Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster

by Steven Biel

"I suggest, henceforth, when a woman talks women's rights, she be answered with the word Titanic, nothing more—just Titanic," wrote a St. Louis man to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He was not alone in mining the ship for a metaphor. Everyone found ammunition in the Titanic—suffragists and their opponents; radicals, reformers, and capitalists; critics of technology and modern life; racists and xenophobes and champions of racial and ethnic equality; editorial writers and folk singers, preachers and poets.


Protestant sermons used the Titanic to condemn the budding consumer society ("We know the end of . . . the undisturbed sensualists. As they sail the sea of life we know absolutely that their ship will meet disaster."). African American toasts and working-class ballads made the ship emblematic of the foolishness of white people and the greed of the rich. A 1950s revival framed the disaster as an "older kind of disaster in which people had time to die." An ever-increasing number of Titanic buffs find heroism and order in the tale. Still in the headlines ("Titanic Baby Found Alive!" the Weekly World News declares) and a figure of everyday speech ("rearranging deck chairs . . ."), the Titanic disaster echoes within a richly diverse, paradoxical, and fascinating America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sociology, American History, Cultural Studies

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven Biel’s Down with the Old Canoe is a cultural history of the Titanic disaster. Cultural histories explore the way that a culture interprets an event through various prisms. At a certain level, I find these examinations exceedingly entertaining, if not profoundly enlightening. But at another level, I always have the gnawing sense that cultural histories try to prove too much. I always question: Is this really the cultural interpretation of a historical moment, or the interpretation of a quack fringe of a slice of a fraction of the “culture”? Thus, whenever I pick up a book like this, I feel a bit conflicted.

Of course, this conflict has never stopped me from picking up a title that caught my eye. This is doubly true when the topic concerns the ill-fated, star-crossed maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, at a loss of some 1,500 lives.

The Titanic was my first great passion. Well – the first great passion I can remember. (According to family photos, I spent a lot of my pre-memory years pretending to be a firefighter. Now I am a lawyer. So, I guess you can say my four year-old self would want to punch me in the face). Around the time I was six or seven, I remember sitting on the couch in my living room, between my mom and dad, watching the National Geographic special Secrets of the Titanic. From the instant that Martin Sheen intoned “her name is a synonym for tragedy,” I was hooked.

It’s fair to say I’m something of a Titanic enthusiast. An aficionado. Obsessed, even. I spent my high school years writing a 600 page novel about the disaster. It had two love triangles and no sex! You won’t be surprised, but this novel did not make me rich – also, I was not the prom king. Titanic has been a part of my life for a long time. I’ve loved the subject longer than any pet, or my wife, or my kids. (Which is not to say I love it more! I should make this clear, in case my wife reads this). It spurred my love of great stories, which has informed my abiding enthusiasm for all of history.

I figured that a cultural history of Titanic would be a good way to reflect on my own fascination with a century-old shipwreck that – in world-historical terms – is but the speck of a blip of history.

Frankly, Down with the Old Canoe did not start all that auspiciously. Biel begins with a brief Forward in which he displays surprise at Titanic’s enduring legacy. He admits to having no great interest in the ship (“My experience and love of ships are minimal…I can’t keep track of who was where when, stateroom and lifeboat numbers, menus and china patterns, speed and displacement”) and jeers the Titanic as “popular history”, sneered at by academics as favoring facts and narrative over the Tolstoyean sweep of historical processes that give professors their tenure. In other words, this is a topic not worthy of professional historians, creating a gap filled with amateur “rivet counters.”

In this opening section, Biel manages to note the condescension of the so-called professional historians while simultaneously being condescending. It’s a neat trick. For what it’s worth, it shocks me why anyone – especially a self-described historian – would marvel at the appeal of Titanic. How hard is it to realize that history isn’t a theory, but thousands and millions of lives lived out in real time? That every event reduced to a political or economic “movement” is actually a tapestry of people acting according to their logic, whims, and beliefs? It’s the story, stupid! The sinking of the Titanic is a great story; anyone who’s stumbled across Homer knows that a great story lasts forever. Anyway, now I’m ranting, and I’m not even to the first chapter.

