num_pages: 368
description: The story of the epic contest between shipping magnates Samuel Cunard and Edward Collins for mid-19th century control of the Atlantic.Between 1815 and the American Civil War the greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution delivered a sea change in oceanic transportation. Steam travel transformed the Atlantic into a pulsating highway dominated by ports in Liverpool and New York as steamships ferried people supplies money and information with astounding speed and regularity. American raw materials flowed eastward while goods capital people and technology crossed westward. The Anglo-American partnership fueled development worldwide; it also gave rise to a particularly intense competition.Steam Titans tells the story of a transatlantic fight to wrest control of the globe's most lucrative trade route. Two menSamuel Cunard and Edward Knight Collinsand two nations wielded the tools of technology finance and politics to compete for control of a commercial lifeline that spanned the North Atlantic. The world watched carefully to see which would win. Each competitor sent to sea the fastest biggest and most elegant ships in the world hoping to earn the distinction of being known as the only way to cross.Historian William M. Fowler brings to life the spectacle of this generation-long struggle for supremacy during which New York rose to take her place among the greatest ports and cities of the world and recounts the tale of a competition that was the opening act in the drama of economic globalization still unfolding today.
language: English
title: Steam Titans: Cunard, Collins, and the Epic Battle for Commerce on the North Atlantic
publisher: Bloomsbury USA