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The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era
When the ship of dreams sank, so did the Edwardian era. In this original and meticulously-researched narrative history, Gareth Russell considers the real story of the Titanic, and the seismic shift of modernity the 1910s have come to mark in the West.
Had she survived her first voyage, The Titanic probably would have dated like other ocean liners. Instead, within a week of setting sail on 10th April 1912, the disaster of her sinking had turned her into one of the biggest news stories of the century. Writing in his signature prose, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of six first-class travellers to immerse us into the Edwardian era while demonstrating how modernity shook up the class system of the age.
Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; “son” of the British Empire, Tommy Andrews; captain of the industry John Thayer and his son Jack; Jewish immigrant Ida Straus; and model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Each subject’s unique story offers insights into the established hierarchy during the fin de siècle of pre-war Britain and America, the Titanic’s respective spiritual and economic homelands. Through these entwining lives, Russell investigates social class – its mores, its foibles, its accents, its etiquette, its benefits, its casual or intentional cruelties, its potential nobility. Those nuances also invite analyses of the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the aristocracy, the American Gilded Age, the Irish Home Rule crisis, and Jewish-American communities.
The Titanic is the vessel in which we can extrapolate lessons on hubris, folly, greed, love, class, magnificent courage and pitiable weakness. She carried thousands of people and, in that way, she still has thousands of stories to tell. Drawing on brand new and unpublished materials, journal entries and film archives from the time, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World focuses on the symbolism of the Titanic as the floating symbol of Anglo-American success, its clientele an apt illustration of the limitless – technological, financial – possibilities of its time.
442 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2019
264 people are currently reading
7767 people want to read
About the author
Gareth Russell
16 books378 followersGareth Russell is an historian and broadcaster. He is the author of "The Six Loves of James I," (a BBC History Book of the Year, a Waterstones Best Book 2025; published as "Queen James" in the UK, Ireland and Australia), "The Palace" (Amazon Editor's Pick for Best New History, A Waterstones Best Book of 2023, BBC History Book of the Year, Town and Country Must-Read, an Aspects of History Best Book of 2023), "Do Let's Have Another Drink" (A Times Book of the Year, 2022), "The Ship of Dreams" (A Daily Telegraph Best History Book, 2019), and "Young and Damned and Fair."
He is the host of the podcast Single Malt History and divides his time between Belfast and London.
He is the host of the podcast Single Malt History and divides his time between Belfast and London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 310 reviews
May 11, 2020
“[A]t about 2:10 a.m., those in the lifeboats heard several roars from within the [Titanic’s] hull, which sounded like the boilers exploding but which were in fact the bulkheads finally giving way. Cecil Fitzpatrick, standing near to [Thomas] Andrews and [Captain] Smith, felt the ‘ship suddenly dipping, and the waves rushing up and engulfing me.’ The young steward saved himself by grabbing onto the empty lifeboat davit and dragging himself to a still dry part of the Boat Deck, from where he scrambled to help Colonel Gracie, Second Officer Lightoller, and those still attempting to free the collapsible [lifeboat]. The lurch had knocked one of the collapsibles off the roof, onto the deck below, upside down. As the ship slid under, water again covered Fitzpatrick, floating the lifeboat away from him and taking Gracie, Lightoller, and their companions off the Titanic. The same ‘slight but definite plunge’ caught Tommy Andrews and Captain Smith, either carrying them from the Bridge or compelling them to jump. It also hit Ida and Isidor Straus, washing them over. The band members were caught in that wave or fled, like Jack Thayer and Milton Long, who ran out of its way…’”
- Gareth Russell, The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era
Among the many ironies attending the April 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, perhaps the most striking is that this extremely short-lived ship has proven to be deathless. It is well over a century since she slipped beneath the waves, and in that time, there have been two massive world wars, global pandemics, numerous economic upheavals, and countless acts of terrorism. From the twentieth century to today, there is the feeling of one disaster simply bleeding into the next; war begetting depression begetting war. The death toll on the Titanic pales in comparison to the battles that came after. Indeed, the death toll on the Titanic pales in comparison to even other shipwrecks.
Yet the Titanic survives in brilliant memory, while a ship like the Wilhelm Gustloff – which sank with some 9,000 victims, as compared to Titanic’s approximately 1,500 – is relegated to esoterica.
Certainly, the Titanic has dominated my interests over the years. Indeed, I’d say that during the first half of my life, it was the thing that interested me the most. More than games. More than sports. More than girls.
I read all the books, watched all the movies, memorized all the facts. When I first started (my slightly underaged) drinking, I used to test my sobriety by repeating Titanic’s specifications in a bathroom mirror. The first time I ever connected to the internet, with an infinite universe of bawdy spectacles to behold, I went straight to a Titanic reference page. Around the time I graduated high school, I finished a 600-page novel about the ship. I promptly printed off one copy, put it in a massive binder, and then lost the hard discs, meaning there is a sole extant manuscript in the world (it’s currently propping open the laundry room door). By the time James Cameron’s hit film made Titanic ubiquitous, I was tapped out. I saw the movie five times in the theaters, and then ignored the subject for twenty years.
Now, quite suddenly, my interest has rekindled. This might be a function of our stressful, Covid-19-dominated times, driving me to seek shelter in youthful pursuits. It also might simply be a function of age and nostalgia. In any event, I woke up one recent day and wanted to read about the grand old ship again.
And it just so happened that Gareth Russell had recently published The Ship of Dreams.
Russell’s crisply written, extremely informative volume is not a comprehensive look at the sinking of the Titanic. Rather, in the same manner of Erik Larsen in Dead Wake (about another dead liner, the Lusitania), Russell tells this tale through the prism of a small handful of privileged people: ship designer Thomas Andrews; wealthy American businessman John Thayer; his plucky, eloquent son Jack; the founder of Macy’s, Isidor Straus; the indomitable Countess of Rothes; and early movie star Dorothy Gibson.
At first blush, I wondered how fresh this material would feel. Despite having been away from the subject, the people Russell chose to follow are rather famous. Andrews built the Titanic, while young Jack Thayer wrote one of the best accounts of her sinking. Meanwhile, Ida and Isidor Straus gained eternal fame for their refusal to be parted at the lifeboats. Was there more to be said?
Turns out, yes.
Russell has carefully researched these passengers in particular, as well as the Titanic’s sinking in general, to unearth a bounty of material. Though he relies heavily on secondary sources, he has chosen the best secondary sources around (and has corresponded with many of the authors of those works). The Ship of Dreams is extremely valuable in the way it updates the myth-shrouded Titanic story with the latest research and scholarly consensus. He might not be an expert himself, but he knows where the experts reside (at Encyclopedia Titanica, for instance).
While The Ship of Dreams does not confine itself solely to First Class concerns (there is a discussion, for instance, as to whether Third Class passengers were kept below), Russell does not stray over-far. The result is a deep dive into the lives of his chosen subjects, presenting a lot of information of which I had been unaware. For instance, in all my Titanic studies, I had never learned that Isidor Straus, the old man who would not take a spot in a lifeboat, had been a Confederate blockade runner in his youth, and had once attended a slave auction.
Importantly, Russell has chosen personages who have the physical, moral, and intellectual heft to shoulder the storyline. The Countess of Rothes, for instance, has always stood out as an exemplar of what you want to be when it all hits the fan. Escaping in Lifeboat 8, the Countess (real name: Lucy Noël Martha Leslie), wanted to go back to help those floundering and dying in the freezing North Atlantic. In this, she was supported by Able Seaman Thomas Jones, who later explained that she “had a lot to say, so I put her to steering the boat.” The stately pace of Titanic’s demise – accompanied by music and rockets – proved a grim test. There was time for people to reflect on their circumstances, to weigh their odds, and to choose their reactions. Suffice to say, the Countess of Rothes passed the test of character. (As did Seaman Jones who, I believe, developed a bit of a crush on the Countess, and with whom he exchanged Christmas cards in later years).
If you are not already a Titanic buff, there are some baggy sections in the narrative. In discussing Ida Straus, for instance, Russell takes a tangent into antisemitism that leads all the way to tsarist Russia. I accepted these detours without qualm, too busy devouring this book to complain (I also read all the endnotes, which are incredibly detailed). Of course, a more casual reader, looking for a more focused recounting of the Titanic, may find certain sections distracting. For those readers, there is the slim, powerful, near-perfect A Night to Remember.
Anyone who has spent significant time studying the Titanic eventually asks themselves why. For me, it definitely has something to do with the fact that I was just coming into human consciousness when Robert Ballard discovered the wreck on the ocean floor. My parents indulged my curiosity, and through the Titanic, I learned hard truths about life.
The Titanic taught me that our best laid plans often come to ruin. It taught me that sometimes, the good guys died. It taught me that doing the right thing and the hard thing were often the same. It taught me to slow the hell down.
