The book is about:
The book Dead wake is a historically based novel- like non-fiction that relates to the sink of Lusitania, one of the major reasons why did America get involved in the world one. Unlike the textbook or the objective documents that represent the official recording of this event. This book gradually brings the whole events out from all the small perspectives of people who got involved or lost their lives in it. The author’s big motivation for writing this book is to let people experience the whole events from the basic stories. Normally the information we received from those world war 1 documents is simple and unemotional. Without the name of dead people, there are not strong feelings through reading the death numbers. Without the background information, there is no explanation to why the boat was sunk by torpedoes. The author of this book drew the world of readers back to the last century, the happiness, desires, hopelessness from people are all seems close enough to touch. Even though the book itself focused mostly on the Boat and the submarine U-20 which sunk it, the characterization of other passengers on Lusitania is attractive and interesting. The movement of different organization and famous people such as American president Wilson were all caught by Erik Larson.
More than a normal non-fiction, Dead Wake shows its strength on imitating the humanity and atmospheres. The whole book is having a comparably easy and comfortable rhythm at the first chapter. Rather than just talking about the big historical event itself, Erik Larson fills in more small details and personal life parts into the skeleton of the book, to make it more vivid. On the other hand, the people on lusitania are not all the characters he focuses on. For example, the one who received the order to sank the boat with torpedoes, Captain Schwieger of the submarine U-20 is actually a pretty hard-working and nice captain in his normal life. ‘Yet among his peers and crew Schwieger was known for this kindness and good humor and for maintaining a cheerful atmosphere aboard his submarine.’ However, the war is cruel and cold-bloody, the perspective of enemies helped me understand the conception of the war better. Overall, this book is pretty nice book that can bring the readers into the experiences of the events happened in the past. Also, for one who is learning the First World War, this book gave me more new knowledge and brought me a historical event that I did not even hear before. The relationship between this book and the First world war build me a bridge on the way of studying this part of the history.
Relationship to the world war 1
Before America participated in the first world war, German started to attack any boats that had the British relationships near the British sea areas. They posted the news on the newspaper and this truly caused a lot of people to change their ideas. However, the passengers on lusitania didn’t see the risk they taking, because the boat they are taking was having the greatest speed in the whole world thanks to its newest technology. All the people believed that there weren’t any submarines able to catch the boat due to its unbelievable speed at that time. Unfortunately, the extrema of fog happened on the open sea of the Ireland. This accidentally triggered the following tragedy. The meeting of U-20 submarine and lusitania was not predicted by room 40, an organization which mainly focused the interception of telegrams from German in that period this time. This time, the speed of lusitania did not function as much as they thought. The boat is stucked in the fog, without the eyesight for speeding up. The U-20 caught the boat and gave the first torpedo under the order of captain Schwieger. The boat was hugely impacted and shook. People were running around and spreading out the scare. Then, not until most of them reached the bridge of the boat, the second the torpedo was launched without any hesitation. This one ensure the sink of the boat and caused nine tenth of the passengers on the boat fell into the deep water with the boat. Among the 1200 passengers who died in this event, there were nearly a hundred Americans. Only 300 corpse of were found after the boat was sunk by the U-20. This, undoubtedly, stimulate the anger of Americans. All the citizens want to give Germany punishment for their evil behaves. By the fact of other events, America was involved into this war finally.
The reflections after reading the books
Although I am reading a book of historical event, the feeling I received from the book is not limited on just a historical event. It is something deeper and was truly impacting my emotions. After reading the 300 pages in the book, most passengers became true people who used to live somewhere in the world vividly. I would love to talk with them if I was there. However, 1200 lives were end only because of two torpedoes. One of the greatest boat at that time was sunk. The declaration of Germany proved that they need an enemy who could teach them an unforgettable lesson. And that was what America did. I was usually imagining that what kind of fear was spreading at the last moment before the boat sunk. The mixture of 1200 people’s emotion before their death must be filled by darkness and blood. Many people on the boat was trying to look for someone they knew on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The captain of the boat was not concerning of the disaster at all. No one could predict the existence of both fog and German submarine until they met. ‘Turner had no concern about the German warning. Shortly before departure, he was standing on the ship’s promenade deck, talking with Alfred Vanderbilt and Charles Frohman, when one of the ship-news man --- apparently not Jack Lawrence --- approached and asked Vanderbilt if he thought he’d be as lucky this time as he had been in deciding not to sail on the Titanic. Vanderbilt smiled but said nothing.’ The people on the whole boat could not noticed the event. How many people died without noticing their situation? This is my biggest question after reading the book.
Lusitania was definitely a boat that can let the people inside feel the atmosphere of happiness. ‘“Ships do have personalities,” wrote Jack Lawrence, the shipping writer for he New York Evening Mail. Some ships “have warm, friendly atmosphere while others are only steel plates riveted around throbbing turbines.”’ There were some children and infants on the boat and only one tenth of them finally survived. ‘The passenger manifest listed ninety-five children and thirty-nine infants’ It told me that no one can be ignored by the war when the enemy catches you. The fearness of war is remained in my mind by this book after seeing the innocent death under the big environment of the war. Thanks to this book, I learnt the fearness of the war.
