Book Review: Dead Wake

Dead Wake
The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

written by Erik Larson

430 pages // published in 2015 // non-fiction // maritime history



My Review...




I have waited a long time to get to read Dead Wake. (Well, a few months since it's publication anyways...)

And it is PERFECT.

Erik Larson has researched and collected together everything you need to know about the Lusitania in a single volume. It covers Captain Turner and his life, Kapitänleutnant Schwieger and how he destroyed the largest moving ship, and the government's angles on the whole affair as well. You can read about the passengers, the crew, the impact on Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and the big secrets the British Admiralty kept in Room 40.

"The ship seemed as indestructible as anything that could be imagined, even for an age that imagined well and placed so much trust in immensity and invention." (Erik Larson, Dead Wake)

"There were so many on the ship that it really was like living in a town, one saw fresh people every day & never knew who they were. (Gertrude Adams, Lusitania passenger)

The tragedy of the great sinking is striking, considering the amount of lives lost, and what it meant for World War I. It's a part of history we should read about it, contemplate, and share with others.

I was greatly impacted with Larson's writing about the Lusitania, and am now compelled to read more of his books.





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