Perhaps that’s the real allure of the Titanic. It is high drama in its most malleable form, conforming to whatever you project upon it. If you are Gareth Russell, it can symbolize the end of an era of aristocratic society. For others, it can be a story of hubris and arrogance, or the unbridgeable chasm of class, or the breakdown of systems. The Titanic has sunk a million times since April 15, 1912. Reading The Ship of Dreams reminded me why I cared in the first place.
- Gareth Russell, The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era
Among the many ironies attending the April 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, perhaps the most striking is that this extremely short-lived ship has proven to be deathless. It is well over a century since she slipped beneath the waves, and in that time, there have been two massive world wars, global pandemics, numerous economic upheavals, and countless acts of terrorism. From the twentieth century to today, there is the feeling of one disaster simply bleeding into the next; war begetting depression begetting war. The death toll on the Titanic pales in comparison to the battles that came after. Indeed, the death toll on the Titanic pales in comparison to even other shipwrecks.
Yet the Titanic survives in brilliant memory, while a ship like the Wilhelm Gustloff – which sank with some 9,000 victims, as compared to Titanic’s approximately 1,500 – is relegated to esoterica.
Certainly, the Titanic has dominated my interests over the years. Indeed, I’d say that during the first half of my life, it was the thing that interested me the most. More than games. More than sports. More than girls.
I read all the books, watched all the movies, memorized all the facts. When I first started (my slightly underaged) drinking, I used to test my sobriety by repeating Titanic’s specifications in a bathroom mirror. The first time I ever connected to the internet, with an infinite universe of bawdy spectacles to behold, I went straight to a Titanic reference page. Around the time I graduated high school, I finished a 600-page novel about the ship. I promptly printed off one copy, put it in a massive binder, and then lost the hard discs, meaning there is a sole extant manuscript in the world (it’s currently propping open the laundry room door). By the time James Cameron’s hit film made Titanic ubiquitous, I was tapped out. I saw the movie five times in the theaters, and then ignored the subject for twenty years.
Now, quite suddenly, my interest has rekindled. This might be a function of our stressful, Covid-19-dominated times, driving me to seek shelter in youthful pursuits. It also might simply be a function of age and nostalgia. In any event, I woke up one recent day and wanted to read about the grand old ship again.
And it just so happened that Gareth Russell had recently published The Ship of Dreams.
Russell’s crisply written, extremely informative volume is not a comprehensive look at the sinking of the Titanic. Rather, in the same manner of Erik Larsen in Dead Wake (about another dead liner, the Lusitania), Russell tells this tale through the prism of a small handful of privileged people: ship designer Thomas Andrews; wealthy American businessman John Thayer; his plucky, eloquent son Jack; the founder of Macy’s, Isidor Straus; the indomitable Countess of Rothes; and early movie star Dorothy Gibson.
At first blush, I wondered how fresh this material would feel. Despite having been away from the subject, the people Russell chose to follow are rather famous. Andrews built the Titanic, while young Jack Thayer wrote one of the best accounts of her sinking. Meanwhile, Ida and Isidor Straus gained eternal fame for their refusal to be parted at the lifeboats. Was there more to be said?
Turns out, yes.
Russell has carefully researched these passengers in particular, as well as the Titanic’s sinking in general, to unearth a bounty of material. Though he relies heavily on secondary sources, he has chosen the best secondary sources around (and has corresponded with many of the authors of those works). The Ship of Dreams is extremely valuable in the way it updates the myth-shrouded Titanic story with the latest research and scholarly consensus. He might not be an expert himself, but he knows where the experts reside (at Encyclopedia Titanica, for instance).
While The Ship of Dreams does not confine itself solely to First Class concerns (there is a discussion, for instance, as to whether Third Class passengers were kept below), Russell does not stray over-far. The result is a deep dive into the lives of his chosen subjects, presenting a lot of information of which I had been unaware. For instance, in all my Titanic studies, I had never learned that Isidor Straus, the old man who would not take a spot in a lifeboat, had been a Confederate blockade runner in his youth, and had once attended a slave auction.
Importantly, Russell has chosen personages who have the physical, moral, and intellectual heft to shoulder the storyline. The Countess of Rothes, for instance, has always stood out as an exemplar of what you want to be when it all hits the fan. Escaping in Lifeboat 8, the Countess (real name: Lucy Noël Martha Leslie), wanted to go back to help those floundering and dying in the freezing North Atlantic. In this, she was supported by Able Seaman Thomas Jones, who later explained that she “had a lot to say, so I put her to steering the boat.” The stately pace of Titanic’s demise – accompanied by music and rockets – proved a grim test. There was time for people to reflect on their circumstances, to weigh their odds, and to choose their reactions. Suffice to say, the Countess of Rothes passed the test of character. (As did Seaman Jones who, I believe, developed a bit of a crush on the Countess, and with whom he exchanged Christmas cards in later years).
If you are not already a Titanic buff, there are some baggy sections in the narrative. In discussing Ida Straus, for instance, Russell takes a tangent into antisemitism that leads all the way to tsarist Russia. I accepted these detours without qualm, too busy devouring this book to complain (I also read all the endnotes, which are incredibly detailed). Of course, a more casual reader, looking for a more focused recounting of the Titanic, may find certain sections distracting. For those readers, there is the slim, powerful, near-perfect A Night to Remember.
Anyone who has spent significant time studying the Titanic eventually asks themselves why. For me, it definitely has something to do with the fact that I was just coming into human consciousness when Robert Ballard discovered the wreck on the ocean floor. My parents indulged my curiosity, and through the Titanic, I learned hard truths about life.
The Titanic taught me that our best laid plans often come to ruin. It taught me that sometimes, the good guys died. It taught me that doing the right thing and the hard thing were often the same. It taught me to slow the hell down.
Perhaps that’s the real allure of the Titanic. It is high drama in its most malleable form, conforming to whatever you project upon it. If you are Gareth Russell, it can symbolize the end of an era of aristocratic society. For others, it can be a story of hubris and arrogance, or the unbridgeable chasm of class, or the breakdown of systems. The Titanic has sunk a million times since April 15, 1912. Reading The Ship of Dreams reminded me why I cared in the first place.
November 12, 2019
4.5 Stars.
CHILLING READ!
2 hours and 40 minutes from collision to disappearance----water temperature just under -2 degrees.
This informative work of non-fiction begins with a detailed introduction of various passengers and crew, some I had heard of from previous Titanic reads and movies, some not....including Jenny the cat who "prowled the halls after delivering a litter of kittens."
Lots of secrets....addiction, affairs, hidden illegitimate children. Lots of fabrication by passengers and Lots of history of the time.
What I was looking for I received in the detailed description of various rooms aboard ship, eye witness accounts of the sinking, and Oh-My-Gosh life after Titanic....10 survivors committing suicide.
Bottom line, unwise navigation plus speed kills. Only 712 survivors with over 2200 passengers.
Many thanks to Atria Books via NetGalley for the arc in exchange for review.
November 17, 2019
I have read multiple books about the Titanic. I've read many, many facts and tales about the building of the ship, the White Star Line and its leaders, the race to build bigger and faster passenger ships in the early 1900s, the passengers, causes of the sinking, the trial and aftermath of the accident, etc. All that reading, and this book still provided details and information I had not read before! Gareth Russell digs down into the Edwardian Era and the people/time that created the Titanic and its sister ships. He also gives details about six different passengers on the ship....their privileged lives, what led them to be on board, and their fate.
So interesting!! I loved every single word of this book! Buying a copy for my non-fiction keeper shelf!
First off -- this book is non-fiction. This is not a narrative story or filled with fictionalized drama. This book presents facts -- lots and lots of details. The writing style keeps it interesting, but be aware that this is 300+ pages of non-fiction -- not a story. Russell gets down to the nitty gritty of society at the time, details about specific passengers, text from reports, letters, telegrams, facts about the ship and other ships of the day, the crew, interior of the ship compared to other ships of the era, the White Star Line.....I could keep going. There is a lot of information tucked into this book. Readers who like Titanic facts but don't enjoy reading non-fiction might want to skip this one. I love non-fiction, so all of the details, facts, information did not bother me one bit. Loved it!
This is the first book by Gareth Russell that I've read. I will definitely be reading more! It is obvious that he did a huge amount of research and I like his writing style. The facts are all laid out in an interesting manner. I read this book slowly -- one chapter a night to let all the facts and details soak in. In my opinion, this is the best book on the Titanic and its sinking (that I have read). Interesting, sound research, and an in depth look at the aftermath of the sinking and the era that created larger, faster and much fancier passenger ships. Awesome read!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
So interesting!! I loved every single word of this book! Buying a copy for my non-fiction keeper shelf!