The first chapter almost made me quit.

Biel starts his narrative proper by looking at the “synchronicity” of the disaster – that is, the juxtaposition of other events in relation to the sinking. (A good clue that you’re not reading “popular history”? The use of synchronicity). What follows are various unrelated snapshots: a couple of pages on the NAACP; a women’s rights march in New York City; labor unrest spurred on by the IWW. By the end of this pointless academic exercise, I had little patience left to continue.

But I did. After all, it is just over 200 pages long, and had Titanic on the cover.

Down with the Old Canoe gets better. There are some interesting discussions. For instance, Biel details how the Titanic played a brief role in the suffragette movement. Once the story of “women and children first” in the lifeboats came out, it was used extol the virtues of chivalry, and bludgeon the women’s rights movement:

Traditionalists found in the disaster proof against women’s claims to equality…they also derived reassurance that men, facing a crisis, would not give in easily. “Possibly the time may come when women are to be regarded as no better than men,” gloated the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “but it will be long after the old-fashioned fellows are out of the way.” An advice columnist neatly summarized the traditionalists’ belief that the disaster demonstrated the permanence of gender roles. “In a world jangling today over the parasitism of women, and the triangular love affairs of men, feminism and universal suffrage,” the Titanic had brought home the lesson “that man is eternally the protector of woman” and that “woman accepts man’s protection and obeys instinctively.” Defined against the eternal and the instinctual, changes in gender roles became aberrations. By representing the disaster as a catastrophic return to nature, the conventional narrative made paternalism appear commonsensical and universal.

Biel spends a good amount of space attempting to discern the uses of the disaster to certain groups, including social reformers, capitalists, and African Americans. There doesn’t seem to be any aspect of the sinking too small to become someone’s political hobby horse. Take, for example, Isidor and Ida Strauss, the couple that famously refused to be parted in entering a lifeboat. Pro-marriage groups held them up as an example of the enduring bond between a man and woman joined in holy matrimony. Feminists critiqued this same incident quite differently, positing that Ida Strauss joined her husband in death “not out of deference to the sacred institution of marriage but as an assertion of equality.”

Down with the Old Canoe also spends time cataloguing the ancillary media that bobbed in Titanic’s dead wake. He lists some of the many (terrible) songs and (terrible) poems generated by artists affected by the sinking. He discusses the books and movies about the Titanic, including – naturally – the greatest Titanic book of all: Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember.

This book was initially published in 1996, just before James Cameron’s Titanic completely altered the entire cultural landscape. The edition I read includes a new chapter acknowledging the worldwide phenomenon. (I admit: I saw it four times in the theater. The ghost-reunion finale still gets me every time). This chapter feels tacked on because it is, indeed, quite literally, tacked on.

Even with the rocky start, I generally enjoyed this book. As I said at the start, I think cultural histories have their plusses and their minuses. On the plus side, it asks you to think about a historical event as more than a discrete moment, frozen in time, but as something living, with reverberations and differing meanings. On the minus side, some of these reverberations and meanings are so esoteric as to be, well, meaningless. I also found Biel’s brisk writing style to be both good and bad. Good in that I got through the book quickly; bad in that I felt like a lot of topics received only a cursory nod.

I wonder a bit at this book’s intended audience. The true Titanic buffs (the serious ones who don’t like being called enthusiasts) won’t like it because it sort of disrespects them, and lacks the rigor they bring to their own research. Moderate-to-passing Titanic fans won’t like it because it’s not about the sinking at all. (For the record, I represent the universe of potential readers who (a) buy every book about the Titanic; and (b) feel compelled to read every book they buy…eventually).

The best way to enjoy this book is to know exactly what it is, exactly what it is not, and to calibrate your expectations accordingly before you start reading the first page.

