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

Steven Biel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

An immensely readable, provocative, and entertaining exploration of the Titanic as cultural icon.

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

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The largest movable object ever constructed by man when it was launched, the supposedly unsinkable Titanic has inspired novels, songs, poetry, movies, and even a mysterious black stoker named Shine who never existed on the actual ship. Steven Biel traces all these avatars and explores the social and cultural myths that the disaster gave rise to--and destroyed. The recent attempts to raise the Titanic's wreckage have demonstrated that the myths have not lost their power. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Another book on the Titanic, but this one deals not with how the great ship went down but rather with the disaster as a cultural icon and how, from the very beginning, in 1912, it has been used to promote all manner of ideological positions. Biel's tone is sometimes stiffly academic, sometimes almost playful, but his curiosity, fortified by a good deal of inspired research, has produced a new look at an old story that is both entertaining and instructive. The first half deals with the immediate reaction to the sinking. Feminists and anti-feminists fought over the meaning of the traditional naval call of "women and children first": Did it reflect chivalry? Or the infantilization of women? Socialists used the sinking to attack the excesses of capitalism. The vessel surfaced in folk music, especially in the black community, where an entire genre of sometimes ribald verses about a black crew member named Shine flourished. The second half of the book deals with how the Titanic's story has been preserved. Biel (Independent Intellectuals in the United States, 1910-1945) examines films (including a Nazi propaganda movie), novels (Danielle Steel, Clive Cussler) and music (even Bob Dylan) and spends a good deal of time on Walter Lord's A Night to Remember, as a book (1955), TV show (1956) and film (1958). Biel concludes his provocative social history with a look at various clubs formed by Titanic enthusiasts and at efforts to exploit the wreckage of the ship. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393316769
• ISBN-13: 978-0393316766
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clever look at society's reaction to Titanic's sinking, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster (Paperback)

This is one of the few Titanic books currently in print which does more than rehash the same old sinking story. Instead, it looks at the reaction of society to the greatest marine tragedy of all time.

The success of Biel's book hinges on his meticulous research and thorough reporting of his findings. One chapter examines how the New York press reported the tragedy in the days following the sinking. Many authors are content to re-state what the New York Times said (accurately reporting that the ship had sunk), and what the New York Sun said (inaccurately reporting "All Saved From Titanic After Collision"). Biel digs deeper, and presents a range of reactions that vary from honest, dedicated journalism to wild speculation.

Biel's also examines how the Titanic affects us to this day. His analysis of Titanic movies such as "A Night to Remember", "Titanic" (1953), and "Raise the Titanic" give the reader a new perspective on these often-overlooked films. More than cinematic re-tellings of the sinking, they reveal the feelings and values of the people who made them.

Although it is not the most exciting of novels, it is a brave work that, like prospectors looking for gold, successfully finds new material in a world of tired, re-hashed, and looked-over facts.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Historically accurate but dramatically lacking, October 21, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster (Hardcover)

"Down With the Old Canoe," is a detailed rendering of the sociological impact of the Titanic disaster, from the time of her sinking to modern day "enthusiasts." Harvard educated Biel seems to want to include every tidbit and piece of trivia he can find on the impact the sinking had on the day-to-day lives of the worlds populace. He accurately chronicles the delay in America of women being given the right to vote; tying that decision into the chivalry shown by the male victims of the sinking. No sermon given on the evils of wealth for wealth's sake is left unmentioned as it pertained to the millionaires who lost their lives. Moden day "enthusiasts" and their reasons for being so enamored of the lost vessel are explored in depth, and make for fascinating reading. But Biel, himself, remains aloof from the subject; he never even attempts to connect, personally, with his subject. In the final chapters, he reveals that had been his intention: to not cast his person in the book itself. That aloofness; that lack of "first-person" gives "Down With the Old Canoe," a strange dichotomy. At times (especially in those areas dealing with the modern enthusiasts), is is as fast and entertaining a read as a current issue of Time, Newsweek or People magazines. At others, the story Biel attempts to relate is as dry and dull as attempting to read a term paper. Titanic afficinados will enjoy this book; others may want the more thrilling "A Night To Remember."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but a heavy-going piece of academic work, August 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster (Hardcover)

This is very interesting and poses some interesting questions. However, British readers should note that it is very US-centric. This is not a book for those who are not already enthusiasts about the Titanic.