Images of the Past: A Century of Man-Made Disasters

This book is a catalogue of disaster - literally. Within its pages are the major man-made calamities that shocked the world throughout the twentieth century.It was a period during which the power and scale of industrialisation 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 misadventures 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 human resilience, selflessness, sacrifice and heroism.

"The book begins with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and ends with the sinking of the Estonia in 1994, which claimed more than four times as many lives as the better-known tragedy of the Herald of Free Enterprise. The common thread that links them all is human error - so it's a constant reminder of the fallibility of the human race."--Lost Cousins, A fascinating book.-- "Books Monthly"

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 royalty, history, mystery and crime.