Shipwreck of Reason: The Macabre Raft of the Medusa

In the summer of 1816, the French frigate Meduse ran aground off the coast of modern-day Mauritania, the victim of spectacular aristocratic incompetence. While the privileged officers commandeered the lifeboats, 147 sailors and soldiers were abandoned on a hastily constructed, submerged wooden raft. What followed over the next thirteen days was a horrific descent into the darkest corners of huma...