Disasters by Design

Nature gets blamed for a great many disasters it did not cause.

A bridge falls in a storm, but it was built too light for the wind. A dam bursts after heavy rain, but its safety valves had been removed years earlier. A fire sweeps through a theatre advertised as "absolutely fireproof," and hundreds die at locked exits. Look closely at almost any catastrophe, and you will find a human decision behind it.

Disasters by Design tells the true stories of 50 catastrophes caused by human error, from a collapsing Roman amphitheatre to a Florida condominium that fell in the night. In short, gripping chapters, you'll discover:

• Before the machine age: the warship Vasa, the Great Fire of London, a deadly flood of beer, and the Charge of the Light Brigade
• Iron and steam: the Tay Bridge, the Johnstown Flood, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and Europe's worst mining disaster
• The age of scale: the Halifax Explosion, Boston's molasses flood, the St. Francis Dam, and the Hindenburg
• The postwar machine: Aberfan, Tenerife, Three Mile Island, Challenger, Chernobyl, and Piper Alpha
• Modern failures: Columbia, Deepwater Horizon, Rana Plaza, Grenfell Tower, the Boeing 737 MAX, and Surfside

Every chapter can be read on its own, and together they reveal the patterns that keep repeating: warnings that were ignored, corners that were cut, and risks that fell on the people with the least power to refuse them. They also show how nearly every modern safety rule was written in the aftermath of a tragedy.

Perfect for readers of engineering history, true stories, and dark history, and a companion to Deadly Cures, Poisoners, Plagues, and Forces of Nature.