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Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal
A world that had changed little from the Middle Ages was altered beyond recognition by the engineering genius of the nineteenth tamed, oceans pacified, continents bridged. In Dreams of Iron and Steel, acclaimed historian Deborah Cadbury tells the heroic tale of the visionaries and ordi-nary workers who brought to life seven wonders of engi-neering that still have the power to awe and inspire us today. From the London sewers that banished cholera to the Panama Canal that shaved thousands of miles off a dangerous sea passage, from the Hoover Dam that diverted the world's most unpredictable river to give power to over half of the country to the transcontinental railroad that fulfilled the dream of manifest destiny, Dreams of Iron and Steel reveals the epic struggles and personal stories of the most brilliant pioneers of the industrial age, and the financiers and politicians who hung on for the ride as fortunes and reputations were lost and won. Fueled by Deborah Cadbury's characteristic scholarship and insight, this extraordinary chronicle re-createsthe human odyssey of how our modern world was forged -- with rivets, grease, and steam, but also with blood, sweat, and extreme imagination.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
3 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Cadbury
23 books171 followersDeborah Cadbury is an award-winning British author and BBC television producer specialising in fundamental issues of science and history, and their effects on modern society.
After graduating from Sussex University in Psychology and Linacre College, Oxford she joined the BBC as a documentary maker and has received numerous international awards, including an Emmy, for her work on the BBC's Horizon strand.
She is also the highly-acclaimed author of The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, The Feminisation of Nature, The Dinosaur Hunters, The Lost King of France and Space Race.
(Source: Wikipedia, HarperCollins)
After graduating from Sussex University in Psychology and Linacre College, Oxford she joined the BBC as a documentary maker and has received numerous international awards, including an Emmy, for her work on the BBC's Horizon strand.
She is also the highly-acclaimed author of The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, The Feminisation of Nature, The Dinosaur Hunters, The Lost King of France and Space Race.
(Source: Wikipedia, HarperCollins)
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 29, 2016
I knew going in that this was a book about the nineteenth century (well, mostly about the nineteenth century; two of the seven projects discussed were built in the twentieth); I was unprepared for how much it was written in the style/perspective of the nineteenth century as well. This is a book that subscribes very strongly to the Great Man theory of history and that lavishes its protagonists with accolades; they are "geniuses," "visionaries," men determined to triumph at any cost.
Unfortunately, anyone who knows anything about nineteenth century engineering knows how often that cost was borne by people other than great men. And so I find it difficult to feel sympathy for those poor, striving great men, working themselves until their doctors order them to bed rest, when meanwhile thousands of laborers were working on their projects, often dying as a result, often with no access to doctors at all.
The book acknowledges the tremendous cost each of the marvels discussed took on its workforce, but it doesn't seem to feel that this should have any impact on the reader's respect for its Great Men. The end result gave me whiplash. In the chapter on the Great Eastern, for example, there's a description of an explosion on the ship that literally boiled five men alive. We then move in the next paragraph to the engineer learning of this: "He was told of the huge explosion at sea and the terrible damage to the ship. It was a shock from which he could not recover. It was not the right news for a man with such a fragile hold on life. Nor was it just payment for his labor of love. He died on September 15."
Not: "the terrible deaths of his men." That apparently is unimportant. No, "the terrible damage to the ship." It may be an accurate reproduction of the upper-class nineteenth-century mindset that the deaths of poor laborers matter less than the destruction of a ship, but for this modern reader, the emphasis on one tragedy over the other was jarring. It gets worse in later chapters, such as the one on the Hoover Dam, where workers' deaths and injuries were unarguably caused by corner-cutting on safety practices by the company--and yet the book still cheers the creators of the dam for finishing ahead of schedule and under budget, despite the lives that might have been saved had they cared just a little bit less about their bonuses. Sometimes the writing is (to me) bafflingly unsympathetic of the workers' plight:
"Courage was the unspoken but necessary qualification for anyone who worked at Hoover Dam and courage had been in plentiful supply amongst the men who had gouged out the four three-quarter-mile-long tunnels in temperatures of 130 degrees, and in an atmosphere heavily laced with the lethal exhaust of a hundred lorries. But six of these workers whose health had been ruined now decided to sue Six Companies for carbon monoxide poisoning. Their lawyer, Harry Austin, was claiming at least $75,000 for each of them. Many more workers watched the proceedings with interest. Thousands had been suffering health problems after working in the dreadful conditions and wondered what their chances were of making what looked like an easy $75,000 from a very rich company."
