A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes

A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes is a nonfiction book published in 2020 by the American author Eric Jay Dolin. It combines meteorological, cultural, and social history to offer a perspective on the hurricanes that are a recurrent part of the American experience. Born in 1961, Dolin has a background in biological and environmental science, and from the time of his childhood ventures on the beaches of Connecticut and Long Island, he has had an ongoing fascination with the ocean. In his professional life, Dolin has held a number of maritime posts, including that of a marine fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service and a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Contemporary reviewers unequivocally expressed that Dolin’s topic was an important one, and the book appeared on The Washington Post’s list of 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction for 2020.

Summary

Dolin begins his book by emphasizing that hurricanes are an undeniable part of being an American citizen, as they occur annually and have the potential to cause severe loss of life and property. These losses affect all Americans, as they use up federal funds. However, while in recent years the arrival of hurricanes has been “heralded by an annual ritual that is an ominous portent of potential danger on the horizon,” this was not always the case (xx).