Why does the story of the Titanic retain such a hold on the popular imagination, one hundred years after it sank on the night of 15 April 1912? In this new centenary edition, Howells explores the myths around the Titanic legend, showing what they reveal about the culture of their time, as well as the role that myth still plays in our lives today.
The first critical analysis of the Titanic as modern myth, this book focuses on the second of the two Titanics. The first was the physical Titanic, the rusting remains of which can still be found twelve thousand feet below the north Atlantic. The second is the mythical Titanic which emerged just as its tangible predecessor slipped from view on 15 April 1912. It is the second of the two Titanics which remains the more interesting and which continues to carry cultural resonances today. The Myth of the Titanic begins with the launching of the 'unsinkable ship' and ends with the outbreak of the 'war to end all wars'. It provides an insight into the particular culture of late Edwardian Britain and beyond this draws far greater conclusions about the complex relationship between myth, history, popular culture and society as a whole.
The first critical analysis of the Titanic as modern myth, this book focuses on the second of the two Titanics . The first was the physical Titanic , the rusting remains of which can still be found twelve thousand feet below the north Atlantic. The second is the mythical Titanic which emerged just as its tangible predecessor slipped from view on 15 April 1912. It is the second of the two Titanics which remains the more interesting and which continues to carry cultural resonances today. The Myth of the Titanic begins with the launching of the 'unsinkable ship' and ends with the outbreak of the 'war to end all wars'. It provides an insight into the particular culture of late-Edwardian Britain and beyond this draws far greater conclusions about the complex relationship between myth, history, popular culture and society as a whole.
Draws from letters, journals, court records, newspaper articles, family memoirs, and other authentic documentation to reconstruct the life of Margaret Tobin Brown, the Titanic survivor who inspired the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"; discussing her early years in Hannibal, Missouri, her political work, and her family.
A century after the most famous shipwreck in history, The Rough Guide to the Titanic tells the full compelling story of the supposedly unsinkable liner. A comprehensive history, it covers all the Titanic's final hours, from striking the iceberg to disappearing beneath the freezing Atlantic waters. Discover the epic human drama at the heart of the tragedy, with a rich cast of characters including the heroes, villains and victims aboard the Titanic, and the adventurers who re-discovered it in 1985. Plus, there are maps, diagrams and images to illustrate the saga at every turn. The focus also stretches backwards the people who built the Titanic - with their faith in progress and technology - and forwards to explore the controversies and conspiracy theories that have raged ever since its sinking. The Rough Guide to the Titanic also looks at quite why everybody appears to be so fascinated by the Titanic, and the books, music and movies that have kept its memory alive ever since - from the stiff upper lips of 1958's A Night To Remember to the tear jerking romance of James Cameron's Titanic.
The Titanic is one of the most famous maritime disasters of all time, but did the Titanic really sink on the morning of 15 April 1912? Titanic's older sister, the nearly identical Olympic, was involved in a serious accident in September 1911 – an accident that may have made her a liability to her owners the White Star Line. Since 1912 rumours of a conspiracy to switch the two sisters in an elaborate insurance scam has always loomed behind the tragic story of the Titanic. Could the White Star Line have really switched the Olympic with her near identical sister in a ruse to intentionally sink their mortally damaged flagship in April 1912, in order to cash in on the insurance policy? Laying bare the famous conspiracy theory, world-respected Titanic researchers investigate claims that the sister ships were switched in an insurance scam and provide definitive proof for whether it could - or could not - have happened.
Margaret (Molly) Brown is best known for her bravery and compassion during the tragic sinking of the Titanic, which catapulted her to international fame virtually overnight. But few people are aware that she was also an outspoken suffragist, a tireless champion of miners" rights, and one of the first women to run for the U.S. Congress. Raised in a working-class Mississippi River town, Margaret-who was never called Molly in her lifetime-followed her brother to a rough-and-tumble Colorado boomtown at a time when few women dared to settle in the then untamed West. She married a silver miner who eventually struck it rich, and she used her new wealth and social prominence to further her own education and to fight for the rights of others, regardless of their race or religious beliefs.This vivid account of Margaret Brown"s remarkable life from well-regarded author Elaine Landau shows how much a strong woman could accomplish, even at a time when few opportunities were available. Archival photographs and excerpts from early-twentieth-century newspapers and Brown family letters provide a clear picture of this forward-looking, energetic individual and the society that she strove to reform. Chronology, endnotes, bibliography, index.
"Brimming over with wit and insight…Fresh and fascinating." —Dan Rather Everyone from suffragists to 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 found moral and cultural lessons in the sinking of the Titanic. In a new edition that both commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the disaster and elaborates, in a revised afterword, on the ship's continued impact on the public imagination (evidenced by the Titanic mania evoked by James Cameron's 1997 film), Steven Biel explores the Titanic in all its complexity and contradictions.
This original and “meticulously researched retelling of history’s most infamous voyage” (Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author) uses the sinking of the Titanic as a prism through which to examine the end of the Edwardian era and the seismic shift modernity brought to the Western world. “While there are many Titanic books, this is one readers will consider a favorite” (Voyage). In April 1912, six notable people were among those privileged to experience the height of luxury—first class passage on “the ship of dreams,” the RMS Titanic: Lucy Leslie, Countess of Rothes; son of the British Empire Tommy Andrews; American captain of industry John Thayer and his son Jack; Jewish-American immigrant Ida Straus; and American model and movie star Dorothy Gibson. Within a week of setting sail, they were all caught up in the horrifying disaster of the Titanic’s sinking, one of the biggest news stories of the century. Today, we can see their stories and the Titanic’s voyage as the beginning of the end of the established hierarchy of the Edwardian era. Writing in his signature elegant prose and using previously unpublished sources, deck plans, journal entries, and surviving artifacts, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of these first-class travelers to immerse us in a time of unprecedented change in British and American history. Through their intertwining lives, he examines social, technological, political, and economic forces such as the nuances of the British class system, the explosion of competition in the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the Irish Home Rule Crisis, and the Jewish-American immigrant experience while also recounting their intimate stories of bravery, tragedy, and selflessness. Lavishly illustrated with color and black and white photographs, this is “a beautiful requiem” (The Wall Street Journal) in which “readers get the story of this particular floating Tower of Babel in riveting detail, and with all the wider context they could want” (Christian Science Monitor).
April 15th, 2012, will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. People have an endless fascination with the Titanic, yet much of what they know today is a mixture of fact and fiction. In one hundred and one brief and engaging chapters, Tim Maltin, one of the foremost experts on the Titanic, reveals the truth behind the most common beliefs about the ship and the night it sank. From physics to photographs, lawsuits to love stories, Maltin doesn't miss one tidbit surrounding its history. Heavily researched and filled with detailed descriptions, quotes from survivors, and excerpts from the official inquiries, this book is guaranteed to make readers rethink everything they thought they knew about the legendary ship and its tragic fate.