Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Modern Age, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (P.S.) [Paperback]

Deborah Cadbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2005 | Series: P.S.

A world that had changed little from the Middle Ages was altered beyond recognition by the pioneering genius of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Dreams of Iron and Steel, acclaimed historian Deborah Cadbury tells the heroic tale of the visionaries and ordinary workers who brought to life seven great wonders of the world that still have the power to awe and inspire us today. Fueled by Deborah Cadbury's characteristic scholarship and insight, this extraordinary chronicle re-creates the human odyssey of how our modern world was forged not only with rivets, grease, and steam but also with blood, sweat, and extreme imagination.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“An engaging and informative read.” (San Francisco Chronicle )

“Engrossing...DREAMS OF IRON AND STEEL celebrates the triumphs not just of engineering but of the questing human spirit.” (Stephen Fox, author of Transatlantic )

“Cadbury has a knack for providing interesting asides…an engaging and informative read.” (San Francisco Chronicle )

“A fascinating look at the technological triumphs of the in the nineteenth century.” (Booklist )

About the Author

Deborah Cadbury is the highly acclaimed author of several books, including Dreams of Iron and Steel, The Lost King of France, and Terrible Lizard. She has also won numerous international awards as a television producer for the BBC. She lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000716307X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007163076
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > History > Americas > Central America > Panama

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional story telling of 7 great wonders by one of the best historians around, September 28, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Modern Age, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (P.S.) (Paperback)

If you haven't discovered Deborah Cadbury yet then she is one of the best and sharpest writers around. Her text is spare, her research impeccable, and her ability to draw out threads without resorting to tabloid sensationalism makes for satisfying reading. In this, her third book, Cadbury covers the seven wonders of the industrial world, putting the feats, their makers, and the events into context of the time and what they have meant in history.

This is the GREAT industrial revolution. The 7 wonders are The Great Eastern (the largest boat of its time a double hulled steel boat by Brunel), The Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Brooklyn Bridge, The London Sewers, The Transcontinental Railroad, The Panama Canal and the Hoover Dam.

What I love about Cadbury is that she has not only picked 7 extremely diverse items, (dams, lighthouses, sewers, railroads, bridges, canals, and boats) but she manages to put them into the context of the history of that particular engineering feat, but also in context to the events of their own time.

Her research takes her right into the buidling as well - for instance with the building of the Great Eastern she talks about the need for large numbers of young boys who were employed inside the boat, working in appalling hot and cramped conditions and juggling white hot rivets. There were dreadful accidents but a steady supply of labour meant that new workers were never a problem. The sheer volume of workers however never even made it into the day book though, they were never considered important enough.

She relates this sheer volume of workers back to all these structures. They were all built through the enormous supply of labour available.

This does not denigrate the sheer feats of engineering which these men needed to create these structures. No one thought the Great Eastern would be able to sail. The London Sewers were built in competition with the Underground in London, The Transcontinental Railroad needed to have all the items shipped around by sea via the Cape to get to the WEstern Side of America. As an aside I would really recommend reading Laura INgalls Wilder's book on the Banks of Silver Lake, if you are interested in the Transcontinental as Wilder's father worked for a time on the Railroad and she describes the working day in excellent detail including how they 'flattened' out the prairies by hand.

I cannot emphasise enough how great the detail is in the book - for instance, the work on the Brooklyn Bridge laying the foundations lays bare the horrendous circumstances in which men worked, in 80 degree heat at the bottom of the river. Explosions at the edge of the caissons often resulted in blow outs of compressed air which would send a 'fury of debris and water" in a column as much as 500 feet in the air.

I saw the television series on this book but was very disappointed. It was reenactments and it just didn't bring the depth of detail which is in this book.

This is one of the best reads this year. I would strongly recommend it to anyone. Deborah Cadbury's books are excellent and she is on my must buy list.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Story Telling, February 14, 2006

By 

R. J Szasz "Rod Szasz" (Tokyo, Japan Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Modern Age, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (P.S.) (Paperback)

I bought this book because I thought the format and subject nature were most suitable for a long plane ride back to Japan: Seven Chapters on the engineering marvels of the modern world. Each different with its own challenges and particular history. The changing subject nature would keep me interested during the flight -- I was not dissapointed.

The storytelling here is first rate with a good introduction to the historical challenges and necessity of each project -- setting the story in its place as it were. Cadbury then spins anecdotes choosing what she wants and no doubt leaving out a lot of interesting and germane stuff... but it doesn't matter... the purpose of the book is to outline these great projects and, if one wants to, point one in the direction for more material related to such things as Brunel's "Great Eastern" or the Brooklyn Bridge, Hoover Dam or the Panama Canal.

The book has no pretensions to be a serious exposition of any of the projects. It is a good historical tale of each one of them with enough drama and description of the engineering difficulties and personalities to keep one's interest.

Serious Engineers may be expecting more... if so, you will need to look elsewhere. There are no sheer force equations, analysis of holding strength or geographic analysis of strata. But if there were I probably would not have bought this book.

It also fills a vital role in filling in some of our knowledge in these little known challenges that shaped our world so much... I hope I make as wise a choice of books for the next flight.

5.0 out of 5 stars Ms Cadbury is a wonderful writer, December 24, 2009

By 

John Dennis (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreams of Iron and Steel: Seven Wonders of the Modern Age, from the Building of the London Sewers to the Panama Canal (P.S.) (Paperback)

Ms Cadbury is a wonderful writer. Her prose is clean and clear. I had read the McCullough books on the Panama Canal and the
Brooklyn Bridge, and this gave me a basis to appreciate what a fine job she did on condensing these two topics.

So many history books are about politics or war, which I find boring, but the history of people actually doing something to make life better makes a great read.

I bought her Terrible Lizards, and I am looking forward to it.