Remember the Lusitania!

Why had I never heard of the Lusitania until a couple years ago when I found this book on the bargain table at B&N?

I picked it up because I have a morbid attraction to disasters-at-sea...partially because the microcosm of culture that exists on a cruiser provides a fascinating study in humanity, but even more so because it seems to me the most terrifying way to die.

The Titanic's famous story has intrigued me on a number of levels, as it has many people; then a few years back I heard about the USS Indianapolis, whose harrowing account is told in In Harm's Way. I highly recommend this book. It's fairly gruesome reading at times - none of the men in my family could stomach it - but the same story is recounted, somewhat less explicitly in a version for children called, Left for Dead. My boys never finished it either...nightmare inducing if you read it at bedtime, they tell me.

So....back to the Lusitania. She was a passenger liner whose sinking by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland, and the subsequent loss of life, was the pivotal moment which initiated the United States' gradual descent toward entry into WWI.

The author introduces us to the major political players of the day, the controversies surrounding the development and use of the new technology known as "submarines," as well as many of the passengers aboard the Lusitania. Though, at times, the book is a bit dry in historical detail, I came away knowing the issues surrounding the escalation toward WWI, plus I added to my reasons NOT to take a cruise!