What would it mean to narrate the making of the modern world from the perspective of a steamship? Imperial steam does just that, drawing upon a wealth of accounts of travel aboard the vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, or P&O, as the steamship line responsible for connecting Britain with its Eastern empire was known.
Engaging with the 'space between' of the steamship in transit deepens our understanding of the British Empire's history. It shows how the incidental everyday experiences of life on board the steamer were tied up with modern identities and the imperial project. Marrying technological innovation with the workings of Britain's expanding Eastern empire, P&O's steamships provided a ready spectacle for the Victorian public imagination and a vantage point - both literal and literary - from which to view and encounter the imperial world. The steamship's modernity instilled in its passengers with not only a hubristic sense of identification with the British Empire, but also had significant corollaries for the perceptions of empire for those in the metropole.
Imperial steam thus contributes to our understanding of the role of imperial networks in the production of the British imperial world view. It will appeal to scholars and students of maritime history and imperial and global history, especially those who are interested in the social and cultural histories of the nineteenth-century British Empire, and to those interested in the role of travel writing and the history of technology in the making of the modern world.
