The Earthquake Observers : Disaster Science from Lisbon to Richter, by Deborah R. Coen. University Of Chicago Press, 2012.
Like the amateur astronomers who track comets and help keep an eye out for asteroids, ordinary citizens also contribute to our understanding of the earth sciences. This book recounts how the stories of people experiencing earthquakes, especially in the 19th century, helped shape seismology.
Seismographs alone cannot explain the how and why and whether of earthquakes any more than it can expose what's really beneath the surface at archaeological sites. There is still a need for hands in the ground, shoes on the streets.
Historian Deborah Coen became intrigued with the widespread use of earthquake metaphors for violent upheavels and catastrophes of all kinds in 19th century literature, leading her to this book-length examination of how the accounts of earthquake witnesses helped science explain the disasters and, ultimately, figure out ways to adapt to them.