive fires that devastated the city. The Longest Minute is also the story of some of the people who lived through the disaster and some who were lost. The corruption and discrimination present during this time period is contrasted with the selfless individuals, workers, emergency responders, military personal, and the fire department who risked their lives and worked tirelessly to save who and what they could.

Davenport makes this narrative of the historical events intimately personal as he draws from a plethora of sources, including letters, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, memoirs, diaries, official reports, court transcripts, and archival records to tell the accounts of individuals. He presents the history of the area and creates a complete written picture of the totality of the disaster. This is an excellent choice for anyone interested in learning about the San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

This thorough history chronicles San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and firestorm, one of America's greatest disasters. Meticulously drawing from survivors' accounts, the author interweaves science and history to reveal the calamity's destruction—worsened by greed and misjudgment—and the city's resilience.

This long and detailed account offers a wealth of information. The storytelling itself is rather dry, relying on the tragedy and hardship of the situation to connect to the reader's emotions.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

A well-done novel on the Great San Fransisco earthquake of 1906. the horrors and hardships overcome were inspirational. It was sad to learn that some of the issues could have been avoided except for the greed and corruption that took place in the office of the mayor. Overall a tremendous book.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Sad to say, this felt like reading a term paper submitted by a student who was terrified of being accused of plagiarism, so felt the need to footnote even the most mundane phases. For five days, I slogged through page after page of repetitive detain, with quotes from one person after another. Apparently the author felt the need to include and cite every possible comment he found in archived documents and letters. Perhaps some readers will enjoy this granular detail, but it was too much and too boring for me.

Matthew J. Davenport’s The Longest Minute is a riveting, first-rate account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It is masterfully told in harrowing detail, mainly through the eyes of those who lived through the tragedy.

The book’s title is somewhat misleading. Granted, the 7.9 magnitude earthquake lasted only about a minute, but that was just the beginning. The death and destruction continued for days, and rebuilding the ravaged city took years.

Davenport painstakingly details events immediately before, during, and after the earthquake. He leans heavily on contemporary news accounts, diaries, letters, and other primary sources for his sourcing. He demonstrates how the city was unprepared for what happened and, in fact, contributed to the extent of the toll on life and property, thanks to the city’s many wood buildings built on fill and its totally inadequate and poorly designed water system.

Given its subject matter and detail, The Longest Minute may be a challenge for the faint of heart, but at the same time it is a powerful, informative, and enlightening read for those interested in historical fiction or who love the city by the bay.

I want to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this excellent book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is one of the books that makes you say-hey, did you know that…as I found myself doing with my family as I was reading it. I didn’t know anything about this historical event and found it really fascinating. My issue was mostly the way it was organized as I found it confusing at times. There were also times when I looked to see how much was left of the book because I thought-where could the book go from here? It seemed like the bulk of the story was told at the beginning, and then when it got into the fire portion, I felt it all over again-like what other information could I get that I haven’t gotten already? That being said, I found the book interesting and valuable, but I did feel like the format and organization could’ve been improved.

Very good book about the earthquake. Intense description and vivid detail. The end of the book drags a bit. Overall an interesting snapshot of history.

I was excited to read about the great San Fransisco earthquake.
The first few chapters were breath taking. The author had first hand accounts and I was spellbound on the frightening aspect of feeling the earthquake come rumbling over the city.

Then the book got into the fire. I was shocked to learn about the dynamiting of homes to stop the spread of the fire, didn't work. Dynamiting the homes/businesses spread the fire.

75% of the book is all about the fire. These chapters made my eyes glaze over, my mouth began to open, and snoring could be heard.
The problem that I had was that there was no maps, no pictures, I had no idea where the fire was, the buildings saved or not saved.

Towards the end of the book, I just gave up caring. Let the city burn, it was too much information and not enough context that would have been helped if the author had made it more succinct.

Finally I got to the end, in the Epilogue, the Author then updates the readers on every single person that was introduced. I had forgotten all about some of the characters that were mentioned in passing.

Overall this book was too verbose for me to enjoy. Focused too much on the fire without context (which could be in the final form, I Received an ARC) and at the end I just didn't care anymore.

The strength of this book undoubtedly lies in its meticulous and original research. Davenport's dedication to historical accuracy and proper documentation of his sources is impressive, although I found the citations distracting at times. That being said, it's clear that Davenport's intent was to provide a comprehensive account, and for history buffs, the footnotes can be a treasure trove of additional information. The personal stories woven throughout the book serve as a poignant reminder of the resilience of the human spirit. The descriptions are vivid, allowing readers to feel the tremors, hear the crashes, and smell the smoke that engulfed the city. I learned so much from reading this book.

