A Century of Man-Made Disasters

By Nigel Blundell

A pictorial history of the major man-made calamities that shocked the world throughout the twentieth century.
 
It was a period during which the power and scale of industrialization changed the planet—an unforeseen consequence being the creation of more human-created catastrophes than ever before experienced.
 
The events recorded here include the needless carnage of history’s worst air disaster when two jumbo jets collided on the island of Tenerife. We recall the horrors of Aberfan, the Welsh village in which schoolchildren were buried alive. The story of the explosion aboard the Challenger space shuttle reveals how warnings that were ignored led to the deaths of seven astronauts. And we report on the failings that caused the nuclear nightmare at Chernobyl, a poisonous blot on the face of the globe.
 
These and the other tragedies in this book were all man-made and, it seems, just waiting to happen. A further link between these horrific events is that they were all caused by either folly or greed—or both. But despite the tales of monstrous misfortune, many also produced heart-lifting stories of heroism, selflessness, sacrifice, and human resilience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781526748706

Nigel Blundell

NIGEL BLUNDELL is a journalist who has worked in Australia, the United States and Britain. He spent twenty-five years in Fleet Street before becoming a contributor to national newspapers. He is author of more than 50 factual books, including best-sellers on celebrity and crime.