An easy $75,000. An easy $75,000.
The Transcontinental Railroad chapter also made for painful reading, there because of the stereotyping and dehumanization of non-white people--the Native Americans are "brutal" and "demonic," the Chinese "obedient" and "stoic."
As a light-weight collection of engineering trivia about various projects, the book was occasionally interesting (particularly the Bell Rock Lighthouse chapter, a project I knew nothing about before I read this book and which involved some fascinating structural challenges)--but as social history it fails utterly. And I have very little interest in engineering separated from the context of the society around it.
Oh well. It did give me a greater appreciation for Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. Next to Cadbury, Karabell is a master of nuanced characterization--and the background he gave on Lesseps made me raise my eyebrow at some of Cadbury's claims in her Panama Canal chapter (particularly her breezy description of the ease by which Lesseps raised the money for Suez, which . . . let us say does not match Karabell's more detailed discussion).
Unfortunately, anyone who knows anything about nineteenth century engineering knows how often that cost was borne by people other than great men. And so I find it difficult to feel sympathy for those poor, striving great men, working themselves until their doctors order them to bed rest, when meanwhile thousands of laborers were working on their projects, often dying as a result, often with no access to doctors at all.
The book acknowledges the tremendous cost each of the marvels discussed took on its workforce, but it doesn't seem to feel that this should have any impact on the reader's respect for its Great Men. The end result gave me whiplash. In the chapter on the Great Eastern, for example, there's a description of an explosion on the ship that literally boiled five men alive. We then move in the next paragraph to the engineer learning of this: "He was told of the huge explosion at sea and the terrible damage to the ship. It was a shock from which he could not recover. It was not the right news for a man with such a fragile hold on life. Nor was it just payment for his labor of love. He died on September 15."
Not: "the terrible deaths of his men." That apparently is unimportant. No, "the terrible damage to the ship." It may be an accurate reproduction of the upper-class nineteenth-century mindset that the deaths of poor laborers matter less than the destruction of a ship, but for this modern reader, the emphasis on one tragedy over the other was jarring. It gets worse in later chapters, such as the one on the Hoover Dam, where workers' deaths and injuries were unarguably caused by corner-cutting on safety practices by the company--and yet the book still cheers the creators of the dam for finishing ahead of schedule and under budget, despite the lives that might have been saved had they cared just a little bit less about their bonuses. Sometimes the writing is (to me) bafflingly unsympathetic of the workers' plight:
"Courage was the unspoken but necessary qualification for anyone who worked at Hoover Dam and courage had been in plentiful supply amongst the men who had gouged out the four three-quarter-mile-long tunnels in temperatures of 130 degrees, and in an atmosphere heavily laced with the lethal exhaust of a hundred lorries. But six of these workers whose health had been ruined now decided to sue Six Companies for carbon monoxide poisoning. Their lawyer, Harry Austin, was claiming at least $75,000 for each of them. Many more workers watched the proceedings with interest. Thousands had been suffering health problems after working in the dreadful conditions and wondered what their chances were of making what looked like an easy $75,000 from a very rich company."
An easy $75,000. An easy $75,000.
The Transcontinental Railroad chapter also made for painful reading, there because of the stereotyping and dehumanization of non-white people--the Native Americans are "brutal" and "demonic," the Chinese "obedient" and "stoic."
As a light-weight collection of engineering trivia about various projects, the book was occasionally interesting (particularly the Bell Rock Lighthouse chapter, a project I knew nothing about before I read this book and which involved some fascinating structural challenges)--but as social history it fails utterly. And I have very little interest in engineering separated from the context of the society around it.
Oh well. It did give me a greater appreciation for Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal. Next to Cadbury, Karabell is a master of nuanced characterization--and the background he gave on Lesseps made me raise my eyebrow at some of Cadbury's claims in her Panama Canal chapter (particularly her breezy description of the ease by which Lesseps raised the money for Suez, which . . . let us say does not match Karabell's more detailed discussion).
June 7, 2009
Last year I listened to an audiobook covering the Panamal Canal in great detail, even more about the initial French attempt than the later American success. This book discussed the Panamal Canal, too, but in shorter format, and with other great engineering marvels of the Industrial Revolution. It was a good overview of them all, and someday I may read full accounts of several. The Brooklyn Bridge and London Sewers are fascinating engineering achievements I'd enjoy reading more about. I'm still looking for a good book about the building of the Eiffel Tower, too.