San Francisco is synonymous with liberal politics, high real estate prices, and, of course, earthquakes. While many will still talk about the inevitable "Big One" in the future, many know very little about the one which already happened in 1906. Matthew Davenport's, "The Longest Minute," seeks to remedy that while fixing some misconceptions along the way. He is successful on all counts.

The old adage, "it's not the fall but the sudden stop that gets you," can be repurposed for the earthquake of 1906. It would sound something like, "it wasn't so much the earthquake, but the citywide fire which really messed up San Fran." Davenport's own book follows this narrative as the earthquake itself takes up only a couple early chapters and the majority of the book follows the fire which went everywhere. Davenport adeptly covers massive ground both literally and figuratively as he jumps around the city showing the devastation and loss. Most importantly, he highlights the heroism on display from all walks of life as San Franciscans battle to save their city. Oh, and graft. There was lots of graft.

This is a great disaster book which deftly handles all the elements which make a great story of survival. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a full accounting of the 1906 quake.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this history about the Earthquake that Shook America, and the fires and destruction that followed in the city of San Francisco in 1906.

One of my best friends was teaching in Japan and part of her training was how to react in an Earthquake. The training was in such a matter of fact style, a this is going to happen while you are here so this is what it will be like, that she paid for more attention to what was said, and retained a lot more than she thought she had. This came in handy as she was teaching during the Great East Japan Earthquake, in 2011, one of the worst earthquakes in history. When I finally talked to her she talked about how the ground was moving like she expected, but the sounds were what really surprised her. Alarms ringing from cars, fire alarms and security alarms, and a whooshing sound she still isn't sure from what, but that is what she remembers most. In the opening to this book, that is what a survivor mentioned also, the sound of a shockwave and I can't imagine what this poor man must have been going through, and I am glad that both he and my friend lived to tale their tales. The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 by Matthew J. Davenport is a history that is made up of many tales of survivors and what they saw, official reports and newspaper articles, about a tragedy that was bound to happen, but made worse by human avarice.

San Francisco was a boom town made by gold lust, and a waterway that allowed both miners to come and goods to sell to them. As the city grew so did risks, fires especially in a town, soon to be a city with a lot of wood buildings, and a lot of cut corners in building. After a particularly destructive fire, Fire Fighting Brigades were started, financed by neighborhoods, or by rich patrons who enjoyed the growth, but wanted to protect their investments. As the city grew, so did he land, expanding out into the bay using lumber, ships and sand, creating land where water once was, but a land that could shift easily if something made it, like an earthquake. Also as the city grew, so did the potential to make money, especially stealing from the government. A new Town Hall took 30 years to build, but upon completion as found to be useless as more money was siphoned away than used to build. The Fire Department officials were quite clear that water pressure was not strong enough to fight fires in poor districts, and even in business districts, the private water company making money on using smaller pipes, rather than larger ones for more pressure. Anti-corruption was second to controlling Chinese immigration, and while social issues were argued, infrastructure suffered, until one day in 1906, everything came to a ahead.

A book that is book filled with acts of courage, and bravery, survival, luck and if one believes God's Grace, yet at the same time the old story of money over the public good is shown on every page. Weak buildings, wood, weak water pressure, burst pipes. So while the earth shook, it did stop, but the fires burned and burned with no way to stop them. The writing is very good. Davenport has used many untapped sources, family letters, reports, journals to give a sense almost minute by minute, of what the situation was, how people reacted, good and bad, and what was never told. Under playing the loss of life, never explaining why things were so bad, because of being under prepared. Davenport really show the human price of what happened, and while sad and maddening in a many places, is really a very good history about a terrible event, and one that is really misunderstood today.

Recommended for history readers, this is a fascinating look at the area before the quake, without any glitz or glamour. A book that would be a very good gift around the holidays for quite a lot of people. This is this first book by Matthew Davenport I have read, I look forward to more.