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

From his arrogant introduction to his thinly disguised slamming of historians such as Walter Lord and George Behe, Steven Biel's "Down With The Old Canoe" is but an exercise in scholarly snobbery. The first part of Biel's book contains some interesting nuggets of information about people's reactions to the disaster, but his thinly disguised hint that none of the male passengers escaped from the Titanic as they claimed to have is ridiculous and backed by not so much as a shred of evidence. Biel's discussion of Walter Lord's classic book "A Night To Remember" is a disgusting slam disguised as a discussion of the supposed "cultural" aspects of the book. (Biel, Mr. Harvard himself, must have hated Walter Lord for being a Yale man.) Biel all but mocks avocational scholars (whom he dismisses as "enthusiasts") of the Titanic disaster, dismissing out of hand the likes of serious avocational historians like George Behe, who take their research seriously. Finally, Biel's outrageous claims about Dr. Robert Ballard somehow exaggerating the "masculinity" of his search for the lost liner is nothing short of outrageous (and libelous, because Biel all but claims Ballard is a liar). In short, it is a book that made me so mad that, if anarchy was legal, I would punch its author right in the nose for his arrogance.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am one of the flunky, armchair historians who does believe that the sinking did have some interesting parallels to other events in early 20th century history. Biel makes fun of me (and others who think like me) early in the book.

Gag. I love how highbrow Biel tried to be throughout the book. His nose was so far up in the air. And, this is the same guy, who in this very book, explained the deep cultural meaning behind Danielle Steel's "No Greater Love," and the "Rambo" movies. Oh, and "Back to the Future." Come on now! Pick one side of the fence and stay on it!

This book was a huge let-down. The research was meticulous and exacting... to the point where entire pages were noted or quoted without a single original thought of Biel's to be found on the page.

And, even though this book is shelved on "not so boring history," it was as dry as all get-out. With something as exciting as Titanic, a story steeped in urgency, one would have thought Biel could have picked up the pace. This was slog to read.

Also, the hero worship of Walter Lord! "A Night to Remember" was great and my first Titanic book, but hello... the account of the sinking is incorrect! This book was written after 1986, so this was common knowledge. Why didn't Biel ever mention this? One of the major cultural touchstones of Titanic was as fundamentally flawed as the ship itself... wouldn't that have been an interesting chapter?

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best Titanic book you can read because it is not another retelling of the same stories that have been recycled again and again but an examination of the cultural impact of the Titanic disaster. If your expecting a 'we'll never feel safe again' cliche a la 'A Night to Remember' think again. The responses to the Titanic were complex and changed quite rapidly. The established trope of millionaires standing back to let women and children escape, particularly lower class ones, took time to establish itself (it was also totally bogus more first class men then third class women and children got into lifeboats).

It is the sheer variety of responses at the time and over time that is such a rich revelation but, and this is my only quibble, the book is almost entirely US centric but the Titanic as metaphor was always more a USA phenomena because it was rich American men who drowned that grabbed the headlines. The British crew who died keeping the lights on till the last moment, never mind the poor Irish and other emigrants on the boat who died in vaster numbers in total and in percentage terms never really featured in the story or the metaphors.

[R.J. Southworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really fascinating book that examines the Titanic disaster from a sociological perspective: from how the events were interpreted at the time from different standpoints such as religion and feminism, to how these perspectives have altered in the following decades. It definitely encourages more analysis of Titanic-related media, and thought about how much validity the themes and metaphors familiar to Titanic enthusiasts really have; ultimately, the bigger meaning of the Titanic disaster depends on who's talking about it and stems from our need to attribute a meaning to everything.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh - 1/2 way thru & decided to stop wasting my time.

[Thylacinemaxreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

May God Defy Her. For 300 pages or so. DNF.

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

"Rumor has it that the three most written-about subjects of all time are Jesus, the Civil War, and the Titanic disaster." So says a line late in Steven Biel's Down With The Old Canoe which helps to conclude one of the more unique Titanic books. Why is it unique? Because it is far from your bog-standard account of the liner and its sinking.

Instead of regurgitating the facts and theories of the sinking once again, Biel offers up a look at its reverberations throughout politics and popular culture, both then and through the early 1990s. In the opening portion covering the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Biel presents an incredible portrait of the ways the Titanic disaster seeped its way into the culture of 1912 as well as putting the sinking into a broader context. From suffragettes and socialists to African-American folk music, "the ghost of the Grand Banks," as Arthur C Clarke once described it, seemed to resonate even then. In exploring this portion of the Titanic story, the book is immensely successful in establishing both the impact of the Titanic and the origins of the myths around it.