First off -- this book is non-fiction. This is not a narrative story or filled with fictionalized drama. This book presents facts -- lots and lots of details. The writing style keeps it interesting, but be aware that this is 300+ pages of non-fiction -- not a story. Russell gets down to the nitty gritty of society at the time, details about specific passengers, text from reports, letters, telegrams, facts about the ship and other ships of the day, the crew, interior of the ship compared to other ships of the era, the White Star Line.....I could keep going. There is a lot of information tucked into this book. Readers who like Titanic facts but don't enjoy reading non-fiction might want to skip this one. I love non-fiction, so all of the details, facts, information did not bother me one bit. Loved it!
This is the first book by Gareth Russell that I've read. I will definitely be reading more! It is obvious that he did a huge amount of research and I like his writing style. The facts are all laid out in an interesting manner. I read this book slowly -- one chapter a night to let all the facts and details soak in. In my opinion, this is the best book on the Titanic and its sinking (that I have read). Interesting, sound research, and an in depth look at the aftermath of the sinking and the era that created larger, faster and much fancier passenger ships. Awesome read!
**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
April 24, 2025
Even though I have read multiple books about the sinking of the Titanic, there is always something more to learn and this author offers exactly that. His approach is a little different than that of mostTitanic histories: first he examines the lives of six first class passengers; second, he ties the disaster with the end of the Edwardian age of splendor and wealth. I have to admit that he sometimes stretches the point a bit too far but his examples are not without credibility.
We follow the subjects' few days on board and the initial friendships that developed in that short period of time which would become instrumental in the life/death situation once the iceberg is struck. Not everyone was a hero nor was everyone a coward. Some of the incidents are heartbreaking while others are filled with sacrifice and heroics. The one thing that the author stresses several times............the passengers refused to believe that the Titanic was sinking and made some unfortunate decisions.
I would recommend this book that will make you ponder how you might have reacted if you had been a passenger on that ship of dreams.
We follow the subjects' few days on board and the initial friendships that developed in that short period of time which would become instrumental in the life/death situation once the iceberg is struck. Not everyone was a hero nor was everyone a coward. Some of the incidents are heartbreaking while others are filled with sacrifice and heroics. The one thing that the author stresses several times............the passengers refused to believe that the Titanic was sinking and made some unfortunate decisions.
I would recommend this book that will make you ponder how you might have reacted if you had been a passenger on that ship of dreams.
April 14, 2019
Over the years, I have read many books about Titanic and this is, certainly, one of the best. (I know many who consider themselves experts on the ship, dislike it referred to as, ‘the’ Titanic, but the subtitle does so: ‘The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era).
With so many books about Titanic available, there is always the question of whether it adds anything new. I think it does – it is meticulously researched, with incredible detail, and puts events into historical perspective, as well as considering the many conspiracy theories, surrounding the ship.
Although author, Gareth Russell, is careful about his facts, he never loses the drama of the events. He takes us through everything; from the making of Titanic in the Belfast shipyards, with interesting background on the city and why it was used, through the voyage, the sinking and the aftermath. Titanic, he states, was the product of ‘British sensibilities and American money.” A world on the cusp of change, with the unknown spectre of WWI about to explode and overshadow the loss of life.
Interestingly, Russell suggests that it was the American men who were under more social pressure than the British, to give up their life for the women and children. Lady Duff Cooper, having been informed her husband could not accompany her in a lifeboat, simply went to the other side of the ship and found one which would allow it and declared herself astounded at how easily American wives seemed to accept the separation. This was, to me, quite an interesting perspective, and undoubtedly influenced by the way male survivors were shamed by the press after the sinking; no one more than J. Bruce Ismay (and I highly recommend, “How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay), about the various attacks made on him after his survival.
It was also fascinating to learn how quickly interest in Titanic resulted in memoirs and, even a film, with one American actress, wearing the exact outfit in the silent movie (now sadly lost) that she had worn on the night she entered the lifeboat that saved her. Despite knowing exactly what wouldhappen, this is a gripping and informative read. I listened to this on Audible and it was beautifully read by Jenny Funnell.
With so many books about Titanic available, there is always the question of whether it adds anything new. I think it does – it is meticulously researched, with incredible detail, and puts events into historical perspective, as well as considering the many conspiracy theories, surrounding the ship.
Although author, Gareth Russell, is careful about his facts, he never loses the drama of the events. He takes us through everything; from the making of Titanic in the Belfast shipyards, with interesting background on the city and why it was used, through the voyage, the sinking and the aftermath. Titanic, he states, was the product of ‘British sensibilities and American money.” A world on the cusp of change, with the unknown spectre of WWI about to explode and overshadow the loss of life.
Interestingly, Russell suggests that it was the American men who were under more social pressure than the British, to give up their life for the women and children. Lady Duff Cooper, having been informed her husband could not accompany her in a lifeboat, simply went to the other side of the ship and found one which would allow it and declared herself astounded at how easily American wives seemed to accept the separation. This was, to me, quite an interesting perspective, and undoubtedly influenced by the way male survivors were shamed by the press after the sinking; no one more than J. Bruce Ismay (and I highly recommend, “How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay), about the various attacks made on him after his survival.
It was also fascinating to learn how quickly interest in Titanic resulted in memoirs and, even a film, with one American actress, wearing the exact outfit in the silent movie (now sadly lost) that she had worn on the night she entered the lifeboat that saved her. Despite knowing exactly what wouldhappen, this is a gripping and informative read. I listened to this on Audible and it was beautifully read by Jenny Funnell.
July 9, 2025
My review is about the Missing Iceberg in this story.
Many people have complemented this book on its giving new details about the ship and the accident. While this is true, I also found that much of the writing dealt with matters that have no relationship to the ship and the accident, and seemed to me more like masses of text that had to be carefully steered through in order to reach the goal of the description of the actual trip. But there was also a significant detail that is directly and intimately related to this story that was striking by its complete absence—the evacuation.
The book was evenhanded in its treatment of the accident, and seemed so even with all of the deviations from the main story of the experiences of these few persons on the voyage. However, two omissions spoke volumes. The first is minor. The author seems to leave no stone unturned in the telling of the social details around some of the families in this tale of tragedy (for example, labor unrest in Belfast, religious division in northern Ireland, political upheaval in England, the experience of Jews in the South before, during and after the American Civil War, the history of British public schooling for aristocratic families, the history of servant employment by them, etc., etc.). These digressions are each linked to something that one of the persons in the story has experienced.
So, in mentioning the death of an American family’s son in an automobile accident (which were still rare in 1912, the automobiles, not the accidents), I expected the author to mention the history of early automobile safety in US. The history of early regulation of driving in the US is in fact quite interesting, because the early owners of automobiles fought tooth and nail the imposition of speed limits, licensing requirements, stop signs and traffic lights. But this topic was not discussed. (Perhaps because it portrays the wealthy in a negative light?)
This minor omission seems to be particularly telling in the light of a second, more glaring omission. Namely, the author’s silence on regulatory efforts in the aftermath of this disaster. While he chooses to include, and not even dispute, contemporary British criticism of the US Senate investigation, led by a senator from Michigan (of all places!), which doesn’t even border the Atlantic (the nerve!), he completely fails to mention the shipping industry’s outrage at and attempt to defeat the honest efforts of American lawmakers to impose common sense safety requirements on trans-Atlantic shipping lines. Congress wanted more lifeboats, more education for the passengers and more drilling of the crew on evacuation procedures. These seem like reasonable asks, particularly in light of the second disaster of the evacuation. But no. The shipping industry rose up in arms against these regulations. See, for example, Wyn Craig Wade’s book, Titanic: End of a Dream. Why, when other minutia are included, was the fight for greater regulation and its resistance, excluded?
It turns out the author did not even bother to read Wade’s book. I cannot imagine why, but it is not in the bibliography. Wade’s book goes into great detail on the testimony of the evacuees about what happened in those long hours from the contact with the iceberg until being picked up by the Carpathia. And it is not pretty. Although there were 16 lifeboats and 4 collapsibiles, and two hours and 40 minutes passed between the collision and the sinking, many of the lifeboats were only half filled. If the evacuation had been done properly and in an organized fashion, instead of the 700 some persons, more than 1,100 could have been saved. At the least, the half empty boats should have picked up more people. Despite this fact, the author, at the end of his tale writes:
“Even if she had carried enough [lifeboats] for her passengers and crew, they likely would have made no significant reduction to the death toll. There was insufficient time to launch the few lifeboats the Titanic had.”
They had 2 hours and 40 minutes and all except the collapsibles were launched. The problem was they were not filled to capacity.
I know why this was not included. The author sets out the case that nothing (except perhaps slowing down) could have prevented this tragedy from happening as it happened. And that is a pleasant thought. I understand that. It allows one to wax nostalgic about an era of more taste, more class, and more discretion in word and deed than we have now. Events are inevitable. More thought about character and less cynicism. I miss that time too. But what makes ME most nostalgic for this era was the fact that the senator leading the charge on the investigation and imposing greater regulation on industry was a Republican. It was not that long ago that Republicans cared more about doing the right thing than the party line. But not, it seems, any longer. Now the party line is all, blame for anything is always directed at the other party and no one is allowed in the center any more.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “It’s a good republic, if you can keep it.”
