Grab the Lapels

Volcano: Planet Earth from Time-Life Books

I wasn’t sure if I should review this book here, as the publisher, Time-Life Books, put together a team to write eighteen books for the Planet Earth series. So, can I say who the author is, as if it’s one person? No. The editor is a man, and four out of five writers are men. However, I found it curious that all three researchers were women, as were the assistant positions (assistant designer, assistant editor), and both photograph coordinators.

The books were published in 1982 as a matching set, though I only have seven, which I found at a garage sale. Given the year the books we were released, and the amount of time it would have taken to put the whole series together, I think women being the assistants is indicative of the project’s cultural attitude toward women. Yet, it is the three women researchers who captured my attention: Susan S. Blair, Jane Edwin, and Judith W. Shanks. Because research is so hard, and it is the backbone of the work, I’m reviewing the Planet Earth books on Grab the Lapels to celebrate both the magnitude of these books and the different roles women played in bringing them to fruition. Today’s review is Volcano.

All of the books are hardcover and large, larger than computer paper, but not coffee-table-book big. The paper is glossy with full-color photos. I went in aware that a 1982 publication meant that the science of these books would be out of date. Even so, all the research that went into Volcano synthesizes to tell the story of some of the most famous eruptions. There are still scientific explanations, but those aren’t what interest me as much. Instead, how do we live alongside volcanoes, and how have we researched them throughout history?

Starting in 1902, the creators look at Mount Pelée, go back in time, and then end with Mount St. Helens, whose 1980 explosion was recent upon publication of Volcano. While there are short sections that explain how volcanoes erupt (according to the science of the time; we’ve learned loads in the past forty years), for the most part, the book is a narrative thanks to records people kept of their experiences surviving or studying eruptions. I found the writing riveting, a blend of history and horror. For example, after Mount Pelée erupted, insects panicked and began climbing horses, biting them, so, in turn, humans were throwing water on the horses to get the insects off. Hoards of fer-de-lance, which is the deadliest snake on the planet, freaked out and started biting people, which killed small children. The adults grabbed shot guns and were running in the streets, shooting snakes. Infamously, one man survived the eruption because he was in a prison cell, and because he survived, he was released to later he joined the circus.

Another volcano, Tambora, erupted in 1815, and we see how the after effects of volcanic activity affect the people living alongside them:

Many of the 127,000 people who had survived the blast were racked by a virulent cholera that had broken out after the eruption. Thousands had already died and the rest straggled about despondently in the knee-deep ash, willing to trade their most valued possessions for a few ounces of rice. Corpses lay strewn along the roads, and the villages were deserted by their inhabitants, who had fled into the interior looking for the few remaining heads of palm and stalks of plantain to eat.

When we see news about volcanoes, we often focus on immediate death, usually those folks who were warned but refused to leave. Or, we hear about the smoke and ash that travels the globe, causing problems thousands of miles away from the fiery beast. But before modern warning systems and the science that helps volcanologists predict eruptions in time to evacuate, people lived with ongoing consequences.

The team at Time-Life also cover religious responses to volcano activity, which unintentionally help science by piecing together timelines. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1767, which caused the public to demand spiritual action:

Neapolitans invariably demanded, when terrified by eruptions, that their cardinal order the saint’s [Januarius, patron of Naples] image paraded through the streets. Scientists had reason to be grateful for this custom, for often the only written clues to eruptions in the Middle Ages were church records noting dates on which Januarius had been hauled into public view.

And after each eruption comes more attention from curious individuals, often self-taught in the sciences, who design instruments and theories about volcanoes. It is truly a young science, about on par with the newness of psychology. Unfortunately, volcanology is a dangerous endeavor, and the Mount St. Helens eruption killed several volcanologists as they measured and observed the behemoth’s activity.

