Down with the Old Canoe - A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster

Publisher:W.W. Norton & Co Ltd., 1997 $13.95 USA

The sub-title of this book is of particular significance.  The Royal Mail Steamer Titanic bound from Southampton to New York hit an iceberg at 23.40 on 14^th April 1912 and sank at 02.05 the following morning.  The details of that tragic event in which 1,503 people died have been well-researched and recorded.  Steven Biel uses this point in, primarily, American history to explore the background to the disaster.  He deals with the economic, racial, ethnic, political, gender and religious context drawing upon a vast number of sources. 

That this is a work of scholarship is manifest- there are 300 footnotes and bibliographical references.  The illustrative material is confined to a section of 16 pages, poorly reproduced in the paperback edition.  To serious scholars of the Titanic period, before and after the first World War, this book will provide material for close reading, to students of maritime matters however, in particular the sinking of the great ship, there is little to detain them. - CH        

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