Myth of the Titanic

This is a critical analysis of the Titanic as modern myth, focusing on the second of the two Titanics. The first was the physical Titanic, the rusting remains of which can still be found 12,000 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 book 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.

'Richard Howells makes a gripping story out of the fashioning of a myth. He delights equally in the fixing of the facts which unsettle the fairy stories, as he does in the richly human stories themselves. Taking on the movie and showing up its mythic deceptions without a tremor, he turns to face Edwardian England just as coolly, and quietly identifies its necessary illusions. Then he rolls up all the tales into a single mighty myth, all the while doing justice to truth, to horror, to sentimentality, and to a rattling good read.' - Fred Inglis, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Sheffield 'Finally a book that probes not only the cultural frameworks enclosing the Titanic disaster between 1912 and 1914, but how those frameworks endure today.'- John R. Stilgoe, Harvard University 'Howells' book is a model of cultural history, thoroughly researched, carefully argued and consistently illuminating.' - Professor Jeffrey Richards, Times Higher Education Supplement 'This book is very well referenced... and will prove a reference work in its own right.' - Atlantic Daily Bulletin (Journal of the British Titanic Society) 'He crafts an easily accessible, well-organized, and logical book...' - Kristi A. Bell, Journal of American Folklore

RICHARD HOWELLS is an experienced print and broadcast journalist and has worked as a radio producer for the BBC. Although he has written articles and contributed to radio and television documentaries about the Titanic this is his first book on the subject. He took a first degree at Harvard, returning to his native England to take his PhD at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is currently Lecturer at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds.