Brunel: The Man Who Built the World

Steven Brindle

Phoenix, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 196 pages

A celebration of the life and engineering achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel by two of the world's foremost authorities.

In his lifetime, Isambard Kingdom Brunel towered over his profession. Today, he remains the most famous engineer in history, the epitome of the volcanic creative forces which brought about the Industrial Revolution - and brought modern society into being. Brunel's extraordinary talents were drawn out by some remarkable opportunities - above all his appointment as engineer to the new Great Western Railway at the age of 26 - but it was his nature to take nothing for granted, and to look at every project, whether it was the longest railway yet planned, or the largest ship ever imagined, from first principles.

A hard taskmaster to those who served him, he ultimately sacrificed his own life to his work in his tragically early death at the age of 53. His legacy, though, is all around us, in the railways and bridges that he personally designed, and in his wider influence. This fascinating new book draws on Brunel's own diaries, letters and sketchbooks to understand his life, times, and work.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - mickmc - LibraryThing

I felt as though the writer was holding back on giving the reader a real insight into how Brunel went about handling his feats of engineering. I suppose when you buy an biography of a man this what ...

Brunel: the man who built the world

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

The title, at first, seems impossibly hyperbolic, because it is: Isambard Kingdom Brunel did not, in fact, build the world. However, the things he did build-steamships, bridges, tunnels, train ...

About the author

Steven Brindle is regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on Brunel and is famed for discovering and saving Brunel's 'lost' iron bridge at Paddington.Dan Cruickshank is a regular presenter on the BBC and is best known for his popular BBC2 series THE BEST BUILDINGS OF BRITAIN and WHAT THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION DID FOR US. He is one of Britain's leading architectural and historic building experts.Previous titles include:Paddington: Its History and ArchitectureBrunel (W&N hb August 2005)

Bibliographic information

• Title: Brunel: The Man Who Built the World; Phoenix Press Series
• Author: Steven Brindle
• Contributor: Dan Cruickshank
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Phoenix, 2006
• ISBN: 0753821257, 9780753821251
• Length: 196 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology; History / Europe / Great Britain / General