I believe this book is a companion volume to a BBC television special. I was aware of a particular British slant to these chapters, including a shift in achievements from Britain to America. It gave the chapter about America's Transcontinental Railroad a curious interpretation (the California's Big Four aren't always described so generously).
I believe this book is a companion volume to a BBC television special. I was aware of a particular British slant to these chapters, including a shift in achievements from Britain to America. It gave the chapter about America's Transcontinental Railroad a curious interpretation (the California's Big Four aren't always described so generously).
January 19, 2023
This is the story of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial Age: The Great Eastern, The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Panama Canal, The London Sewers, The Hoover Dam, The Brooklyn Bridge and the Transcontinental Railroad. The Bell Rock Lighthouse and the Brooklyn Bridge were the highlights for me, although every story was incredible. I highlighted those two because they both gave me stress nightmares.
I really loved this book (despite the stress nightmares) and I'm currently making my husband read it. Although as an engineer, it's making him feel bad that he isn't more ambitious, out building crazy things that seem impossible. I had to remind him that it was much easier to go out and build crazy, impossible things before we had workplace health and safety laws and labour unions. A ton of workers involved in every one of the projects discussed here ended up dying in horrible ways and the engineers in charge are like "what can you do?"
ETA: I re-read this book and loved it just as much the second time. This time I also noticed that in more than one instance in this book, some horrible ailment was killing workers and a doctor AT THE TIME figured out how to help them and was not believed. In the case of the Brooklyn Bridge, someone figured out that coming up more slowly and gradually from the caisson seemed to prevent the bends, but no one believed him. So people got the bends and died from the bends. In the case of the Panama Canal, a doctor discovered that malaria and yellow fever were mosquito-borne but lawmakers in the U.S. didn't believe him. Luckily, he just quietly went ahead with efforts to reduce the mosquito population (like spraying pesticides, pouring oil on standing water to prevent egg-laying, and providing better mosquito-netting). I thought this was so interesting.
I really loved this book (despite the stress nightmares) and I'm currently making my husband read it. Although as an engineer, it's making him feel bad that he isn't more ambitious, out building crazy things that seem impossible. I had to remind him that it was much easier to go out and build crazy, impossible things before we had workplace health and safety laws and labour unions. A ton of workers involved in every one of the projects discussed here ended up dying in horrible ways and the engineers in charge are like "what can you do?"
ETA: I re-read this book and loved it just as much the second time. This time I also noticed that in more than one instance in this book, some horrible ailment was killing workers and a doctor AT THE TIME figured out how to help them and was not believed. In the case of the Brooklyn Bridge, someone figured out that coming up more slowly and gradually from the caisson seemed to prevent the bends, but no one believed him. So people got the bends and died from the bends. In the case of the Panama Canal, a doctor discovered that malaria and yellow fever were mosquito-borne but lawmakers in the U.S. didn't believe him. Luckily, he just quietly went ahead with efforts to reduce the mosquito population (like spraying pesticides, pouring oil on standing water to prevent egg-laying, and providing better mosquito-netting). I thought this was so interesting.
December 21, 2016
Well written, but the stories themselves are the draw. Our modern, OSHA-supervised western world can easily forget the sacrifice (of self... and others...) in the construction and innovation of the untried and untested. I've read bits of the book before, and wanted the whole treatment. The video series that illustrates each chapter is available on YouTube... that adds to the complexity and texture of the whole experience.
July 30, 2022
Cadbury writes chapter-length treatments of seven marvels of engineering from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the Great Eastern steamship, the Bell Rock lighthouse, the Brooklyn Bridge, the London sewer system, the US transcontinental railroad, the Panama Canal, and the Hoover Dam. Some of these I'd read about before at greater length (I recommend McCullough's Great Bridge on the Brooklyn Bridge, and his The Path Between the Seas on the Panama Canal), but the stories new to me did indeed make me marvel.
The common theme Cadbury draws in these is that, for the first time, science and technology were ready to take on problems of such a marvelous scale; and society was at a level where just a few people could visibly lead them. I wish she'd explore that at greater length; the book she actually wrote loses that theme after a brief glance in the introduction and never returns to it. She does describe the stories in a way that could support it, but she doesn't even signpost them. I think it's a very defensible theme, which would interplay interestingly with the ideas of recent technological stagnation some pundits have proposed. I'd love to see it explored at greater length.
