Description
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.
Revealing the ten great engineers, across a variety of fields, who were responsible for the industrial revolution
About the Author
Anthony Burton is an author specialising in the history of technology and transport. His books for The History Press include The Anatomy of Canals, The Iron Men, Navvies, and The Workers' War. Other books include biographies of Thomas Telford, Richard Trevithick, George and Robert Stephenson and Marc and Isambard Brunel. He has been involved in over 100 TV documentaries, half as writer/presenter and others as historical adviser, and appeared as a guest expert on Coast, Reel History and Big, Bigger, Biggest. He lives in Stroud.
Book Information
ISBN 9781803991122
Author Anthony Burton
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint The History Press Ltd
Publisher The History Press Ltd