Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal [Hardcover]

Deborah Cadbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

A world that had changed little from the Middle Ages was altered beyond recognition by the engineering genius of the nineteenth century:rivers 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British historian and Emmy Award-winning BBC producer Cadbury (The Last King of France, etc.) chronicles seven great engineering feats of the 19th and early 20th centuries: the Great Eastern, the largest ocean-going vessel of the mid-19th century; the London sewer system; the U.S. transcontinental railroad; the Brooklyn Bridge; the Panama Canal; the Hoover Dam; and, least known, Scotland's Bell Rock Lighthouse. Cadbury pays special attention to the visionary, sometimes almost delusional men who were the human catalysts for these breakthrough accomplishments. Her choices are good ones, as the fascinating personalities at the center of these endeavors include corrupt manipulators, selfless crusaders and arrogant self-promoters, all of whom share a preternatural single-mindedness, which is at the core of their successes. Cadbury also describes the human costs that success required, often of the founders of these enterprises and invariably of those who moved the steel, dug the holes and poured the concrete. The cumulative loss of lives on these projects was in the thousands, and Cadbury is unsparing in her descriptions of the ways death occurred. Men were boiled alive in a boiler malfunction on the Great Eastern; blown up, scalped or mutilated while working on the transcontinental railroad; and entombed in concrete while building Hoover Dam. But the book is not a social commentary about the reckless disregard of 19th-century industrialists; it is, rather, dedicated to the human ingenuity displayed in these battles with a stubborn and capricious natural world. Readers who enjoyed the challenge of building the 1893 World's Fair in The Devil and the White City will find much to revel in here.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The lengthy subtitle tells the story of this fascinating look at technological triumphs in the nineteenth century. (The book complements a five-part television series scheduled to air in 2004 on the Learning Channel.) Cadbury begins with the story of the largest oceangoing vessel in the history of the world, the Great Eastern, which was envisioned by its creator as "a floating city, majestic by day and a brilliant mirage at night," a ship that would carry 4,000 passengers across the seas. It was a mammoth project with massively disappointing results, but the Great Eastern was indeed a wonder. Other nineteenth-century wonders, such as Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, and the North American transcontinental railroad, proved more successful, but what all seven wonders have in common is this: they were born of big ideas. The nineteenth century, Cadbury emphasizes, was the dividing line between the old world and the new, between a world that hadn't changed much in centuries and one in which rapid change, especially in technology, would become a way of life. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First American edition. edition (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007163061
• ISBN-13: 978-0007163069
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars HISTORY LITE, May 18, 2004

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (Hardcover)

DREAMS OF IRON AND STEEL is a serving of History Lite. It is the written form of a BBC television series, subtitled "Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century". The subtitle is symptomatic of what is wrong with the book. In order to come up with seven wonders, Deborah Cadbury has stretched the nineteenth centruy to 1931 when Boulder Dam was begun. Her focus on one or two individuals who designed or constructed each of the wonders is probably dictated by the exigencies of television, rather than her adherence to the "great man" theory of history. Cadbury has the good taste, at least, to idolize the engineers and superintendent of the US intercontinental railroad instead of the crooked financiers who backed the project, as the late Stephen Ambrose did.

The British wonders are more interesting to an American reader because they are not so well known here. Cadbury's gaffs in setting the historical scene in Victorian Britain are less obvious to the reader in this country than the American ones. Example: "Nothern plans to abolish slavery had prompted seven southern states to break away and form the Confederate States of America." That statement wouldn't even pass muster in a high school essay on the causes of the Civil War.

Cadbury writes well, if a trifle overdramatically. That too may be traceable to the book's parentage. She appends a large "Bibliography and Sources" section at the end for readers seeking more substantial fare.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, March 15, 2004

By 

J. head (littlteton, nh USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (Hardcover)

A very well written book that covers what the author has chosen to be subtitled ?The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.? The basis of this book is that, worldwide the knowledge and the production of iron and steel had reached the point where certain engineering visionaries dared to start considering the material?s properties to build on a grander scale than traditional wood and stone would allow. In little more than the span of a century these diverse engineering projects set a new world standard in their respective fields, and it became the basis for catapulting Western civilization into the modern era of undertaking grand projects. Deborah Cadbury, the author has a very nice writing style. The subject is easily understood, and there is no math. The author evidently did a large amount of research, she includes a bit of background material, but keeps the subject relevant to the central theme. The author does not delve into the engineering details of the problems, but generally strives to give the reader an overall view of the main problems encountered, usually a collection of engineering, financial and political obstacles.
As with most books explaining engineering techniques, a few more diagrams would have been helpful. One consistent pattern throughout many of the projects is that the Engineer/Visionary generally were obsessive control freaks when it came to their projects, and as their project came to life it manifested itself as exacting an equal toll on their health. The title is a little misleading, three of the projects, London Sewers, Bell rock Lighthouse, and the Hoover Dam deal mainly with stone or concrete. The subtitle would be better suited to be the title of this book. This reader highly recommends this enjoyable book

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent survey of fantastic 19th century engineering, February 21, 2004

By 

Kevin C. B. "Opportunistic reader" (Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Nineteenth Century, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (Hardcover)

Engineering can at times be less than interesting, yet it was not always so. During the middle of the 19th century, materials and automated power made new endeavors that were once far-fetched dreams, bright new possibilities. Deborah Cadbury skillfully holds the reader enthralled during the tale of each endeavor, laying out the politics, players, economics, and natural obstacles that confronted the dreamer engineers who sought to make the world more civilized and safe for their fellow human. The one aspect of each engineer that struck me above all, was simply the nearly masochistic work ethic each of them displayed in their attempts to accomplish their dream.

All but three of these engineering marvels are notable because of the large impact they had on civilization at large, not simply within the geographic area in which they were manifest.

The three exceptions are monuments to overcoming fantastic environmental challenges to save lives and safeguard property that serve as examples of excellence and durability to this day.

Another aspect of these marvels that presented itself unexpectedly, was the assistance from, or directly to the medical profession from at least three of these projects. It is actually somewhat frustrating to think how many lives could have been saved if only someone had listened to the medical professionals at an earlier point in these specific endeavors.

To summarize, the subject matter is relayed in an entertaining fashion, with due consideration to detailing the people and their motives within the scope of each project, yet without compromising a suitable measure of objectivity. There are more detailed books regarding each project, but I believe "Dreams of Iron and Steel" manages an admirable compromise between informative detail and skillful story telling to merit five stars for excellence and motivational inspiration to succeed.