Where Biel and his book are less successful is when he moves farther on from the disaster and the periodical resurgence of interest in it. From Walter Lord's A Night To Remember to the discovery of the wreck site three decades later, there's an effort made to link the interest in a combination of nostalgia and America's place in the Cold War world. While there is unquestionably some of the former involved (especially in a chapter that reads like a sideswiping of Titanic "buffs"), making the latter point feels like stretching at times. Especially in comparing Ballard's discovery of the wreck with everything from Clive Cussler's novel Raise The Titanic (which is apt) to the Rambo films (which is not). What could have been an engaging, informative study of just why the Titanic remains relevant instead feels quite tortured to make a point at times.

Despite that and its publication before James Cameron's film was released (though I have since learned on here that there was an edition with an extended afterword published in 2012), it remains worth checking out. It strips away the layers of myth to explore genuine reactions to the event more than a century ago while also trying to make sense of its prominence in the years beyond it. While it doesn't quite succeed at the latter, for the former at least, it remains an indispensable read.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I consider myself a bit of a fan of the whole Titanic saga (not the movie, which was good, but the whole story/history), so when I saw this work, it was not surprising that I would pick it up to read. It takes a somewhat different approach to the Titanic saga in that it places the Titanic in the context of society at various points, from when it sank in 1912, to the publication of A Night to Remember in the 1950s, to its eventual discovery in 1985 and discusses the movie and its impact from 1997 onward. For 1912, the sinking of the Titanic, which has been popularly noted as a seminal event in world history, Biel notes that the event doesn't quite have the impact on world society as it is portrayed. He brings in differing accounts of how various elements of society treated some of the key aspects of the sinking, from the discrimination of the class system to the various views on the "Women and Children First" mantra. It certainly did generate headlines, and many people could remember where they were when they first heard about the sinking, but with so many other issues going on, the Titanic was just one event/struggle among many in 1912. The arrival of the Great War/World War I drove it to the background, and it wasn't until the 1950s with the publication of A Night to Remember that the ship returned to the public forefront. As he covers the various eras, Biel notes that people would view the Titanic through the prism of society at that time, and how aspects of the saga were embraced by people (as was the case in the 1950s, where the nostalgia for a "simpler era" that the Titanic represented was not so much a return to the 1910s, but rather, a way to find something different from the constant threat of atomic holocaust that so clouded the 1950s). It doesn't add much to the tale of the Titanic, but rather, add to the context of how people viewed the Titanic, especially through key elements/milestones in culture. Maybe not the greatest Titanic work, but for a student of the Titanic saga, worth the read.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read this for years, finally ordered a copy, but gave up after Chapter 1. What gives? Well, that first chapter is about racism, sexism, and classism in the US in 1912, so you can see where this is headed (and other Goodreads reviews confirm those suspicions). I have gotten allergic to the ritual trotting-out of America’s sins, quite apart from not seeing why this is an appropriate start to a book about the Titanic. I had not realized that the focus of the book was the cultural history of the disaster IN THE US, which diminishes whatever interest it might have right off the bat; since the Titanic is really first and foremost a UK thing.

Glancing ahead in the text reveals that Biel is predictably snotty about “enthusiasts”, amateur historians, and popular writers (Walter Lord). I am all too familiar with that superior tone, and am no longer willing to give any benefit of the doubt to members of the fashionable academic left; I just shut the books.

[Jeff Koslowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fresh take on the Titanic as it talks more about how people have used and interpreted the ship as opposed to the disaster itself. You have to have some pretty serious prior knowledge before picking up this book. The book follows a chronological path but spends more time on certain subjects than others.

I didnt particularly care for the author's negativity toward Robert Ballard, Walter Lord, or the THS. I understand what he is trying to do but it comes off as trying to push his own bias as opposed to sticking with his thesis.