Many people have complemented this book on its giving new details about the ship and the accident. While this is true, I also found that much of the writing dealt with matters that have no relationship to the ship and the accident, and seemed to me more like masses of text that had to be carefully steered through in order to reach the goal of the description of the actual trip. But there was also a significant detail that is directly and intimately related to this story that was striking by its complete absence—the evacuation.
The book was evenhanded in its treatment of the accident, and seemed so even with all of the deviations from the main story of the experiences of these few persons on the voyage. However, two omissions spoke volumes. The first is minor. The author seems to leave no stone unturned in the telling of the social details around some of the families in this tale of tragedy (for example, labor unrest in Belfast, religious division in northern Ireland, political upheaval in England, the experience of Jews in the South before, during and after the American Civil War, the history of British public schooling for aristocratic families, the history of servant employment by them, etc., etc.). These digressions are each linked to something that one of the persons in the story has experienced.
So, in mentioning the death of an American family’s son in an automobile accident (which were still rare in 1912, the automobiles, not the accidents), I expected the author to mention the history of early automobile safety in US. The history of early regulation of driving in the US is in fact quite interesting, because the early owners of automobiles fought tooth and nail the imposition of speed limits, licensing requirements, stop signs and traffic lights. But this topic was not discussed. (Perhaps because it portrays the wealthy in a negative light?)
This minor omission seems to be particularly telling in the light of a second, more glaring omission. Namely, the author’s silence on regulatory efforts in the aftermath of this disaster. While he chooses to include, and not even dispute, contemporary British criticism of the US Senate investigation, led by a senator from Michigan (of all places!), which doesn’t even border the Atlantic (the nerve!), he completely fails to mention the shipping industry’s outrage at and attempt to defeat the honest efforts of American lawmakers to impose common sense safety requirements on trans-Atlantic shipping lines. Congress wanted more lifeboats, more education for the passengers and more drilling of the crew on evacuation procedures. These seem like reasonable asks, particularly in light of the second disaster of the evacuation. But no. The shipping industry rose up in arms against these regulations. See, for example, Wyn Craig Wade’s book, Titanic: End of a Dream. Why, when other minutia are included, was the fight for greater regulation and its resistance, excluded?
It turns out the author did not even bother to read Wade’s book. I cannot imagine why, but it is not in the bibliography. Wade’s book goes into great detail on the testimony of the evacuees about what happened in those long hours from the contact with the iceberg until being picked up by the Carpathia. And it is not pretty. Although there were 16 lifeboats and 4 collapsibiles, and two hours and 40 minutes passed between the collision and the sinking, many of the lifeboats were only half filled. If the evacuation had been done properly and in an organized fashion, instead of the 700 some persons, more than 1,100 could have been saved. At the least, the half empty boats should have picked up more people. Despite this fact, the author, at the end of his tale writes:
“Even if she had carried enough [lifeboats] for her passengers and crew, they likely would have made no significant reduction to the death toll. There was insufficient time to launch the few lifeboats the Titanic had.”
They had 2 hours and 40 minutes and all except the collapsibles were launched. The problem was they were not filled to capacity.
I know why this was not included. The author sets out the case that nothing (except perhaps slowing down) could have prevented this tragedy from happening as it happened. And that is a pleasant thought. I understand that. It allows one to wax nostalgic about an era of more taste, more class, and more discretion in word and deed than we have now. Events are inevitable. More thought about character and less cynicism. I miss that time too. But what makes ME most nostalgic for this era was the fact that the senator leading the charge on the investigation and imposing greater regulation on industry was a Republican. It was not that long ago that Republicans cared more about doing the right thing than the party line. But not, it seems, any longer. Now the party line is all, blame for anything is always directed at the other party and no one is allowed in the center any more.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “It’s a good republic, if you can keep it.”
April 29, 2020
The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era was a comprehensive and well-researched account of the doomed maiden voyage of the Titanic, the jewel of the White Star Line, along with its sister ship, the Olympic. Gareth Russell's account is told from the historical perspective of the end of the Edwardian era and focusing on several key people and the roles played by each, including Thomas Andrews, managing director of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, from Belfast, Ireland. I found it to be a riveting account of the history at that time, as well as detailed descriptions of the Titanic and its passengers on that fateful voyage.
Thomas Hardy, "The Convergence of the Twain
(Lines on the loss of the Titanic)" (1912)
And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
Alien they seemed to be;
No moral eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,
Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon two halves of one august event,
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.
Thomas Hardy, "The Convergence of the Twain
(Lines on the loss of the Titanic)" (1912)
April 16, 2022
3 Stars
Tons of uninteresting background information about several famous passengers interspersed with well known and oft repeated stories about the ship. The writing is top notch though.
Tons of uninteresting background information about several famous passengers interspersed with well known and oft repeated stories about the ship. The writing is top notch though.
July 22, 2019
What is unique about this book is that the sinking of the Titanic is explored within the context of the time period and world events. The Titanic is, at times, peripheral in the story as the author paints a picture of society and world events. Ireland was in the grips of tearing apart with the Protestants wanting independence and Catholics wanting to stay under British rule. Tensions are rising between countries and political parties with assassinations on the rise - soon a Lithuanian would be assassinating an Italian dignitary which would be the final catalyst for the beginning of WWI. Yet when the Titanic sailed, the differences in classes still persisted yet there was a beginning arch of Hollywood royalty as opposed to Old World royalty.
The author does extensive research about the ship, the reason it sunk, and if third class passengers were mistreated, the timeline of key players, and the physics of the sinking.
Spoiler alert: James Cameron’s Titanic movie was a blockbuster that took artistic liberties. Also, many of the follies are examined and the real reason for the massive loss of life was the decision to power through the ice field and the lack of time for evacuating. Even with enough life boats, 2 and a half hours was inefficient time to evacuate all of the people. Even with sufficient life boats, there would still have been a huge loss of life.
Tommy Andrews was meticulous and well liked. He was homesick.
Ismay was socially awkward and not a villain. His choice to enter a lifeboat was not as selfish as it has been portrayed.
Captain Smith was going too fast through an ice field even with warnings.
The routes were far too high in latitude.
Third class was not mistreated,
If you want more Titanic facts, this is a good one. It is put into the context of what was happening in the world and different countries. It also corrects some accepted alternative facts.
The author does extensive research about the ship, the reason it sunk, and if third class passengers were mistreated, the timeline of key players, and the physics of the sinking.
Spoiler alert: James Cameron’s Titanic movie was a blockbuster that took artistic liberties. Also, many of the follies are examined and the real reason for the massive loss of life was the decision to power through the ice field and the lack of time for evacuating. Even with enough life boats, 2 and a half hours was inefficient time to evacuate all of the people. Even with sufficient life boats, there would still have been a huge loss of life.
Tommy Andrews was meticulous and well liked. He was homesick.
Ismay was socially awkward and not a villain. His choice to enter a lifeboat was not as selfish as it has been portrayed.
Captain Smith was going too fast through an ice field even with warnings.
The routes were far too high in latitude.
Third class was not mistreated,
If you want more Titanic facts, this is a good one. It is put into the context of what was happening in the world and different countries. It also corrects some accepted alternative facts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2019
I've always been interested in the Titanic. My grandfather worked 8 years after it sank, in Belfast in the ship yard where the great...thought to be unsinkable...ship was constructed. I thought I had read and seen every documentary about the fatal voyage until reading Mr. Russell's account. This is a fascinating book, Gareth Russell tells the story of the fatal ship’s sole journey through the eyes of six very different first-class passengers, from the Irish engineer Thomas Andrews to early film star Dorothy Gibson. The English Captain was blamed and stood trial for the disaster but the blame really lies with the Swedish radio operator who received, but fail to give the message to the captain who had already retired for the night. You can't try a dead man so history stands in error as of yet today. Don't think I want to take any cruises anytime soon.
April 29, 2020
Reading non-fiction about the Titanic disaster has almost become my “comfort read”. No matter how many accounts of it I read the story remains the same, it only differs in how the author presents it. Each time I read about it I discover something new, which I always appreciate. In this case I learnt more about the Countess of Rothes and Dorothy Gibson. To me this book is best read if the reader is already familiar with the story of the disaster.
November 4, 2019
Gareth Russell has done his research. Uncovering previously unpublished sources and including photographs. Russell tells the story not just of the sinking of the Titanic, but of six well-known and well-heeled passengers and the role they played in history.
He is a gifted writer and puts the event in context with what was going on in the world. Especially the Americans and the British. With the Edwardian Era ending, war on the horizon and changes in the social norms, technology, politics, Irish Home Rule, the class system, this was a major time of change for the world.