But, the book we do have is a good quick look at these marvels. I hadn't appreciated at all the timing of the London sewers with respect to germ theory and cholera epidemics, or the wonder of diverting the whole Colorado River through tunnels in a canyon side (!) to build a dam on the old riverbed, or so many other things shown here.
The common theme Cadbury draws in these is that, for the first time, science and technology were ready to take on problems of such a marvelous scale; and society was at a level where just a few people could visibly lead them. I wish she'd explore that at greater length; the book she actually wrote loses that theme after a brief glance in the introduction and never returns to it. She does describe the stories in a way that could support it, but she doesn't even signpost them. I think it's a very defensible theme, which would interplay interestingly with the ideas of recent technological stagnation some pundits have proposed. I'd love to see it explored at greater length.
But, the book we do have is a good quick look at these marvels. I hadn't appreciated at all the timing of the London sewers with respect to germ theory and cholera epidemics, or the wonder of diverting the whole Colorado River through tunnels in a canyon side (!) to build a dam on the old riverbed, or so many other things shown here.
January 3, 2021
Very interesting! About 7 engineering feats from about 1850-1940.
The Panama Canal
The London Sewers
The Great Eastern (ship)
The Bell Rock Lighthouse
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Transcontinental Railroad
The Hoover Dam
The Panama Canal
The London Sewers
The Great Eastern (ship)
The Bell Rock Lighthouse
The Brooklyn Bridge
The Transcontinental Railroad
The Hoover Dam
February 3, 2025
BLUF: Good overview of several of the world's amazing architectural designs built during the 1800s
I wish the author had spent a little more time on the Hoover Dam and Panama Canal, as those were the two structures I was most interested in, but the entire book was a good read.
I wish the author had spent a little more time on the Hoover Dam and Panama Canal, as those were the two structures I was most interested in, but the entire book was a good read.
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January 9, 2021Stevenson's Bell Rock lighthouse. London sewage system. Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal. Hoover Dam and the transcontinental railroad. Engineering history.
January 26, 2021
Great stories, some worthy pictures, and a nice conversational presentation. A pleasant distraction from Covid19.
September 17, 2021
This is an engaging and informative collection of stories about the 19th and early 20th century approach to the realization of mammoth-scale obstruction projects.
December 10, 2021
Amazing stories of engineering projects and the people behind the feats. Leaves you wanting more detail for each of the stories...
May 3, 2023
If ever there were a vacation book for an engineer, this would be it. Click below for full review.
https://thatladywhoreadsalot.wordpres...
https://thatladywhoreadsalot.wordpres...
June 9, 2015
Well-done vignettes about the "seven wonders of the Nineteenth Century", the engineering marvels
Great Eastern Passenger Ship
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Brooklyn Bridge
London Sewers
Transcontinental Railroad
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
The only drawback is that the author makes no attempt to tie together the common threads of these massive projects, or explain the selection criteria for these projects. For example, why does the Hoover Dam belong in this list, since it was not begun and completed until the 1930's? OK, so the idea was first floated in 1899, so it might fit, if we understood the selection criteria.
There are common threads that run through each of these stories:
1), An intense engineering mind behind the effort drives it forward at the expense of his health, fortune, and even life.
2). Managing the massive labor force necessary to complete the project is more than the engineer can manage.
3). The total cost and schedule required to complete the project are drastically underestimated.
4). The project reaches a nadir at which it is expected it will never be completed.
5). An entrepreneur or management-minded project leader is able to drive the project to completion.
6). The resulting infrastructure lasts longer and has more benefits than estimated, so that the cost/benefit of the project is overwhelmingly positive.
The author could have made these connections for us and moved this book up a notch.
Great Eastern Passenger Ship
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Brooklyn Bridge
London Sewers
Transcontinental Railroad
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
The only drawback is that the author makes no attempt to tie together the common threads of these massive projects, or explain the selection criteria for these projects. For example, why does the Hoover Dam belong in this list, since it was not begun and completed until the 1930's? OK, so the idea was first floated in 1899, so it might fit, if we understood the selection criteria.
There are common threads that run through each of these stories:
1), An intense engineering mind behind the effort drives it forward at the expense of his health, fortune, and even life.
2). Managing the massive labor force necessary to complete the project is more than the engineer can manage.