The Longest Minute really looks more about the efforts to save the city of San Francisco when fire broke out across the city than the earthquake of 1906 itself, but in reading the book, the reader can understand why Davenport chooses to put his focus where he does. As stated in the title the tremors of the earthquake lasted only about a minute (48 seconds according to multiple observations cited in the book) but the biggest fallout of the earthquake, fires around the city, lasted for several days afterward and caused way more destruction and likely as much if not more loss of life, than the earthquake itself. Davenport's recounting takes the reader around the city hour by hour and through all walks of life as the fire rages and courageous firefighters, service members and civilians do their best to save the city. In some regards I can almost see it better as a movie than a book (and as reader loyal to books I don't say this lightly) because there are so many people and places involved than it can be hard to follow just what exactly is happening where in the city, and this comes from someone that has visited the city multiple times. I imagine that for a native of the city it is easier to imagine the geography of the city as it today and imagine the different places being ravaged by fire in 1906. The book itself isn't short, but it feels like it careens along at a breakneck pace as the reader is transported to different parts of the city where people are abandoning or evacuating their homes and the community is desperately trying to put out fires any way they know how. The book speaks to how both corruption created problems in putting out the fires and ingenuity, bravery and determination saved properties and lives. While the book does address price gouging and a loot and shoot order issued by the mayor and the consequences of that order, it puts more focus on the sacrifices, support and camaraderie of the citizens - helping to fight the fires, helping to rescue people trapped, providing food and shelter to those rendered homeless - to remind the reader that in times of national disaster and difficulty, in any time, there are always people willing to lend a hand in unity. At points the books almost felt too in the weeds for me, but at the same time that's exactly what Davenport is trying to do; pull the details moment to moment of citizens known and unknown and give you a minute-by-minute breakdown of the breakdown of a city. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake shook San Francisco, catching the city off guard. Shockwaves caused immense destruction, collapsing buildings and igniting fires that turned into a destructive firestorm. In the following days, flames consumed the city and trapped survivors while firefighters battled to save what they could. Drawn from first hand accounts in diaries and letters, destruction, greed, and survival is revealed.

I’ve always heard about the Great San Francisco Earthquake, knew it was a devastating disaster, but I didn’t know much more about it than that. This book caught my attention as soon as I saw it. As soon as I started reading, it had my attention. What happened during the disaster and how there had been previous fires to warn what was possible, kept me glued to the page.

This was not an easy read, with descriptions of how people died. There were several instances I felt like crying because it was such a tragedy and decisions made were not always the best. (As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty). It was also not quite as long as I was expecting. There are a lot of references from diaries, news articles, and letters from the event, so the last quarter of the book is made up of those sources.

Overall, I thought it was a sobering yet fascinating read. I would definitely recommend it to readers who are interested in historical events.

The great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 was a devastating disaster which took an unimaginable toll on the people and property of that prosperous city. Davenport does a deep dive into the individuals that lived through the horrors of that time, with many firsthand accounts taken from diaries, records, and word of mouth from relatives of those who experienced it. While this book is extremely factual, it does not read as a textbook, and is an interesting, heart wrenching tale of human survival and grief. It seems somehow wrong to say that I enjoyed the book, but I did appreciate the writing style, attention to detail, and historical facts. It kept me engaged throughout. I would highly recommend this book for history buffs. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

Matthew J. Davenport creates a great story of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. It was a great way of telling the story and be engaging in this. Matthew J. Davenport has a great style for this type of book and was well-researched, I enjoyed the letters and diaries of the time.

Matthew Davenport has written a definitive account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the subsequent fire that destroyed much of the city. Using numerous primary sources, he traces the timeline from the start of the quake, the fire, and what came after. It's written in a style that makes the reader feel as if they are there, using quotes from observers. He touches on the corruption that influenced the outcome and anti-Chinese prejudice, as well as the power-mad men, and the heroes of the time. Recommended for anyone with an interest in history or in San Francisco. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this advance copy.

historic-buildings, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, seismology, greed, corruption, nonfiction, biography, Chinatown*****

The earthquake left the city with fallen buildings, unusable streets, broken water and gas lines, displaced and devastated families, and fires that encompassed everything.
Before all this there was a history and people and development. And corruption, rapid population growth, slipshod construction and penny-pinching development of basic city services, and greed. This eminently readable and factual book is hallmarked by intense meticulous research and documentation, seismology and geology, fire science as related to the devastating fires, newspaper accounts, true stories of individuals as recorded in their own hand, and personalized understanding of the devastation left behind as well as the monumental task ahead of the people.
Not a dry textbook or doomsday scenario but a very readable presentation.
I requested and received an EARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

My recommendation: I received six free non-fiction books from Netgalley at the same time, including this one. I decided to read the first few pages of each, and then choose the book with the most interesting and promising beginning to complete first. This book won the competition. The rest of the book galloped along at a good pace and was a pleasure to read.

A mansplaining paragraph for the uninitiated: Many of us who read and review a lot of books here at Goodreads are offered free electronic copies to review before publication. The rationale is, if I understand correctly, that people are more likely to consider a book with any recommendation, even if they are lukewarm, before they'll buy a book with no recommendations. I think there are several ways you can acquire books in this fashion, but a service named Netgalley is used very frequently.

