Disaster Stories

There have been a lot of disaster stories read, and most have been recommended by Brother Strokosch, who is otherwise a mild-mannered, peaceful guy. Indeed, the genre so fascinates him that there have even been a number of independent study books read in his spare time.

47 Down: The 1922 Argonaut Gold Mine Disaster (2004)
by O. Henry Mace

Alive: Sixteen Men, Seventy-Two Days, and Insurmountable Odds - Survival in the Andes (2013)
by David Roberts

Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration (2013)
by David Roberts

The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts of In-flight Accidents (1998)
by Malcolm MacPherson

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy (2016)
by Heather Ann Thompson

Chicago’s Great Fire (2020)

by Carl S. Smith

The Children’s Blizzard (2004) [read review]
by David Laskin

The Circus Fire: A True Story (2000)
by Stewart O’Nan

Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917 (2005)
by Laura M. MacDonald

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (2003)
by Stephen Puleo

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (2015)
by Erik Larson

The Devil's Highway: A True Story (2005)
by Luis Alberto Urrea

Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic (1995)
by George W. Hilton

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (1959)
by Alfred Lansing

F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century (2007)
by Mark Levine

Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (1999)
by John MacLean

Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History (2002)
by Denise Gess and William Lutz

Fort Dearborn (2007)
by Jerry Crimmins

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (2006)
by Steven Johnson

Hostile Waters (1997)
by Peter Huchthausen, Igor Kurdin & Alan White

How the Battleship Maine was Destroyed (1976)
by Hyman George Rickover

The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and his City (2010)

by Stephen Dando-Collins

Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (2019)
by Lynn Vincent & Sara Vladic

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of Whaleship Essex (2000)
by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette (2014)
by Hampton Sides

Into the Wild (1998)
by Jon Krakauer

The Johnstown Flood (1968)
by David McCullough

Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert (2012)
by John Barylick

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (2018)
by David Grann

The Last Days of St. Pierre: The Volcanic Disaster that Claimed 30,000 Lives (2002)
by Ernest Zebrowski, Jr.

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II (2011)
by Mitchell Zuckoff

The Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1998)
by John Barry

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II (2004)
by Robert Kurson

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (2018)
by Ben Macintyre

Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike (2021)
by Brian Castner

The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History (1999)
by Peter Maas

Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903 (2003)
by Anthony P. Hatch

Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (1997)
by John Ehle

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (2003)
by David von Drehle

Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre (2019)
by Randy Krehbiel

Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinkley Firestorm of 1894 (2006)

by Daniel James Brown

The White Cascade: The Greatest Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche (2007)
by Gary Krist

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (2006)
by Timothy Egan

Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos (2010)
by Judy Pasternak

Independent Study Books

The Cocoanut Grove Fire (2005) [read review]
by Stephanie Schorow

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (1997)
by Jon Krakauer

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (1999)
by Erik Larson

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997)
by Sebastian Junger