Customer Reviews

Complete Idiot's Guide to TITANIC (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have studied the wreck of the Titanic for over 15 years and I've found this book to be lacking some of the basic details. For example, the book stated that all the women and children from First and Second class survived. This is not true. The book also mentioned the Navratil boys (the Orphans of the Deep) who were misnamed Lolo and Momon in the book. The boys' real names were Edmond (2 years old) and Michel (4 years old). Aside from the trivial facts, I feel that the book makes light of this horrendous disaster with the cartoon characters. The book was confusing because it didn't follow any chronological order before or after the accident. This might be difficult to someone who doesn't know much about what happened on 14-15 April, 1912. The book mentions a color photo spread in the middle of the book, but these photos can be seen anywhere and add little, if any, historical significance. {For example: There are a few pictures of the mostly intact bow, but none of the severely damaged stern. The picture spread consists mostly of still frames from several movies that have been done about the Titanic). This book might be entertaining to those who want to be somewhat enlightened about the disaster; however, those who have studied the Titanic in detail should probably pass this one up. Those who might read it for fun should be aware of the many inaccuracies contained in this book.

I agree with the previous review and also noted the inaccurate info on Lorraine Allison [note in the Lynch Marschall book Titanic an Illustrated History-p. 133 the picture of the family on the staircase shows little Lorraine in her father's arms, the family spent the night searching in vain for the family baby-Trevor who was taken off of the ship by the family nurse-Alice Marie Cleaver-unknown to the parents- a picture of Lorraine and the baby appears on p. 214 of that book]. The Idiot's guide also has some pretty simplistic info on a number of things [describing the set in the movie Titanic as being on a huge "hinge" for example] and other errors, such as identifying the forward anchor crane as a cargo crane. Still there is a lot of material here, and it is a worthy introduction to the subject.

There is so much information in this book, you'll be amazed! I love books on Titanic,and this book has so much about it.

It's not hard to see all the mistakes in this book, because I had been reading about Titanic (along with a few other wrecks) for the last 16 years. It's not quite proper to see the cartoonish characters on just about every page, but it seems to be "The Complete Idiot's Guide" series' style and trademark. I hate to see those mistakes in there, but nonetheless, it is a pretty "complete guide" to this grand dame named Titanic. It's filled with vast information divided in small sections that reading it is not hard at all.

I am a Titanic-historian in training. I thought I knew everthing, but I found I was wrong. There were so many new facts I had no idea about. I loved the side info such as the diffinitions. I also loved the appendixs that gave the passanger list, crew list, and the cargo list. I thought that was SO AWSOME!!!!!!! Gave me a lot of info for my website.

This book has the basic facts about Titanic, but it also has some really cool facts about the ship and the people on it. It's a great reference book if you need to look up a fact, instead of trying to read every single detail about the ship in a big book. (I've tried it) But if you do want a more detailed book look some where else. My favorite things about this book are- The appendixes, the good layout, and all the weird facts (I like the chapter Deep Prophicies)

For those who do not need love stories or socialogical studies, this is a terrific reference book. It is touted as trivia, but it is much more than that. It is also very accurate except for the final analysis of iceberg vs. rivets. For years I never believed that the iceberg ripped a gash in the ship like a knife. That could not happen simply because ice is much, much softer and much, much more brittle than one-inch thick steel plates. But the iceberg is massive, several times heavier than the ship. So it was just a matter of weight that pushed the shell plating in and ripping open rivet seams like zippers. This book addresses some of those findings and misses the final analysis by only a split hair when it mentions the possibility of inferior iron in the rivets. In fact, William Garzke of Gibbs and Cox (see his and Dunlin's books on Battleships) analyzed the few rivets that were recovered from Titanic and found them to be highly contaminated with carbon inclusions. It is apparent then that rather than being forged from high quality steel bar stock (as the High Tensile Steel rivets were for American warships) the rivets were quickly cast in multiple molds for fast production. The reheating and driving of the rivets did not restructure the grains of the alloy to give the shank maximum resistance against shear as a forged rivet would. Hopefully the next printing of the book will include this finding.

It was bad enough having to look at a cutesy cartoon of a sea captain throughout this book, but then when this same jolly figure was placed alongside details of death - well it just seemed to indicate that whoever pulled this book together just didn't get it. This was an epic tragedy - not some cutesy little fun subject.

Information overload! Yes this has it all, from construction to passengers thru Titanimania that has sweeped the world. Very lighthearted, and easy to brouse through. Unfortunately, several errors are evident. From page 4 typo; Harland and Woolf, should be Wolff; to page 38 stating all first-class children survived, NOT so, young Lorrine Allison of Canada died with her parents. I counted 12 mistakes. Quite ironic for a book entitled the complete idiot's guide to the Titanic. But for the buff who has to have everything, go for it!

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic killed 40 million people. The sinking of The Titanic killed around 1500. To the reviewer Piper. You wasted 15 years of your life studying this worthless Titanic event?