We follow the stories of six of those passengers on the Titanic and how their lives changed. The description of the sinking, minute by minute, the different ways Americans and the British handled the tragedy. Not everyone was chivalrous or brave. And for some that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
For me personally, this was the best book I have read on the subject. And that was because it was so well researched and written. Myths were shown for what they were. Facts and journals told stories never heard before. The pictures were priceless in creating an image in your head of who these people were and how they behaved.
I would have no problem recommending this book as a definitive look at this point in our history.
Extremely Well Done!
NetGalley/ November 19th, 2019 by Atria Books
He is a gifted writer and puts the event in context with what was going on in the world. Especially the Americans and the British. With the Edwardian Era ending, war on the horizon and changes in the social norms, technology, politics, Irish Home Rule, the class system, this was a major time of change for the world.
We follow the stories of six of those passengers on the Titanic and how their lives changed. The description of the sinking, minute by minute, the different ways Americans and the British handled the tragedy. Not everyone was chivalrous or brave. And for some that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
For me personally, this was the best book I have read on the subject. And that was because it was so well researched and written. Myths were shown for what they were. Facts and journals told stories never heard before. The pictures were priceless in creating an image in your head of who these people were and how they behaved.
I would have no problem recommending this book as a definitive look at this point in our history.
Extremely Well Done!
NetGalley/ November 19th, 2019 by Atria Books
September 24, 2019
The author highlights several first class passengers, telling the reader about their background, and their ultimate fate. There is an English countess, a naval architect, a movie star, an American railroad executive and his son, and a Jewish couple, former immigrants who owned Macy's. It’s interesting how each reacts to the shocking circumstances: from shallow and selfish to heroic. The author also proposes that this was the end of the Edwardian era, and the predecessor of more horrors to come with the advent of the Great War just a few years away. Thanks to Netgalley and to Atria Books for this ARC.
August 19, 2023
2.5~ I really wanted to like this book; I was obsessed with the Titanic as a child and I was excited to read a modern re-examination of the tragedy. Unfortunately, this book was not what I wanted. It is a good book, incredibly written and well researched. It just didn't do it for me.
It was so focused on the 6 passengers that the actual subject matter of the Titanic was lost. The 25% of the book that detailed the Titanic was fascinating and compelling, but the rest was full of details about the Edwardian Era and the concerns of the British aristocracy and American plutocrats. I do not care for rich people, especially rich people in an era where wealth inequality was worse than today. I do not care that they were upset over Irish independence, restricted power in government and the demands of workers unions. I wish we got more details about third class passengers, not just first class.
The author evidently did tons of research, to the point of including irrelevant information. The book meandered through several uninteresting tangents with superfluous details. A play-by-play of the King's funeral is not necessary. Also, personal gripe, the book had a lot of images but not one map of the boat??? It was so hard to follow any descriptions of the boat without a map and that took away from the book.
It was so focused on the 6 passengers that the actual subject matter of the Titanic was lost. The 25% of the book that detailed the Titanic was fascinating and compelling, but the rest was full of details about the Edwardian Era and the concerns of the British aristocracy and American plutocrats. I do not care for rich people, especially rich people in an era where wealth inequality was worse than today. I do not care that they were upset over Irish independence, restricted power in government and the demands of workers unions. I wish we got more details about third class passengers, not just first class.
The author evidently did tons of research, to the point of including irrelevant information. The book meandered through several uninteresting tangents with superfluous details. A play-by-play of the King's funeral is not necessary. Also, personal gripe, the book had a lot of images but not one map of the boat??? It was so hard to follow any descriptions of the boat without a map and that took away from the book.
July 12, 2021
I started and stopped this book multiple times in the past year (thanks, Covid), but I'm really glad I finally was in the headspace to be able to focus on it these past two weeks. As someone who has read extensively on the Titanic since I was nine or ten years old, this offered a slightly different perspective than a lot of what I've already read. I appreciated the deeper history and focus on the six passengers, and both learned new things about their lives and considered certain facts about the sinking from new or slightly different angles. A good read.
November 19, 2019
An exceptionally thorough and fascinating account of the Titanic first and only ill-fated voyage.
Though it is not without (minor) flaws, I found this to be the best nonfiction account of the Titanic that I have encountered. Russell’s depth and breadth of research on the subject is exceptional, his über-complete narrative beginning with the backstory of many of those on the ship and the ship’s construction, progressing to a day-by-day account of the journey and eventual sinking, and leading finally to the fallout from the event and the ultimate fates of many of the survivors.
If there is a criticism to be made of the book, it’s that it is almost too thorough in parts. While I ate up every bit of tiny detail regarding the time on the ship and eventual sinking and rescue, some of the biographical information at the beginning and end of the book about some of the passengers felt excessive, unnecessary, and neither interesting nor relevant.
A handful of other minutiae like this should have been edited out of the early and late chapters as well. For example, I doubt anyone reading this book needs to have how World War I started explained to them.
To that end, I would urge those struggling with the first 50 pages (where the above is the most egregiously indulged) to persist, because the rest of the book is more than worth the read. And I’m sympathetic to the author’s dilemma regarding such things (as I always am when it comes to historical nonfiction), where the temptation to prioritize thoroughness and pinpoint accuracy over sheer readability is an understandable one for a scholar.
And truly, it is in that hyper-accurate detail that Russell really shines as a writer and researcher. His painstakingly researched and rendered account of the day-by-day occurrences on the ship, the movements of many of the principal players in the story, and the lavish descriptions of the Titanic herself were outstanding and riveting. And perhaps most importantly, his account of the demise of the ship and the chronicling of the moments from when the ship first hits the iceberg to when those in the lifeboats are finally rescued are deliciously harrowing, haunting, and narrated with perfect atmosphere.
In all, an exceptionally written and researched account of the Titanic’s first and last fateful voyage.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Though it is not without (minor) flaws, I found this to be the best nonfiction account of the Titanic that I have encountered. Russell’s depth and breadth of research on the subject is exceptional, his über-complete narrative beginning with the backstory of many of those on the ship and the ship’s construction, progressing to a day-by-day account of the journey and eventual sinking, and leading finally to the fallout from the event and the ultimate fates of many of the survivors.
If there is a criticism to be made of the book, it’s that it is almost too thorough in parts. While I ate up every bit of tiny detail regarding the time on the ship and eventual sinking and rescue, some of the biographical information at the beginning and end of the book about some of the passengers felt excessive, unnecessary, and neither interesting nor relevant.
A handful of other minutiae like this should have been edited out of the early and late chapters as well. For example, I doubt anyone reading this book needs to have how World War I started explained to them.
To that end, I would urge those struggling with the first 50 pages (where the above is the most egregiously indulged) to persist, because the rest of the book is more than worth the read. And I’m sympathetic to the author’s dilemma regarding such things (as I always am when it comes to historical nonfiction), where the temptation to prioritize thoroughness and pinpoint accuracy over sheer readability is an understandable one for a scholar.
And truly, it is in that hyper-accurate detail that Russell really shines as a writer and researcher. His painstakingly researched and rendered account of the day-by-day occurrences on the ship, the movements of many of the principal players in the story, and the lavish descriptions of the Titanic herself were outstanding and riveting. And perhaps most importantly, his account of the demise of the ship and the chronicling of the moments from when the ship first hits the iceberg to when those in the lifeboats are finally rescued are deliciously harrowing, haunting, and narrated with perfect atmosphere.
In all, an exceptionally written and researched account of the Titanic’s first and last fateful voyage.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
March 22, 2021
I could (and have!) read about the Titanic over and over again. This book gives a close up look at many of the passengers, making the sinking all the more morbid and vivid. Detailed descriptions really bring the ship to life. A wonderful glimpse into a bygone era.
April 8, 2020
For anyone interested in the Titanic, this is a must-read! I was absolutely engrossed in this book from the start and learned so many new things about the ship. Be forewarned: this doesn't actually really focus on the sinking itself (though it does disprove a lot of common theories such as the lack of lifeboats being the reason for the high loss of life, etc.). A few chapters cover the night of the sinking but it is much more focused on about a dozen passengers and their life stories. It gives a fascinating historical and political look into the times and seamlessly weaves all these aspects together, culminating in the sinking of the Titanic and its aftermath. My only issue with this book is that it definitely got a bit wordy at times and parts could have been eliminated. However, I couldn't put it down!
March 19, 2019
In the century since her tragic demise, Titanic’s story has been told time and again. From books (both fiction and non) to movies and television series, we’ve heard the tale so many times it’s hard to believe there is anything new to discover. Are there any more stones to uncover? Acclaimed historian, Gareth Russell, set out to unearth those very stones, and in his gripping new work he polishes them to a shine. In doing so, Russell manages to accomplish the impossible: a fresh perspective on the most infamous shipwreck in history.