For the Titanic historian, it is worth the read for it being different.

[Tyler Wolanin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The logical next step once you've thoroughly covered the disaster itself. In fact, Titanic buffs are the subject of an entire chapter here! A great American Studies book, half about contemporary reactions and half about subsequent reactions (up to the film in the '90s); greatly expanded my knowledge while touching on the tidbits (Shine, "Futility, or: The Wreck of the Titan") that I had picked up from noodling around other Titanic histories. An obvious choice for a cultural study since we are so still immersed in Titanica in our own day. Do be sure to have a thorough knowledge of the sinking itself beforehand, as the narrative is not recapitulated.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might have to buy this one. I'd love a coda talking about post-James Cameron movie (which I have no particular love for), but ultimately, Biel's thesis about how we imagine and interpret the Titanic disaster is really complicated and nuanced ultimately imperfect. Like all historiography, it says more about us than the victims and survivors.

I just have so many thoughts.

[Chet Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on how the Titanic impacted cultural society. Quite a different read from most books on the Titanic. Being a graduate student of American Studies with an emphasis on disaster history, this is an important work.

[Aidan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started good, gave up on this. The repeating of the exact same point that the titanic’s sinking perpetuated (by way of media influene) cultural norms of wealth, sexuality, gender, and race. Very boring after a while

[Thomas Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A positively fascinating exploration of the cultural understanding and legacy of the Titanic tragedy. A classic of social history, revealing how newsworthy events become fodder for ideological spin.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge, June: Ocean Blue (Read a book that takes place on the water)
"The Titanic disaster begs for resolution - and always resists it."

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book says it all. Interesting. I had never thought about this is the broader cultural context before.

[Kitkat18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fanatic about the history of the Titanic. This a very endepth telling of what happened that faithful night.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to learn about how the sinking of the Titanic affected the US, this is the book for you. Mr Biel has done exhaustive research into all aspects of the sinking effected thinking about many aspects of life by the sinking of an un sinkable ship. How people looked at life from the rich to poor, suffragets, socialists and religious leaders among others found meaning in its loss at that time. it is followed to modern times with the movies and books and the finding of the ship. This really wasn't my kind of book, but to anyone with an interest in the Titanic, it would be very good.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few books have been this satisfying and intelligent while also disappointing and predictable. Biel is a critic to his bone; as such the sadness of 1,500 people needlessly dying generates no heartfelt passages. Nor does the discovery of the Titanic elicit any wonder. This is why he so adverse to my favorite book on the disaster and discovery: Pellegrino's flawed but emotionally charged and insightful take. To Biel Pellegrino's sin is he feels the event; Biel goes out of his way to tell us he feels nothing special. He thinks Titanic was not a "timeless" event and proves his point for the most part, but also subverts it. In our age of growing income inequality, surrender to technology, and love of spectacle, the tale has something for everyone. It is also that nagging part in our minds that says not all is well with this system of ours or even with our lives. Say what one will about class, but it is unthinkable that rich men today would go down with any ship.

Biel offers no critical commentary on the view taken of the Titanic by labor activists and especially poor blacks, because their view was hyper critical. Well that and the fact that poor black culture is considered "subversive" and "authentic" and therefore a sacred cow in the liberal academic world (this by the way is coming from a Marxist but a self-aware Marxist). Nevermind that the Titanic Toasts, while also hilarious, were also pretty callous about 1,500 deaths because well most of them were white people. I don't mind the callous response; I do mind that Biel does not dig into that aspect.

As such the weakest part of the book is the first half, his discussion of contemporary responses. It is informative but I found his bias creeping in. The second half, the memory of the Titanic, is superb, even when I found it reaching. He accurately places Ballard's discovery within the ethos of the 1980s (which he attacks with glee) and places Cameron's film in the 1990s ethos of self-help, self-actualization, and carpe deim messages, all the more acceptable in the glow of the rise of computers and the fall of communism. A consistent message is that men like Cameron and Ballard are in love with high technology but also its failure; to me it is a source of fascinating tension; to Biel it is hypocritical. Most fascinating of all is his discussion of Titanic buffs. You can tell Biel does not like their overall conservative and white bent and yet he admires them. Here are people who are themselves, who indulge in something out of pure love. Biel seems in awe of these creatures, who are not above criticism, but are immune to being "subverted" in his comments because there is no hidden motive. It is pure fetishistic love of the most infamous disaster in history.

