The Longest Minute, Matthew J. Davenport
The Longest Minute, Matthew J. Davenport
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The Longest Minute
The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906

Author: Matthew J. Davenport

Narrator: Traber Burns

Unabridged: 17 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/17/2023

Synopsis

The true story of how a seismic shock sparked a devastating and preventable firestormAt 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep.For approximately forty-eight seconds, shock waves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death, and trapped many alive. Fires ignited and blazed through dry wooden ruins and grew into a firestorm. For the next three days, flames devoured collapsed ruins, killed trapped survivors, and destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West.Matthew Davenport draws on letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs, and previously unearthed archival records, as well as interviews with engineers and geologists, to combine history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.Meticulously researched and gracefully written, The Longest Minute is both a harrowing chronicle of devastation and the portrait of a city’s resilience in the burning aftermath of greed and folly.

About Matthew J. Davenport

Matthew J. Davenport’s first book, First Over There, a finalist for the 2015 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, was acclaimed as “a brilliant work for every library” by Library Journal and heralded by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian James McPherson as “military history at its best.” Matthew J. Davenport has been a contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal’s Books and Arts section and Salon, and is a member of the Authors Guild. A native of Missouri and a former prosecutor, he practices law in North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

About Traber Burns

Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brendan on September 11, 2023

San Francisco is synonymous with liberal politics, high real estate prices, and, of course, earthquakes. While many will still talk about the inevitable "Big One" in the future, many know very little about the one which already happened in 1906. Matthew Davenport's, "The Longest Minute," seeks to re......more

Goodreads review by Moonkiszt on February 09, 2025

Matthew J. Davenport's The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 is a moment by moment, person by person account of San Francisco's most horrific disaster, the earthquake and fire that effected change in that community that can be felt to this day. Disasters being an......more

Goodreads review by Ellie on October 29, 2023

I had read Simon Winchester’s book on the Earthquake and fire of SanFrancisco in 1906 and thought it an incredible telling of what happened……until I read Matthew Davenport’s book The Longest Minute! Mr. Davenport’s telling of the earthquake and fire is an incredibly detailed historically accurate re......more

Goodreads review by Jan on August 24, 2023

The earthquake left the city with fallen buildings, unusable streets, broken water and gas lines, displaced and devastated families, and fires that encompassed everything. Before all this there was a history and people and development. And corruption, rapid population growth, slipshod construction an......more

Goodreads review by Kim on January 24, 2024

The city of San Francisco was hit by a powerful earthquake on April 18, 1906. The city had been built somewhat piecemeal over many years, leading to a lack of oversight in building codes and safety. The fire departments of that time were just getting better equipment, but most of the water tanks had......more

Quotes

“Burns’s anchorman style…may well resemble how national and local radio announcers would have covered the disaster back in the day of the burgeoning broadcast radio industry.” AudioFile

"This is heroic writing that balances the big picture with minute details.” San Francisco Chronicle

“A remarkably granular account of the city’s most devastating tremor and its aftermath.” New York Times Book Review

“A terrifying and propulsive account…Davenport seamlessly weaves detailed technical explanations of city infrastructure into gut-churning scenes, often drawing from primary sources to harrowing effect…A vivid and meticulous recounting.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Davenport brings fresh insights…A tale both captivating and cautionary.” Booklist

"[A] superb narrative…A kaleidoscopic and a comprehensive view of what happened and why.” Dr. Stephen Tobriner, professor emeritus of architectural history, University of California Berkeley

“Presents extraordinary research that weaves a thousand stories––from Jack London’s to a ten-year-old child’s––into one. Every page is intense.” John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza

“Narrative history of the highest order…A book that resurrects the courageous firefighters, first responders, military, and everyday citizens who risked their lives amid the rubble, flames and smoke. A stirring telling of a terrible event.” Buddy Levy, award–winning author of Labyrinth of Ice

Awards

  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
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