Altogether, I learned that I enjoy the journalistic side of volcanology, the part that teaches me about the people’s experiences, both victims and scientists, rather than learning every little detail about pressure, rock types, chemistry, etc. To be fair, the Time-Life crew do describe these elements, but it is not the crux of the book. I was deeply engaged with Volcano and upon finishing sought out books that have more information about the aftermath of eruptions (such as the so-called “summer without sun” that resulted from so much ash circling the globe) and scientists.

25 comments

  1. Oh, you should consider reading Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa then! He talks about Pompeii in there and how the people were not completely taken by surprise like I always believed. Super fascinating.

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  2. I have the pleasure of owning the entire series, and others from Time-Life, such as The World’s Wild Places and Voyage Through the Universe. The writing and illustrations are wonderful, throughout. Reading these, when I was a lot younger, really opened my eyes to the world.

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    • Oh, how lucky you are! I only found the seven at a garage sale, and after looking at what I’m missing, I feel like I got the coolest ones. How did you get your copies? Were these the kind that people mail ordered, or were sold door to door?

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      • These series were mail-order subscription. I had The World’s Wild Places, first, then the Planet Earth series in the early 1980s. My parents paid for these., which was extremely generous. However, they (and a lot of the science) has stood the test of time, with the books on hurricanes and tornadoes quite accurately reflecting current thinking. I really enjoyed reading all of these – and I do go back to re-read them. They’re currently bowing down a bookshelf beside me as I write.

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        • Ha, I did notice that my book referenced the U.S.S.R., and I’m sure we have lots more information now, especially given smart technology and even the guy who flies drones over volcanoes to get the best images we’ve ever seen of them. On Friday I caught myself eating chocolate chips and watching a Planet Earth-esque documentary on Tubi.

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          • Indeed. Imagine what these book would look like now, with modern tech allowing close-up photography. One of my favorite books from The World’s Wild Places is “Soviet Deserts and Mountains”. I don’t think Vlad would allow such good access to his country, these days. The Grand Canyon book even has photos of a full Lake Mead and Lake Powell…

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  3. Good on you for giving those women researchers the credit they are due. There’s an area of southern Australia which has extinct volcanoes all through it and I was surprised to learn only recently that they had been active as recently as 10,000 years ago, which means the local Indigenous population would have had to deal with the explosions and lava flows.

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    • I wonder in what way that population kept records of what happened, because sure the culture has either text or spoken records of such events. I wonder if Australia used to be part of the volcanoes that are now the ring of fire.

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  4. I recently listened to a podcast about the attempts to evacuate Pompeii and found it really fascinating. I knew a bit from studying it at school but obviously that was a while ago now! This sounds like a great garage sale find – glad you enjoyed it.

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    • It was basically a summer-long joy, each chapter fascinating, crafting a story of how volcanoes interact with people. I’m not sure how interested you are in documentaries, but there is one about two volcanologists who married and died together. The one filmed lots of their expeditions, so it’s the story of their studies and explorations together (from Google: Fire of Love is a 2022 independent documentary film about the lives and careers of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft.)

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  5. That description of insects crawling up horses and biting them? Or snakes going crazy and biting people? TRUE HORROR. Could you imagine? It would feel like end times or an apocalypse for sure. Witnessing that first hand would likely turn me religious – I’d be praying to just about anything at that point!

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  7. I agree with you re “Altogether, I learned that I enjoy the journalistic side of volcanology, the part that teaches me about the people’s experiences, both victims and scientists, rather than learning every little detail about pressure, rock types, chemistry, etc”. This is what would interest me most, and what I’m more likely to retain.

    I had several of the books in the Time Life Library of Art Series, but they went in my recent downsizing because that sort of information is available online/in Wikipedia etc. They were great references though when I bought them.

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  8. I remember this series from when I was a kid though we never owned them. Pearl has been interested in volcanoes so we’ve gotten several books out of the library and I’ve learned a lot that way. We live within sight of one (Mt Baker) and though it’s dormant, I sometimes look at it and wonder…

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