Larson, Erik

William E. Dodd becomes the American ambassador to Germany, where he witnesses first-hand the atrocities of Hitler's regime and watches his daughter fall in love with a Nazi officer.

Tells the story of Isaac Cline, a weather scientist in Galveston, Texas in 1900, discussing his belief and assertion that nothing in the way of weather could destroy the coastal city; and looks at how Cline dealt with the aftermath of the hurricane that hit Galveston on September 8, claiming the lives of thousands of people.

Traces the history of the Cobray M-11/ 9 handgun and questions the political economic forces that allowed it to be marketed.

Traces the history of the Cobray M-11/9 semiautomatic pistol used by sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot in his 1988 assault on teachers and students at his Virginia school, questions the political and economic forces that allowed the gun to be marketed, and charges that society and culture promote guns and violence as an answer to problems.

Tells the story of Isaac Cline, a weather scientist in Galveston, Texas in 1900, discussing his belief and assertion that nothing in the way of weather could destroy the coastal city; and looks at how Cline dealt with the aftermath of the hurricane that hit Galveston on September 8, claiming the lives of thousands of people.

Tells the parallel stories of the skepticism and incredulity that accompanied Guglielmo Marconi's invention of wireless communication in the late nineteenth century, and the investigation of the murder of an inconvenient wife by her love-starved husband, Dr. H.H. Crippen, who would likely have pulled off the perfect crime had it not been for the ability to send wireless transatlantic transmissions.

Tells the parallel stories of Daniel Burnham, the main architect of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and serial killer Henry H. Holmes, discussing the challenges Burnham faced in creating the hugely successful White City, and looking at how Holmes used the opportunities afforded by the fair to lure victims to their deaths.