Christmas is a time of year when many books are sold, for obvious reasons. With that in mind, August and nearby months are times when the free books come hot and heavy on Netgalley, presumably because it takes a while for even the most dedicated reviewers to read and then write about their advance review copies. That's why I suddenly couldn’t resist downloading an avalanche of the sort of non-fiction books that float my boat, even though I already have piles, both literal and figurative, of books that I haven't read.

In this case, I found myself unable to resist downloading books on the following topics: Irish-Americans, Wild West Outlaws, 19th-century travelers to Siberia, Roman roads, and Franz Fanon. But this is the one that grabbed my attention.

The structure of this book is not revolutionary, but effective. The prologue begins with the final routine moments, early in the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906, and then after the earthquake struck at 5:12am, mostly from the point of view of one police officer who was on the street when the earth shook. Chapter One then goes back and reviews the long history of settlement by indigenous inhabitants, Spanish missionaries, and others, before getting to the more recent history, including the market-driven frenzied and slapdash development of San Francisco after the 1848 Gold Rush, rendering the city a tinderbox of inadequate wooden construction. If the plan had been to purposefully set up a town that would burn to the ground, it would have been difficult to improve on San Francisco in 1906.

Here is an anecdote from Chapter One that I enjoyed. Grace Roberts was born in San Francisco in 1852.

... Grace traveled with her parents to Washington, D.C., at the age of eight and met President Buchanan at a reception, where he took her hand and remarked, "You are the oldest native California I have ever seen."

The biggest villain in this book is San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz. A handsome well-dressed musician before being recruited by millionaire political boss Abe Ruef to lead the city, Schmitz turned out to be completely unsuited to managing the city. Schmitz illegally declared martial law in and, also illegally, issued shoot to kill orders for looters. The actions by themselves might be considered understandable and pardonable, if not legal, given the chaos and post-earthquake isolation of San Francisco from the rest of the world. Relatively few people died as a result, and order was maintained.

More damaging and stupid was the order by Schmitz to dynamite buildings to create a firebreak only if the buildings were already on fire which, as the author remarks several times in the book, had the effect of spreading the fire more effectively and rapidly than doing nothing would have, as tiny flecks of fiery paper and wood floated on the wind, setting fire to the rest of the city. The well-respected and very experienced chief of the San Francisco fire department, who might have been in a position to correct this error, had been mortally injured in the collapse of his home while sleeping. His deputies couldn’t attend meetings of the powerful, even if they had been invited, because they were very quickly too busy jury-rigging the city’s damaged infrastructure in order to attempt to put out actual fires. This error went uncorrected for days, as did the “declaration” of martial law.

Often books chronicling important events in the past are written and published to coincide with important anniversaries, but in this case the book will appear on the year which is the 117th anniversary of the earthquake and fire. I speculate on why it appears now. Probably the subject was interesting to the author, which is reasonable, but also because, in my sight, the biggest bestseller that appeared around the 100th anniversary of the disaster seems inadequate. This book, by comparison, keeps it focus on San Francisco and seems admirably determined to fit in as many actual names and experiences of average San Franciscans as possible, especially if they died in the disaster. This surely took a tremendous amount of work, combing through old books, newspapers, magazines, letters, oral histories, diaries, death certificates, Red Cross registration cards, and so on.

After 1906, Schmitz and Ruef were indicted and disgraced on corruption charges unrelated to the earthquake and fire, but it felt like they got off easily. (Schmitz even ran successfully for a lower-level political office in San Francisco, post-disgrace.) As the author says:

The folly and greed of men entrusted with the public good had ignited a firestorm more violent than the earthquake and a disaster that outlasted the flames. Their failures had nearly toppled the city's achievements, their crimes went beyond condemnation, and the suffering they caused reached deeper than sorrow.

I hope that I'm not giving the impression that the book has a lot of sanctimonious finger-wagging. It doesn't. It says what happened, but it also keeps you turning pages. It's a good book.

As mentioned previously, I received a free electronic advance review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Longest Minute by Matthew J. Davenport, was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I am a bit of a history buff and great earthquakes always interest (and frighten) me. This book kind of flowed, with the topic never getting dry. I learned also about the Great Fire and how fires were so common in San Francisco after the Gold Rush made the village into a city. If you, or someone you buy gifts for is interested in San Francisco's history, the 1906 Earthquake, the 1906 Fires, give this book a read.

4 Stars