Walter Lord’s seminal opus, A Night To Remember, set a benchmark for works on Titanic that few have been able to reach. In The Ship Dreams, Russell not only meets that standard, he far surpasses it, raising the luxury liner from its established place as a martyred victim of human error to an example of cutting edge technology in a world on the edge of collapse. Rather than portrayed as a ferry of death, Russell holds up Titanic as a true prism of life in an era marked by human triumph, buoyed by unprecedented wealth and sheer moxie.
Poignant and meticulously researched, The Ship of Dreams is brilliant and heartrending. Sharp in his observations, Russell leaves no myth unchallenged. A gifted storyteller, each harrowing hour is rendered so vividly, one can almost feel the sting of the salty air and the bitter chill of the sea sinking into their bones. In Russell’s hands, the academic is both engaging and accessible; each detail finely wrought by a true master of the genre. Moving and elegantly constructed, The Ship of Dreams is a pure treasure; a gem not to be missed.
Many thanks to the publisher for an advanced review copy.
Walter Lord’s seminal opus, A Night To Remember, set a benchmark for works on Titanic that few have been able to reach. In The Ship Dreams, Russell not only meets that standard, he far surpasses it, raising the luxury liner from its established place as a martyred victim of human error to an example of cutting edge technology in a world on the edge of collapse. Rather than portrayed as a ferry of death, Russell holds up Titanic as a true prism of life in an era marked by human triumph, buoyed by unprecedented wealth and sheer moxie.
Poignant and meticulously researched, The Ship of Dreams is brilliant and heartrending. Sharp in his observations, Russell leaves no myth unchallenged. A gifted storyteller, each harrowing hour is rendered so vividly, one can almost feel the sting of the salty air and the bitter chill of the sea sinking into their bones. In Russell’s hands, the academic is both engaging and accessible; each detail finely wrought by a true master of the genre. Moving and elegantly constructed, The Ship of Dreams is a pure treasure; a gem not to be missed.
Many thanks to the publisher for an advanced review copy.
July 7, 2024
I found this disappointing. I think the author was more interested in writing about high society in the Edwardian era rather than the story of the Titanic. We get long and often boring backstories on many of the Titanic's rich and famous first class passengers and it drives the narrative to a halt. When the Titanic makes a reappearance in the narrative, it's almost surprising because it felt like it happened so little. There are better books on the Titanic out there so if you are interested in the tragedy, look elsewhere.
December 4, 2020
This is interesting and easy to read.
This is my third book by this historian and I know that his research and use of fact is biased in favor of whatever agenda he has in writing each historical work of mostly fiction🤷🏾♀️.
I wouldn't keep reading his books but my libraries love this biased turd and so here I am reading this substandard and biased history.
I don't care that the author has an opinion, I care that he omits facts in order to make his biased points.
He also talks all around history. So he discusses scientific racism but only in relation to white folks, he neglects to mention the long racist slavery based creation of the concept of 'race'.
Wouldn't be a big deal but he gives tons of needless and useless history UNLESS his knowledge would protect a marginalized person or class, then he has zero to say.
He calmly omits slavery when he discusses the civil war, only white viewpoints are expressed. He presents what was done for white people, the US was and remains highly segregated, as for everyone. So those were charities for white people but he neglects to mention that because it makes a confederacy supporter appear racist. His position is that not everyone who supported the confederacy was racist or supported slavery. Yes asshole they did just like all Nazis supported antisemitism. It was a founding principal of the party & war. Why are white people like this? He never needed to discuss the civil war in the US in a book about the Titanic but if you do and only present confederate history as not racist guess what that makes you?
None of the facts this author presents can be trusted. I've reviewed a few of his other books but catch his outright lies in The Emporers.
He's mostly just a sexist pig in Young and Damned and Fair.
He's just a horrible historian.
Not professional at all.🤷🏾♀️
Also he totally ignores how this absolutely was a tragedy that was compounded by the actions of the company. The lifeboats needed to be filled up to capacity and over 2 hours *IS* enough time. He did this in The Emperors where he outright lied about the conditions that lead to the revolution in Russia. Here he is outright lying about what went wrong on the Titanic and how preventable it was.
The US government remains a mess but the suggestions the Senate made towards making transatlantic shipping safer were valid and common sense.
The company of White Star absolutely scapegoated the captain inorder to protect their business and bottom line. Pretending this is otherwise is dangerous and ahistorical.
Clearly this author uses 'alternate facts' to write his books which need to be filed as fiction.
A biography or history of an event isn't the same as a documentary which everyone understands is NOT a history of events but a slanted view of facts, the documentarian's take on events so to speak. Michael Moore is using facts in a biased way to make his point. That's fine for documentaries but not history books.
A book of this nature is supposed to present ALL facts and then give an opinion, not tweak and outright omit facts to bolster a biased view of an event.
It's shocking to me how highly rated this turds books are.🙄
This is my third book by this historian and I know that his research and use of fact is biased in favor of whatever agenda he has in writing each historical work of mostly fiction🤷🏾♀️.
I wouldn't keep reading his books but my libraries love this biased turd and so here I am reading this substandard and biased history.
I don't care that the author has an opinion, I care that he omits facts in order to make his biased points.
He also talks all around history. So he discusses scientific racism but only in relation to white folks, he neglects to mention the long racist slavery based creation of the concept of 'race'.
Wouldn't be a big deal but he gives tons of needless and useless history UNLESS his knowledge would protect a marginalized person or class, then he has zero to say.
He calmly omits slavery when he discusses the civil war, only white viewpoints are expressed. He presents what was done for white people, the US was and remains highly segregated, as for everyone. So those were charities for white people but he neglects to mention that because it makes a confederacy supporter appear racist. His position is that not everyone who supported the confederacy was racist or supported slavery. Yes asshole they did just like all Nazis supported antisemitism. It was a founding principal of the party & war. Why are white people like this? He never needed to discuss the civil war in the US in a book about the Titanic but if you do and only present confederate history as not racist guess what that makes you?
None of the facts this author presents can be trusted. I've reviewed a few of his other books but catch his outright lies in The Emporers.
He's mostly just a sexist pig in Young and Damned and Fair.
He's just a horrible historian.
Not professional at all.🤷🏾♀️
Also he totally ignores how this absolutely was a tragedy that was compounded by the actions of the company. The lifeboats needed to be filled up to capacity and over 2 hours *IS* enough time. He did this in The Emperors where he outright lied about the conditions that lead to the revolution in Russia. Here he is outright lying about what went wrong on the Titanic and how preventable it was.
The US government remains a mess but the suggestions the Senate made towards making transatlantic shipping safer were valid and common sense.
The company of White Star absolutely scapegoated the captain inorder to protect their business and bottom line. Pretending this is otherwise is dangerous and ahistorical.
Clearly this author uses 'alternate facts' to write his books which need to be filed as fiction.
A biography or history of an event isn't the same as a documentary which everyone understands is NOT a history of events but a slanted view of facts, the documentarian's take on events so to speak. Michael Moore is using facts in a biased way to make his point. That's fine for documentaries but not history books.
A book of this nature is supposed to present ALL facts and then give an opinion, not tweak and outright omit facts to bolster a biased view of an event.
It's shocking to me how highly rated this turds books are.🙄
July 16, 2019
Terrific book -- well written, and very thoroughly researched. This is a must for anyone interested in Titanic, and the people who sailed on her.
This book jumped to the top of my TBR list for two reasons -- ok, three reasons, the first one, which hardly needs saying, being hey, a new book about Titanic!! Because, yes ladies and gentlemen, I am a bona fide, died in the wool, incorrigible Titanic addict. I can even tell you the exact moment that my obsession was born: the day my Mom took me to see The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964.
I was 11 years old, and emerging into the light of day, I said "Gosh, that ship sinking was horrible. Lucky nothing like that ever happened in real life ..." And my Mom said, "Well, it did actually. I think there's a book about it, if you're interested ..."
Ha! I got Walter Lord's A Night to Remember out of the library, and I have never looked back.
So, unbeknownst to young Mr. Russell, he was playing to a pretty tough audience. I've read the books, I've watched the documentaries. I can quote the Famous Last Words (and I will, with no encouragement whatsoever ...) I have Heroes (and Heroines, if that word is allowed) and Villains, and Little Know Facts. As I was reading, I used my Titanic bookmark and drank tea from my Titanic mug.
And I was very impressed. This book is beautifully written, full of genuine interest, occasional very articulate snark (always fully deserved), and passion -- for both the Titanic, and the people who built it and sailed on it, and for the author's hometown of Belfast. (Full Disclosure #2: since we retired, my husband and I have had to spend about a month each year in Belfast, thanks to a post-retirement position my husband has at Queens University Belfast, and I very quickly learned to love the place.)
