WVU Press released “The fate of the big city; Being the story of a survivor, written after 1942», A critical edition of what is undoubtedly considered to be the first history of modern urban apocalypse.
Written by William Delisle Hay and originally published in 1880, this news imagined the destruction of London following the environmental devastation induced by man.
The story, told as a reflection of the future in 1942, tells the fight of a young man for survival in the midst of a toxic fog that kills his family and ultimately forces him to abandon the city.
This account of urban apocalypse connects to current pressing cultural discussions on global warming, modern life in cities, public health and the interconnectivity of human life on earth.
This particular edition is revolutionary in that it is the most complete published. Researchers Michael Kramp, the University of Lehigh and Sarita Jayanty Mizin, University of Wisconsin, clear water, provide their perceptive comment in more than 25 primary sources from 1815 to 1931.
Publishers place the story in dialogue with 19th century concerns concerning climate change, global prospects on the city, London fog, Victorian public health, Victorian suburbanization and end visions.
It also includes selections of “The Last Man” by Mary Shelley and “Notes on Nursing Nursing from Florence Nightingale for work lessons”. This work is part of the “Salvaging The Anthropocene Series” published by Stephanie Fote.