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Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

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Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson is a meticulously researched and immersive account of the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I. The book delves into the political backdrop of the time, intertwining the narratives of the passengers, the submarine commander, and the events in Washington DC and London. Larson's narrative style weaves together multiple viewpoints, providing a detailed examination of the tragic event and its aftermath, while also exploring the potential conspiracy theories surrounding the sinking.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is captivating and thorough, merging detailed historical narratives with personal accounts to create a vivid, novel-like reading experience.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot centers on the tragic sinking of the Lusitania, examining the intertwined lives of passengers, the U-boat captain, and political dynamics that contributed to the disaster.

Setting:

The setting encompasses the Lusitania’s voyage, the U-boat's stalking of its prey, and the broader context of World War I.

Pacing:

The pacing is deliberate, building tension gradually until the climax of the sinking, before quickening to follow the aftermath.
THE SMOKE FROM SHIPS AND THE EXHALATIONS OF THE river left a haze that blurred the world and made the big liner seem even bigger, less the product of human endeavor than an escarpment rising from a pl...

Notes:

The Lusitania was a British luxury cruise ship that sank in 1915 after being torpedoed by a German U-boat.
It was carrying nearly 2,000 passengers, of which 1,198 lost their lives, including 128 Americans.
The ship sank in less than 20 minutes, much faster than the Titanic.
The British had prior knowledge of the U-boats' presence but failed to warn the Lusitania, possibly to maintain the secrecy of their code-breaking operation.
Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, is recorded to have hoped that this incident would provoke American involvement in the war.
Room 40 was a British intelligence unit that intercepted German communications and tracked U-boat movements.
President Woodrow Wilson was preoccupied with his personal grief and his new romance while the world was on the brink of war.
The sinking was part of a grim escalation in submarine warfare that disregarded civilian vessels.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

There are content warnings for the graphic descriptions of the sinking and loss of life.

From The Publisher:

#1 New York Times Bestseller

From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds"-the fastest liner then in service-and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small-hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more-all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.

Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.

Ratings (40)

Incredible (7)
Loved It (21)
Liked It (7)
It Was OK (4)
Did Not Like (1)

Reader Stats (86):

Read It (41)
Currently Reading (1)
Want To Read (34)
Not Interested (10)

2 comment(s)

Incredible
4 weeks

This was a heavy read.

 
It Was OK
3 months

Started a bit slow for me, but it definitely picks up after the first fifty pages or so. Larson is especially good at highlighting a famous historical event within its context - in this case, the politics surrounding the first World War. I think that context may have been a bit more complicated than he could really work into this book. As a book about the Lusitania, it has a great amount of detail, with heartbreaking excerpts from letters, diaries, telegrams, and newspaper reports. He shows us the minutiae that not only led to a series of terrible decisions and the ultimate sinking of the ship, but that describes how people went about their daily routines on board. The victims become real, and not just the famous ones.

Since the Great War could be seen as a major pivot point in the twentieth century, it would be hard for Larson to do all of the context surrounding the Lusitania justice. I mean, was Woodrow Wilson really that much of a douchebag? Most of what I know about him I learned from this book, but I think others might argue differently. Larson himself might argue that it was not his intent to portray Wilson as a douchebag, but that's what I got from it. I enjoyed the book, but either my lack of knowledge or his lack of pages kept it from 4 stars.

 

About the Author:

Erik Larson is the author of five national bestsellers: Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm, which have collectively sold more than nine million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.

 
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