Russell supplies enough not many people know that facts to keep even the most obsessive happy: how did I reach the age of 65 and 3/4 without knowing that Titanic had a ship's cat? (Named "Jenny." And she had just given birth to kittens before Titanic left Southamption ... This has to rate with Shackleton's cat, on the Endurance, as one of the great Tragedies of Feline History ...) The level of detail on the six passengers that he has chosen to focus on (the Harland & Wolfe designer Thomas Andrew, Isidor and Ida Strauss, The Countess of Rothes, Philadelphia socialite Marian Thayer, and actress Dorothy Gibson) is quite incredible, following them before during and after Titanic sank (for the survivors, or the families and friends of those who didn't). Other passengers, famous and no-so, whirl around the orbits of the six chosen individuals, and come into focus now and then, stretching out into all classes of the passengers and crew.
Just as a "fr'instance," I was particularly impressed by the level of detail that allowed Russell to completely revise the image of Thomas Andrews, as the ship was sinking, as being rendered catatonic by shock and guilt, standing staring (as, I believe both of the most famous movies would have us see him) at the clock on the mantle in the First Class Lounge. Russell constructs a timeline showing that, while Tommy Andrews may have had a private moment to collect himself (and who could blame him?), his last minutes on earth were spend in a flurry of activity aimed on saving lives: hustling the hesitant to lifeboats, throwing deckchairs overboard to give those who were already leaping for it something to hang on it, consulting with the Captain. And, in fact, Russell believes the evidence (the testimony of survivor Jack Thayer) shows that Andrews probably left the ship at the last with the Captain, jumping or being swept off the Bridge as the final wave washed over it.
Whew. I do have some quibbles with Mr. Russell. I think he's a bit too kind to Bruce Ismay. (But's that's ok -- I have enough vitriol for Ismay to offset about ten "fair and balanced" accounts.) Puzzlingly, he refers to Walter Lord's classic as a "novel" -- unless he's arguing that its reconstruction and dramatization of some scenes makes it a "non-fiction novel," such as In Cold Blood, I'm not sure what that's about.
But my only serious ... hmmm ... reservation is about Mr. Russell's thesis, and the choices it causes him to make. Using Titanic as a metaphor for the end of an era of opulence isn't anything new. (Would this be a good moment for The Onion's WORLD'S LARGEST METAPHOR HITS ICEBERG joke? Yes? No?) Russell's six individuals are meant to stand for five different types: the hereditary Aristocracy (Lady Rothes), American plutocracy (Marian Thayer and her family), the self-made immigrants (the Strausses), the Celebrity (Dorothy Gibson), and the Corporate Man (Andrews).
Obviously, the experience of these individuals, before, during and after the sinking of Titanic, was sometimes emblematic of their class, and the specific category that Russell tries to make them represent. (Within 20 years, the Earl of Rothes had to sell the Scottish estate which had been the family seat for over 500 years. The Strauss' money never protected them from anti-Semitism. Dorothy Gibson was already experiencing the special treatment that celebrities get, for both good and ill, that we are very familiar with in the 21st century ...)
But sometimes it wasn't. The Countess of Rothes seems to have been a lovely woman, who never knowlingly inveigled her rank into special treatment. (But, of course, it would be obvious to anyone with any perspective that her whole life was one long special treatment ...) Isidor and Ida Strauss refused special consideration, based on their wealth, age and -- in Mrs Strauss' case -- gender, and chose to die together. Sometimes, I'm not sure what point these six are supposed to be making for me.
The other thing is that Russell's thesis means that passengers from Second and Third Classes, and the crew are only given walk-on parts, as extras in the drama of the Chosen Six. Russell does this very well -- but I would have liked to see the same level of detail, where it was possible, about six of the ordinary Folks on board.
I said at the start that there were two reason's, besides my Titanic obsession, that caused me to advance this book right to the top of my TBR list. The first is the marvellous title. I love it: it's mysterious, and poetic. It made me need to read it. I love the point that Russell uses it to make, at the end. (And I'm sorely disappointed to discover that the book seems to have been published in the USA under a different, very boring title ...)
The second was a bad review in The Guardian. Yes, you heard that right. The Guardian reviewer felt that the book doesn't "work as a morality tale about the collapse of a slipshod civilisation" and feels that it fails in that, it's "as unconvincing as the ship’s haphazard interior, a pile-up of the gaudy and the mundane..."
I think she's dead wrong, and the pile-up of the gaudy and the mundane is exactly the point, and an almost inescapable one, when you're writing about Titanic. The "world's largest metaphor" doesn't stop at the ship and its date with the iceberg ....
I think this book is a worthy successor to the Walter Lord classic that got me hooked in the first place. I think you should read it and make up your own mind ...
This book jumped to the top of my TBR list for two reasons -- ok, three reasons, the first one, which hardly needs saying, being hey, a new book about Titanic!! Because, yes ladies and gentlemen, I am a bona fide, died in the wool, incorrigible Titanic addict. I can even tell you the exact moment that my obsession was born: the day my Mom took me to see The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964.
I was 11 years old, and emerging into the light of day, I said "Gosh, that ship sinking was horrible. Lucky nothing like that ever happened in real life ..." And my Mom said, "Well, it did actually. I think there's a book about it, if you're interested ..."
Ha! I got Walter Lord's A Night to Remember out of the library, and I have never looked back.
So, unbeknownst to young Mr. Russell, he was playing to a pretty tough audience. I've read the books, I've watched the documentaries. I can quote the Famous Last Words (and I will, with no encouragement whatsoever ...) I have Heroes (and Heroines, if that word is allowed) and Villains, and Little Know Facts. As I was reading, I used my Titanic bookmark and drank tea from my Titanic mug.
And I was very impressed. This book is beautifully written, full of genuine interest, occasional very articulate snark (always fully deserved), and passion -- for both the Titanic, and the people who built it and sailed on it, and for the author's hometown of Belfast. (Full Disclosure #2: since we retired, my husband and I have had to spend about a month each year in Belfast, thanks to a post-retirement position my husband has at Queens University Belfast, and I very quickly learned to love the place.)
Russell supplies enough not many people know that facts to keep even the most obsessive happy: how did I reach the age of 65 and 3/4 without knowing that Titanic had a ship's cat? (Named "Jenny." And she had just given birth to kittens before Titanic left Southamption ... This has to rate with Shackleton's cat, on the Endurance, as one of the great Tragedies of Feline History ...) The level of detail on the six passengers that he has chosen to focus on (the Harland & Wolfe designer Thomas Andrew, Isidor and Ida Strauss, The Countess of Rothes, Philadelphia socialite Marian Thayer, and actress Dorothy Gibson) is quite incredible, following them before during and after Titanic sank (for the survivors, or the families and friends of those who didn't). Other passengers, famous and no-so, whirl around the orbits of the six chosen individuals, and come into focus now and then, stretching out into all classes of the passengers and crew.
Just as a "fr'instance," I was particularly impressed by the level of detail that allowed Russell to completely revise the image of Thomas Andrews, as the ship was sinking, as being rendered catatonic by shock and guilt, standing staring (as, I believe both of the most famous movies would have us see him) at the clock on the mantle in the First Class Lounge. Russell constructs a timeline showing that, while Tommy Andrews may have had a private moment to collect himself (and who could blame him?), his last minutes on earth were spend in a flurry of activity aimed on saving lives: hustling the hesitant to lifeboats, throwing deckchairs overboard to give those who were already leaping for it something to hang on it, consulting with the Captain. And, in fact, Russell believes the evidence (the testimony of survivor Jack Thayer) shows that Andrews probably left the ship at the last with the Captain, jumping or being swept off the Bridge as the final wave washed over it.
Whew. I do have some quibbles with Mr. Russell. I think he's a bit too kind to Bruce Ismay. (But's that's ok -- I have enough vitriol for Ismay to offset about ten "fair and balanced" accounts.) Puzzlingly, he refers to Walter Lord's classic as a "novel" -- unless he's arguing that its reconstruction and dramatization of some scenes makes it a "non-fiction novel," such as In Cold Blood, I'm not sure what that's about.
But my only serious ... hmmm ... reservation is about Mr. Russell's thesis, and the choices it causes him to make. Using Titanic as a metaphor for the end of an era of opulence isn't anything new. (Would this be a good moment for The Onion's WORLD'S LARGEST METAPHOR HITS ICEBERG joke? Yes? No?) Russell's six individuals are meant to stand for five different types: the hereditary Aristocracy (Lady Rothes), American plutocracy (Marian Thayer and her family), the self-made immigrants (the Strausses), the Celebrity (Dorothy Gibson), and the Corporate Man (Andrews).
