This well-illustrated work by a distinguished social historian narrates the epic of the great age of railway history and development. It sets this in the context of the social history and its contemporary impact on society as a whole. It shows authoritatively how the railways revolutionised everything - being the most spectacular change of the Industrial Revolution. This impact continues to shape our life today, as the railways transformed the economic life of whole nations and transformed the quality of life itself.

This lively work offers a wide-ranging account of the social history of the motorised age, and of the machine which has reshaped the character and development of the modern world. It places the development of the car (and of its more sinister cousins the tank and the war plane) in their context and impact on society in peace and war from the Edwardian period onwards. This is a social history of modern Britain at its most focused, on issues that really matter.