Heyday: Britain and the Birth of the Modern World

Written by Ben Wilson
Review by Sally Zigmond

This is a highly readable account of the technical advances in the 1850s which opened up communications, beginning with the telegraph cable that linked the UK with France and henceforth the whole of Europe. This large tome then goes on to discuss events such as the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851, the discoveries of gold in Australia and California, and the way in which the whole world opened up in ways of trade and communication, migration and how, along the way, this tolled the death knell of the Native Americans, the Aboriginal people of Australia, etc., the British Empire in India, not to mention the opium wars in China… The list goes on.  If I have a quibble, it is merely to say I don’t think anyone can pinpoint one year or one event to say it marks, ‘the birth of the modern world’. Nevertheless, if you think nothing technological happened before the 20^th century, then this will make you think again.