Samuel Smiles published Lives of the Engineers in 1862. The noted biographer presented his engineers as heroic progress makers who conquered nature and overcame impossible obstacles to drive the Industrial Revolution forward, but included twisted and often fabricated accounts in his work.

In Ten Engineers Who Made Britain Great, Anthony Burton seeks to correct this narrative by offering nuanced portraits of some of the best-known engineers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Burton investigates the common themes that run between the stories of John Metcalf, James Brindley, John Smeaton, William Jessop, Thomas Telford, James Watt, Richard Trevithick, George and Robert Stephenson, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and also explores how each of these men learned from one another.

Les mer

The definitive history of the great engineers who were responsible for the industrial revolution

Revealing the ten great engineers, across a variety of fields, who were responsible for the industrial revolution

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781803991122
Publisert
2023-03-09
Utgiver
The History Press Ltd; The History Press Ltd
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
00, G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

ANTHONY BURTON specialises in the history of technology and transport. His books include The Anatomy of Canals, The Iron Men, Miners, Navvies, and The Workers’ War. He has been involved in over 100 TV documentaries, half as writer/presenter and others as historical adviser, including The Past at Work for the BBC and appeared as a guest expert on Coast, Reel History and Big, Bigger, Biggest. More recently he has been Historical Adviser for six ten-part series for Discovery that have involved visiting industrial sites in both Europe and America. He lives in Stroud.