3). The total cost and schedule required to complete the project are drastically underestimated.
4). The project reaches a nadir at which it is expected it will never be completed.
5). An entrepreneur or management-minded project leader is able to drive the project to completion.
6). The resulting infrastructure lasts longer and has more benefits than estimated, so that the cost/benefit of the project is overwhelmingly positive.
The author could have made these connections for us and moved this book up a notch.
January 17, 2012
Originally a television show aired on the BBC in Britain, "Dreams of Iron and Steel" is TV presenter Deborah Cadbury's print version of the popular series. In it, she looks at seven wonders of the industrial age: the Great Eastern, London sewer system, Brooklyn Bridge, Panama Canal, transcontinental railroad, Bell Rock Lighthouse and Hoover Dam. Each modern marvel receives its own chapter in which Cadbury delves just deep enough into the topic to keep the reader informed and interested. She gives enough technical information to show the genius of each design, and tells of the common workers and the conditions they endured to build each of the seven wonders. If anything, Cadbury's book is as much about the people as it is the technology. And, considering the volumes that have been written about every one of the wonders in this book, she manages to narrow each one down to perhaps 40 or 50 pages, making "Dreams of Iron and Steel" a captivating read.
BBC History has a brief summary of it's popular series along with a gallery of images that were not put in the book.
BBC History has a brief summary of it's popular series along with a gallery of images that were not put in the book.
September 9, 2008
Fascinating and memorable stories. Cadbury skillfully outlines the background of these huge projects, including the problems that seemed unsolvable, then follows up with the stories of the men who overcame all the obstacles to build these "wonders." It's not very often that civil engineers are the heroes of a book, but it was certainly the case here. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was probably my favorite story, for the sheer ingenuity, perserverance, and hard work it took to solve what seemed an impossible problem.
May 13, 2013
I am consistently fascinated by accounts of great engineering feats, as I can never quite fathom how large-scale things come to be built. I relished each one of these stand-alone chapters, particularly the one on the London Sewers, and learned for the first time EVER about the Great Eastern. Really. I do wish the author had added appendices about the materials used in these projects - some background on iron and steel, particularly the labor involved in producing them, would have added welcome context.
February 24, 2009
This book is companion to the BBC series on the following great engineering feats:
Bell Rock Lighthouse
London Sewers
Great Eastern ship
Transcontinental Railroad
Brooklyn Bridge
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
The book is an easy read, and a cursory examination of each project. It will lead you to read more about each engineering marvel.
Bell Rock Lighthouse
London Sewers
Great Eastern ship
Transcontinental Railroad
Brooklyn Bridge
Panama Canal
Hoover Dam
The book is an easy read, and a cursory examination of each project. It will lead you to read more about each engineering marvel.
September 11, 2009
It boggles the mind to read about the sheer amounts of money, time, effort and lives that went into the building of these seven wonders. What a different world we live in now; we would never put up with this kind of body count, but in many ways machine power has replaced manpower and we no longer need to throw armies of workers into the breach. Fascinating and compelling.
June 11, 2013
Succinct and thoroughly enjoyable. Each of the 7 subjects gets told in under 40 pages, so the book flies by. Cadbury doesn’t waste any words, and still manages to evoke colorful scenes. I connected with the Brooklyn bridge segment the most. I would like to read much more on that. The book is probably best as an introduction for people unfamiliar with the subjects.
March 27, 2008
This book explains and recounts some of the most spectacular achievements of Victorian construction and engineering from the London Sewers, the Great Eastern, the Bell Rock Light, the Brooklyn Bridge and even (Suprisingly), Hoover Dam,
August 7, 2012
A very interesting account of seven engineering "wonders," with interesting anecdotes and overviews of their construction. Cadbury, refreshingly, doesn't shy away from frank discussion of the horrendous experiences of the laborers who realized the visions of the "great" engineers.
December 14, 2009
Despite the title, this book is really more about the people behind the projects. And that human interest is captivating. Good storytelling for each.
August 13, 2011
loved it.. couldn't put it down. human ingenuity knows no bounds!
May 29, 2012
Enjoyable, although a bit light on details/depth (most likely due to the need to cover multiple massive projects within a single book).
August 17, 2012
Seven interesting tales of engineering advances in the days before CAD.
January 14, 2018
Another very readable book by Deborah. Full of interesting historical nuggets. I didnt know that the building of the London sewers would be so interesting!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews