When the ship of dreams sank, so did the Edwardian era. In this
original and meticulously-researched narrative history, Gareth
Russell considers the real story of the Titanic, and the seismic
shift of modernity the 1910s have come to mark in the West. Had she
survived her first voyage, The Titanic probably would have dated
like other ocean liners. Instead, within a week of setting sail on
10th April 1912, the disaster of her sinking had turned her into
one of the biggest news stories of the century. Writing in his
signature prose, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of six
first-class travellers to immerse us into the Edwardian era while
demonstrating how modernity shook up the class system of the age.
Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; "son" of the British Empire, Tommy
Andrews; captain of the industry John Thayer and his son Jack;
Jewish immigrant Ida Straus; and model and movie star Dorothy
Gibson. Each subject's unique story offers insights into the
established hierarchy during the fin de siecle of pre-war Britain
and America, the Titanic's respective spiritual and economic
homelands. Through these entwining lives, Russell investigates
social class - its mores, its foibles, its accents, its etiquette,
its benefits, its casual or intentional cruelties, its potential
nobility. Those nuances also invite analyses of the shipping trade,
the birth of the movie industry, the aristocracy, the American
Gilded Age, the Irish Home Rule crisis, and Jewish-American
communities. The Titanic is the vessel in which we can extrapolate
lessons on hubris, folly, greed, love, class, magnificent courage
and pitiable weakness. She carried thousands of people and, in that
way, she still has thousands of stories to tell. Drawing on brand
new and unpublished materials, journal entries and film archives
from the time, The Darksome Bounds of a Failing World focuses on
the symbolism of the Titanic as the floating symbol of
Anglo-American success, its clientele an apt illustration of the
limitless - technological, financial - possibilities of its time.
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