the sinking of the Titanic and the end of the Edwardian era
A product of Anglo-American capitalism, built by a generation that had never known trauma and was bored by its own prosperity and success, the Titanic set sail into a world that was about to change forever. Modernity was shaking the class system, the Industrial Revolution was creating new kinds of wealth, and revolutionary fervor would lead to The Great War. Exploring the infamous disaster from the perspectives of six of her first-class passengers--a British aristocrat, a celebrated maritime architect, an American railway tycoon and his son, a first-generation American philanthropist, and a silent movie star--The Ship of Dreams uses the ship's creation and her tragic fate as a window into the changing, unsettled world at the end of the Edwardian era. Utilizing previously unpublished sources, deck plans, and surviving artifacts, it disproves many of the most established myths about the Titanic, including the treatment of her third-class passengers, the conspiracies surrounding her construction, and the lives of some of her most famous passengers. As it places the Titanic in the sweep of history, The Ship of Dreams holds a wealth of riches for history lovers, encompassing the birth of the movie industry, the Irish Home Rule crisis, the American Civil War, the escalating wars between the great shipping companies, the technological inventions that changed ship design, changing political relationships across the globe; and the social nuances at play among the ship's passengers. Representing the limitless technological and financial possibilities of its time, The Titanic was also the embodiment of the the splendors and injustices of the Edwardian society, a world as doomed as the infamous ship sailing into dangerous, dark waters.
