Canals: The Making of a Nation

by Liz McIvor

Canals hold a unique place in British culture, with associations of lazy summer afternoons, journeying through lush green countryside. But as Liz McIvor explains in the book to accompany her BBC series, the story of our canals is also the story of how modern Britain was born. It was the canals that helped open up the trade of the Industrial Revolution, furthered the new science of geology, and even ushered in a new form of architecture. The legacy of our canals is all around us. In What the Canals Did for Us , McIvor takes us on a journey across the network of English canals to tell a deeper story of how our waterways changed our lives. It’s a very modern tale, full of high finance and greedy investors, cheap labor, and the struggle for workers’ rights, and new frontiers in family and child welfare. It’s a unique and compelling exploration of Britain’s golden age.

Genres: History, Travel, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2015

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Magnificent Book is Illustrated with a good number of black and white images and a few colour ones too, this is a gentle introduction to the history of canals in Britain. As the subtitle ("a journey into the heart of industrial Britain") suggests, it's a book about the social and economic backdrop to the development of the canal network rather than a coffee table book full of beautiful images of the current canal network.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and surprisingly quick read, this book describes the character of each region's canals alongside an overview of their history. It covers a lot - the businessmen behind the canal companies, the lifestyles of navvies and boatmen, the development of the use of waterways for leisure, a brief history of canal engineers and engineering and more. The book also makes a good argument that the heyday of canals is not back in their industrial past but right now, when perhaps their beauty and ingenuity is more appreciated then ever before.

Cleverly written so that the reader is left wanting more - and with suggestions for further reading included - this serves as a really good general overview of canals and their influence on the nation and certainly whets the appetite for further research.

[Julian Schwarzenbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reasonably informative and a 'light' style, but seemed to be like a script for the TV series it is based upon. A structure that works for TV does not work as well for a book.