An exploration of Queen Victoria's matchmaking exploits details how she used her grandchildren to further the influence of the British Empire, despite their own plans and the turmoil that rocked Europe starting in the nineteenth century.

A world that had changed little from the Middle Ages was altered beyond recognition by the engineering genius of the nineteenth century: rivers tamed, oceans pacified, continents bridged. In Dreams of Iron and Steel, acclaimed historian Deborah Cadbury tells the heroic tale of the visionaries and ordinary workers who brought to life seven wonders of engineering that still have the power to awe and inspire us today. From the London sewers that banished...