The Johnstown Flood

I was vaguely aware of the Johnstown Flood, but wanting to know more about it, I turned to David McCullough, whose works on the Panama Canal, Wright Brothers, and American love affair with Paris are so well executed.

The flood, for others who may be as uninformed as I was previously, was the result of a dam break in the Pennsylvania mountains above Johnstown's valley. The dam, not incidentally, was shoddily built and poorly maintained - and served the singular purpose of creating a pleasure lake for members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Club members included such stalwarts of the gilded age as Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. When the dam broke, the entire lake gushed down the hillsides wiping out virtually everything in its path and causing well over 2,000 deaths.

As I have come to expect from McCullough, The Johnstown Flood is well research and well written. McCullough begins by providing a history of the valley, the industries at the heart of its growth, and the Club itself, along with abbreviated biographies of key individuals. This was probably necessary to lay the foundation for readers, many of whom I assume (like myself) are largely ignorant of the events. Still, it makes for a slow beginning to the book, and I never did fully sort out all of the various individuals McCullough follows. Not surprisingly, the best portions of the book are the description of the flood itself. It's all rather terrifying.

Ultimately, the Johnstown Flood reads like a prelude to the entire Gilded Age. It also makes me want to move Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America up my reading list. That said, I believe McCullough's work has a relatively narrow audience - he is a serious historian who often chooses to write about topics that others might consider incidental. Those who appreciate McCullough and his work will like Johnstown Flood. Those who prefer lighter fair, even for non-fiction, should probably forgo this one.