Obviously, the experience of these individuals, before, during and after the sinking of Titanic, was sometimes emblematic of their class, and the specific category that Russell tries to make them represent. (Within 20 years, the Earl of Rothes had to sell the Scottish estate which had been the family seat for over 500 years. The Strauss' money never protected them from anti-Semitism. Dorothy Gibson was already experiencing the special treatment that celebrities get, for both good and ill, that we are very familiar with in the 21st century ...)
But sometimes it wasn't. The Countess of Rothes seems to have been a lovely woman, who never knowlingly inveigled her rank into special treatment. (But, of course, it would be obvious to anyone with any perspective that her whole life was one long special treatment ...) Isidor and Ida Strauss refused special consideration, based on their wealth, age and -- in Mrs Strauss' case -- gender, and chose to die together. Sometimes, I'm not sure what point these six are supposed to be making for me.
The other thing is that Russell's thesis means that passengers from Second and Third Classes, and the crew are only given walk-on parts, as extras in the drama of the Chosen Six. Russell does this very well -- but I would have liked to see the same level of detail, where it was possible, about six of the ordinary Folks on board.
I said at the start that there were two reason's, besides my Titanic obsession, that caused me to advance this book right to the top of my TBR list. The first is the marvellous title. I love it: it's mysterious, and poetic. It made me need to read it. I love the point that Russell uses it to make, at the end. (And I'm sorely disappointed to discover that the book seems to have been published in the USA under a different, very boring title ...)
The second was a bad review in The Guardian. Yes, you heard that right. The Guardian reviewer felt that the book doesn't "work as a morality tale about the collapse of a slipshod civilisation" and feels that it fails in that, it's "as unconvincing as the ship’s haphazard interior, a pile-up of the gaudy and the mundane..."
I think she's dead wrong, and the pile-up of the gaudy and the mundane is exactly the point, and an almost inescapable one, when you're writing about Titanic. The "world's largest metaphor" doesn't stop at the ship and its date with the iceberg ....
I think this book is a worthy successor to the Walter Lord classic that got me hooked in the first place. I think you should read it and make up your own mind ...
February 1, 2020
Wow. This book was incredible, so meticulously researched. The parallels drawn between this disaster and so many other events in history is brilliant. The anecdotes of real passengers and their stories before, during, and after the disaster were fascinating.
Also the depth to which the author connected the end of an era...referencing so many things, the race to dominance of the transatlantic crossings between the Germans, the British and the French...the arrogance of otherwise intelligent men to think that any ship could be designed to be unsinkable. To the irrelevance of all the splendor of first class accommodations to travel once the First World War broke out, and how the Titanic’s sister ships were put to use in the wars, and indeed some of these previously glamorous ships perished because of them.
Romanovs, Nazis, American millionaires, British nobility, Henry VIII...I could go on... but trust me, just read it for yourself. It’s a brilliant deep dive into a period of history that truly will never again be repeated. Maybe this book intrigued me so much because it mentions many places I was privileged to visit when we lived in Europe, and how they had ties to the Titanic, combined with my fascination of the story since childhood. Whatever it was, I definitely feel smarter having read this and would definitely recommend it.
Also the depth to which the author connected the end of an era...referencing so many things, the race to dominance of the transatlantic crossings between the Germans, the British and the French...the arrogance of otherwise intelligent men to think that any ship could be designed to be unsinkable. To the irrelevance of all the splendor of first class accommodations to travel once the First World War broke out, and how the Titanic’s sister ships were put to use in the wars, and indeed some of these previously glamorous ships perished because of them.
Romanovs, Nazis, American millionaires, British nobility, Henry VIII...I could go on... but trust me, just read it for yourself. It’s a brilliant deep dive into a period of history that truly will never again be repeated. Maybe this book intrigued me so much because it mentions many places I was privileged to visit when we lived in Europe, and how they had ties to the Titanic, combined with my fascination of the story since childhood. Whatever it was, I definitely feel smarter having read this and would definitely recommend it.
December 14, 2020
If you are a fellow fan of anything Titanic, this will definitely be for you as it follows the timeline of the Edwardian Era that brought us the Titanic, goes through events leading to the accident and what happened in the decades following. I will say that the audiobook was preferred for me, because as interesting as it is, it’s still a dry nonfiction, but a very good listen nonetheless.
This book was thoroughly researched and planned out, that it gives seamless transitions throughout the timeline. I thought I knew a lot, but this book taught me so much more information. It also debunked a lot of conspiracies about the ship and provided factual evidence about why the theories don’t pan out.
I also enjoyed learning more about the real people on the ship and what happened to some of them after the accident. I highly recommend this book, or maybe just the audiobook, but either way, a great read!
This book was thoroughly researched and planned out, that it gives seamless transitions throughout the timeline. I thought I knew a lot, but this book taught me so much more information. It also debunked a lot of conspiracies about the ship and provided factual evidence about why the theories don’t pan out.
I also enjoyed learning more about the real people on the ship and what happened to some of them after the accident. I highly recommend this book, or maybe just the audiobook, but either way, a great read!
September 1, 2020
This is a beautifully written account of the Titanic which concentrates on a handful of selected passengers and delves into their pasts, feelings and how they lived after the tragedy. It has enough new information to engage those who already have read on the subject (like me), and it takes time to dispel some of the popular myths and contested theories. The only thing which I slightly minded was the fact that from time to time the attempts of painting the picture of an era the reader is actually taken away from the Titanic for far too long and so the narrative is disrupted. But this happens mostly in the first part of the book. The story of the sinking and its immediate aftermath are done a very respectful and moving manner.
July 8, 2023
What sets this book apart from similar books is its panoramic, detailed view of other social and historical events of the era and in depth looks at the lives of some of the Titanic's most notable passengers and crew. Obviously, this was hard to read at times, but the author clearly took the tragedy seriously and approached the topic with respect and impeccably researched and profound writing. A more modern Tower of Babel approach to her maiden voyage was honestly depicted as well. I loved all of the historical and biographical details, but the reading did get a bit tedious at times. Overall, this book was a unique, immersive chronicalization of the tendency of mankind to be arrogant and overreaching.
March 21, 2025
I think I’m going to respond to the horrors by getting obsessed (again) about the Titanic. This was an interesting view of specific passengers. I’d like to read more about the lower class experience so I’ll be seeking that out!
July 14, 2019
An interesting read. Not so much about the sinking itself, as about the impact it made on five upper class passengers. Many had seen their fortunes begin to dwindle due to agricultural reforms and now a new breed was replacing them. The self-made business man. This book follows both aristocrats and newly rich to see how the Titanic's sinking sinking impacted even further on their lives.
November 15, 2019
I received an advance reading copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. Much has been written about the ill-fated Titanic over the years, but this book takes an interesting approach. The author, Gareth Russell, chose six first class passengers and their families who were on board at the time of the sinking and details their lives before, during, and after the tragedy. Among those he depicted were a silent screen actress, a British aristocrat, a maritime architect, a wealthy American and his teenage son, as well as a philanthropist from the States. As we got to know these people on a more personal level, we desperately wanted to save them, but as everyone knows more folks died than survived the sinking and not all of them came home. Russell's description of the ship's first and final voyage was gut-wrenching. It is unimaginable what they all endured and what the survivors had to witness that awful night. The people that boarded the Carpathia were forever changed and had to deal with the horror they saw for the rest of their lives. It's just something many of us never really think about. For example, I had no idea that at least ten survivors ultimately committed suicide. My only complaint was that in some cases, the author traced the passengers' roots back farther than was really necessary. Of course, it was interesting to learn about how these people came to be on board the ship, but reading about their ancestors was at times a bit much. There were also way too many footnotes that I found distracting. Overall, however, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical events and/or the Titanic itself. Gareth Russell did a great job bringing the people and the ship to life. I look forward to more books by this author.
October 6, 2020
I've read many books on the Titanic, and this is one of the more unique. Many books focus on the regular passengers; this one focuses unabashedly on a few of the wealthy elites. This book is also written by a British author from a British perspective. If you want perfect details about the ship or a moment by moment account of the voyage and sinking, this is not your book. If you want to approach the voyage and tragedy from the interesting sociological perspectives of a few elites at the end of the Edwardian Era, this book will be a good read for you. Intermixed with pertinent up to date historical details of the ship, voyage and sinking, you will learn about the times and the experiences of a few of the elites on the voyage, including the Countess of Rothes, the Thayer family, Mr. and Mrs. Strauss, who owned Macy's; Titanic builder Thomas Andrews, and some others. How their elite world played out on the Titanic makes for a very interesting and unique account. This book does have a few short-comings. The photos aren't all that good, and the author has an annoying habit of referring to Andrews as "Tommy" and the Countess as "Noelle." Maybe their intimate friends called them that but I have never seen references like that in any other book, account, testimony or narrative. I did learn a few things I didn't know including that Mr. Strauss' body was recovered and buried in a masoleum in New York without his unrecovered wife. All in all in the myriad of Titanic books, this is an interesting and worthwhile sociological account.
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