And so did everyone else who felt the earth move. Earthquakes are the most democratic of history's memorable events. And so did everyone else who felt the earth move.
Earthquakes are the most democratic of history's memorable events.
Their story is told, not in the voices of powerful individuals or great institutions, but in the countless memories of everyone who lived to tell their tale. We all have stories, they all have value. As such, the standard tools of the historian don't always apply. Earthquakes run counter to history's accepted rules, the perceptible patterns of cause and effect, the hierarchy of players and power. In human terms, earthquakes have meaning mostly in the moment, in what we felt and in the mundane things that did, or did not, happen in the seconds when we were all reduced to a common level of insecurity.