Terrible but True: Awful Events in American History

Gr 5 Up—Williams introduces readers to a variety of tragic events in chronological order. Famous and lesser-known topics are represented, including Revolutionary War prison ships, Philadelphia's Yellow Fever epidemic, the San Francisco earthquake, the Boston Molasses Flood, and 56 other occurrences. While many incidents are indeed tragic, others seem out of place. For instance, there is a chapter dedicated to the mercury-laden pills provided to the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but no injury or fatality came about from them. In relating the plight of Chinese railroad workers, Williams discusses their strike demands, but no mention is made of any resulting deaths until an inset at the end of the chapter. Likewise, scale is also an issue (the failed assassination attempt on Andrew Jackson in relation to other events that involved the deaths of many people). The chapters are extremely brief, and the narrative is overall uninspiring except for the quotations by witnesses. Readers should instead check out Jim Murphy's The Great Fire and An America Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 and Steven Otfinoski's The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Core Events of an Industrial Disaster.