Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World

Can a single explosion change the course of history? An eruption at the end of the eighteenth century led to years of climate change while igniting famine, disease, and even perhaps revolution.

Laki is Iceland's largest volcano-and its most fearsome. Its eruption in 1783 is one of history's great, untold natural disasters. Spewing out sun-blocking ash and then a poisonous fog for eight long months, the effects of the eruption lingered across the world for years. It caused the deaths of peop...