What the Victorians Got Wrong

This compact easy-reference book takes an alternative look at 19th-century British history, shining a light on the often-forgotten sacrifices that were required to bring about the Industrial Revolution & the realisation of the Victorian dream.

For while the Victorian era is often viewed as one of uninterrupted success - of unrelenting industrial progress powered scientific advance like no other in history - a question remains: was this revolution good for everyone? The stories in this book offer a sobering counterbalance to the associated tales of glorious Victorian success.

One chapter looks at the Tay Bridge disaster. In 1879 the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world and a wonder of its age. But on a stormy night in December, disaster struck when the central section of the bridge collapsed and the 7:13pm train from Edinburgh plunged into the icy waters of the Tay, taking the lives of 75 passengers and crew. How and why did this supposed feat of Victorian invention fail so spectacularly?

One of the worst man-made catastrophes in Victorian Britain was caused when the wall of the Dale Dyke dam at Bradfield in South Yorkshire was breached in March 1864. This released 650 million gallons of water that poured down towards Sheffield at a mile a minute in a 9ft wall of liquid that demolished houses, factories and bridges, and claimed the lives of 240 people.

For all the railways built, bridges constructed, rivers tamed and electricity harnessed, an impatience for achievement too often resulted in catastrophe and disaster. The accounts in this book detail how the Victorians could and did stumble into appalling errors of judgement.