The reasons for people to read this book
In conclusion, this book is definitely recommended for readers, even for those who are not interested in the world war one. From my perspective, the book focused more on people instead of events. The details in a person’s life usually appear for characterizing the personality of this person. The intention of For example, ‘Lauriat took the scrapbooks back to his home in Cambridge, where he inspected them in the company of his wife, Marian. He then packed them carefully, in his extension suitcase, and locked it. At the station later that night, he checked his trunk and shoe box for transport direct to the lusitania but held back his other three pieces. He kept these with him in the calendar.’ the characteristics of one of the passengers on the boat, Lauriat, a bookseller who usually went to Britain for transporting books, is fully shown for the readers. The introduction of boats or submarines are also comprehensive and informational for those people who want to learn more about the world war One. ‘U-boats in fact traveled underwater as little as possible, typically only in extreme weather or when attacking ships or dodging destroyers.’ The professional explanation like this line appeared commonly in the book. In short, the book is fascinating and interesting, feeling the past historical events from it is the attraction no readers can reject.
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Popular Highlights in this book
The track lingered on the surface like a long pale scar. In maritime vernacular, this trail of fading disturbance, whether from ship or torpedo, was called a “dead wake.”Highlighted by 3,007 Kindle readers- “The essence of war is violence,” he wrote, “and moderation in war is imbecility.”Highlighted by 2,587 Kindle readers
- What Germany never acknowledged was that Britain merely confiscated cargoes, whereas U-boats sank ships and killed men.Highlighted by 2,089 Kindle readers
- What most likely caused the second event was the rupture of a main steam line, carrying steam under extreme pressure.Highlighted by 1,757 Kindle readers
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Ever find yourself looking through binoculars and needing to adjust them just slightly to bring things into focus?The impact of the 1915 torpedoing of the state-of-the-art passenger steamship, Lusitania, gets an engrossing fresh examination in Erik Larson's 2015 book, "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania," in both personal and political sketches. And for this recounting the dead wake stretches back one hundred years behind the ill-fated liner and its 1,959 passengers, of which 764 survived.It is the outset of the Great War still in its early stages but now apparent to be a struggle that will endure much longer than any expected. The expectations at the outset, particularly among the Germans confident in the Schlieffen Plan, were the war would be over in a matter of weeks (see my February 14, 2014 Amazon book reviews, “Revisiting The War to End War on it Centennial,” for AJP Taylor’s “War By Timetable” and Paul Ham’s “1913: The Eve of War”).However, the resistance of the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) to the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy) is greater than planned for and heading to mutually debilitating trench warfare on the land front.The importance of the seas as a battleground, both physically and psychologically, is ramping up for both sides as Germany seeks to bring Great Britain into submission by cutting off its supplies and demonstrating a new power "rules the waves."Revamped and reengineered, the submarine has emerged as the weapon for a speedy victory among German military leadership. Their prevailing view is that all shipping, military and merchant, combatant or neutral, must be destroyed to accomplish this end. Kaiser Wilhelm gives his reluctant approval. Seemingly within weeks, the submarine is making good on its threat.Into this battle zone steams the Cunard Lines’ Lusitania designed with improved internal construction, better passenger safety precautions and better communication systems than the 1912 ill fated Titanic as well as the power to outrun any submarine threat. Or so it seems and is believed right up to shortly after 2PM GMT on May 7th under a lovely blue sky off the coast of Ireland.Using detailed research and verified sources, Larson credibly builds his story and its timeline through shifting perspectives among various passengers, especially the Americans; the steamship captain (William Turner) and staff; the U-boat commander (Walter Schweiger); the British Admiralty, particularly the secretive and self-protecting Room 40 staff who had cracked the German message ciphers but did not want to show their hand; the American president, Woodrow Wilson, maintaining a neutrality stance but distracted by events in his personal life.As the tale unfolds, it is becomes clear that the outcome could have been altered multiple times by simple, almost mindless decisions: by-passing a delay in exiting farewell visitors in New York; cruising at maximum speed rather than economizing on fuel by running at three-quarters power; releasing protective British naval ships for escort once off the coast of Ireland; a fatal evasive maneuver by the Lusitania that unknowingly brought the ship toward the German U-boat.The author alludes to more sinister motives possibly at work: the Brits, specifically Churchill, may have ignored the threat to the Lusitania hoping that a provocation might spur the Americans into the war on their side (not unlike the events and secret alliances leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor). It certainly raises questions about Churchill's tactics, possibly unnecessary, to win at all costs despite being a great public figure and orator.Set against these larger issues are the heroics, determination and patience of the passengers themselves. These sketches are entertaining though more about the first and second-class passenger survivors for whom there were sufficient resources to weave stories. And due to the nature of the source materials the shock and panic of the passengers seems muted compare to Joseph Conrad's autobiographical narratives of crews on floundering ships depicted in his "Typhoon" and other stories published just prior to the Lusitania episode. As a result, the profiles do not seem quite as engaging as the more focused character development of Larson's "The Devil in the White City" and "Thunderstruck."Despite being an act of war or terror and loss of life, similar to Pearl Harbor or the World Trade Center, the sinking of the Lusitania still seems remarkably removed from engaging an American response - at least for two more years and, by that time, for many more reasons. Perhaps because the event was outside the physical United States, the broader public, the competitive media coverage of Hearst and Pulitzer?I think you will find "Dead Wake" an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
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Top reviews from other countries
lullaboo
Great read but painful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2018Len Knight
Compelling Read on the Great Lusitania Disaster
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 21, 2019
Changeling
It's a bit like watching a disaster movie
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 25, 2018