UPDATE: I listened to the black folk songs Biel calls "subversive." hahahahaha What a joke. Good music, but hardly what Biel makes it out to be. But you have to remember, black culture is seen as authentic and subversive, even when it is neither.

[Jo Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lest you think, “Just another Titanic retelling,” Down With the Old Canoe is about us. Stephen Biel combs contemporary accounts to show how this “end-of-an-era” disaster has been re-interpreted over the years.

In 1912 Titanic symbolized technological hubris. Anglo-Saxon men were the chivalrous breed: standing aside for their wives and fighting off multi-cultural brutes from steerage who would sink the lifeboats. Suffragettes were warned not to be uppity, because if they were equal to men, they might not have survived.

Titanic resurged in the 1950s during the Cold War, when new technology threatened the world. Once more chivalry reigned, but Walter Lord’s more even-handed account revealed a spectrum of behavior across the classes.

Old Canoe was first published in 1996, a year before Cameron’s movie. Biel updated his book to demonstrate that Titanic symbolism has reversed course. First class men are stuffed shirts, likely to bribe their way onto the lifeboats. Steerage is where you go to have fun with ‘real folk.’ And despite 1500 deaths, Cameron strives for a happy ending.

Will Titanic rise again, with a fresh cultural interpretation? Who knows. All I know is that Old Canoe is a fascinating analysis, and highly recommended.

-- Jo Ann Butler
www.rebelpuritan.com/

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat approach to thinking about the sinking of the Titanic. Previously, my entire knowledge of it comes from an uncle who loved talking about it and, of course, the Cameron movie. This cultural history forced me to put the sinking in different contexts. One of the most important takeaways from this was how the sinking was used by so many different people to push differing views of a changing world. For example, some claimed it was the end of the 19th century and the loss of the chivalrous male world, or the beginning of the wickedness of technology, or the benefits of technology, or a tool to show American exceptionalism, or a tool to fight communism, etc.
One thing that stood out. The sinking of the Titanic offered lots of stories of how rich first class men saved so many women and children, and third class folks were often described as more animalistic. The truth of these stories is more debatable. Beyond that, in America at this time, there were lynchings, racism, sexism, etc. Just reminded me of how we can focus on what we want and forget larger issues.
It was an easy read.

[LibraryCin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book isn't so much about the Titanic itself, as about the effect the sinking of the ship had on culture after the disaster. It looked at such things as gender, class and race; also, songs and poems written about the Titanic; also, the books, tv, and movies that came about (this was published before James Cameron's movie, however).

I wish I would have noticed the subtitle before requesting it from the library (or even before putting it on my tbr... did I? It was too long ago). It just wasn't what I was interested in. I skimmed though a lot of it. Probably the most interesting chapter to me was the one that mainly focused on William Lord's book (written in the 1950s), A Night to Remember. Overall, though, it just wasn't interesting to me.

[Jen]

I'm mostly skimming this one, but there are some interesting bits. I liked, for example, the sections referencing concurrent notions of "women and children first" and how that part of the disaster was used to emphasize political ideologies regarding sexual roles and mores. Likewise, the bit regarding Ida and Isador Straus, and how her choice to stay with her husband was used by those looking to bolster the sanctity of marriage. I hardly imagine she had any sort of political agenda when she decided to stay with her husband, but some things never change when it comes to examples people can twist to fit their beliefs.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting look at a different angle of the sinking of the Titanic: Culturally, what was the impact of the sinking? Biel examines many aspects of American and European cultures and how the sinking came to mean different things to different classes of people.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly engrossing culutral history. Biel is one of my favourite historians.

[Shawn Thrasher]

I like stuff about the Titanic, but this was too scholarly for me. I didn't even make it half way through. Not a bad book, just not for me.