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Colin Divall, Julian Hine and Colin Pooley (eds), Transport Policy: Learning Lessons from History

steamships were inseparable from notions of civilization, they played a crucial role in creating and preserving an imperial way of thinking. Ships consolidated empire, but the actual voyage that new administrators took to the colonies was also important; ‘They were not the same people who embarked in England. In a few short weeks, it made them imperials’ (p. 232). This is a bold claim yet one Burgess clearly substantiates. Focusing on the Peninsular and Orient Steamship Company, with its white officers, African crews and Goan stewards, Burgess explains that the voyage out was an empowering experience which imbued new imperial administrators with confidence. Through describing their journey, including the ordering of curry with tiffin and chota pegs, Burgess shows that steamships were important places of exposure to the exotic. Yet they were also places which taught lessons and maintained standards. Despite the heat of Suez and Aden, dress codes were maintained, reminding those bound for empire of their place. They learnt to master the world they surveyed. This brings us closer to an understanding of what it was to be an imperial administrator, arriving in Bombay, Singapore, or Calcutta. In illustrating how the experience of travelling to colonies shaped an imperial way of thinking among newly fledged imperialists, Burgess’ achievement is considerable. Ocean liners were essential in the maintenance of empire. This volume makes an important contribution to the history of technology and imperialism. This is exactly what Burgess sets out to do, and by focusing on the steamship as a spectacle this is exactly what he does do. Packed with rich literary examples, charming anecdotes, fine illustrations and often uncomfortable insights, this book is a real pleasure to read. It must surely be essential reading for students of nineteenth-century technology and imperialism. Burgess has succeeded in showing the prominent role of the steamship in nineteenth-century thought. This is a subject of rich rewards and one that is far from exhausted.