Channel Tunnel Visions 1850 1945

The idea of a Channel Tunnel has always aroused strong emotions in Britain. It has been supported by those wanting closer political, economic and cultural links with Europe but opposed by believers in Britain's island identity and overseas empire. In contrast, the French have been almost unanimously in favour. Channel Tunnel Vision 1850-1950 is an account of attempts over a century to build a link with France. Early schemes, some owing more to Heath-Robinson than to sound engineering practice, were succeeded by serious proposals based on scientific surveys of the sea-bed carried out in the 1860s. After describing the major entrepreneurs and their plans, Keith Wilson goes on to show the reactions of successive British Governments. On several occasions the decision on whether or not to go ahead was a very close-run thing. He quotes the views, which make remarkable reading, of Prime Ministers from Gladstone to Ramsay MacDonald; of Foreign Secretaries including Grey and Curzon; and of admirals and generals ranging from Fisher to Wolseley, French and Henry Wilson. Their fears of sabotage, invasion and a future political rift with France were set against hopes of economic advantage. They also saw an enhanced ability to respond quickly to future German aggression. How the existence of a Channel Tunnel would have affected the 1940 campaign is an intriguing speculation.

Commissioned by the Cabinet Office and using hitherto untapped British Government records, this book presents an in-depth analysis of the successful project of 1986-94. This is a vivid portrayal of the complexities of quadripartite decision-making (two countries, plus the public and private sectors), revealing new insights into the role of the British and French Governments in the process. This important book, written by Britain’s leading transport historian, will be essential reading for all those interested in PPPs, British and European economic history and international relations. The building of the Channel Tunnel has been one of Europe’s major projects and a testimony to British-French and public-private sector collaboration. However, Eurotunnel’s current financial crisis provides a sobering backcloth for an examination of the British Government’s long-term flirtation with the project, and, in particular, the earlier Tunnel project in the 1960s and early 1970s, which was abandoned by the British Government in 1975.

Highlighting long term themes in Britain's transport history, this book looks at the dilemmas facing modern society and suggests several possible solutions. It covers all the major forms of transport, from the horse to the aeroplane, setting them in their historical context.

This book concerns the significance of the English Channel in British and French literature from the 1780s onwards: a timely subject given the intense debates in progress about the actual and desired relationships between Britain and mainland Europe. The book addresses contemporary authors who use the Channel as a focus for cultural comment, comparing their approaches to those of earlier writers, from Charlotte Smith and Chateaubriand through Hugo and Dickens to historians and travel writers of the 1950s and 1980s.

This groundbreaking study offers a genuinely multidisciplinary exploration of cultural influences on foreign policy. Through an innovative blend of historical analysis, neoclassical realist theory, and cultural studies, Amelia Hadfield-Amkhan shows how national identity has been a catalyst for British foreign policy decisions, helping the state to both define and defend itself. Representing key points of crisis, her case studies include the 1882 attempt to construct a tunnel to France, the 1982 Falklands War, and the 2003 decision to remain outside the Eurozone. The author argues that these events, marking the decline of a great power, have forced Britain into periods of deep self-reflection that are carved into its culture and etched into its policy stances on central issues of sovereignty, territorial integrity, international recognition, and even monetary policy.

The first of a two volume study, which will analyse the complex relationship between Britain and France in the twentieth century: a relationship which has been crucial to European politics and to both World Wars.This volume (fully self-contained) runs from the period of intense imperial rivalry at the turn of the century to the Fall of France. Philip Bell discusses diplomatic, economic and military policy, combining absorbing narrative with revealing commentary about the two countries.

This is the second volume in Philip Bell's study of Franco-British relations in the twentieth century It covers the period from the Fall of France in 1940 to the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Philip Bell views the half-century as a long separation - with France committed early on to a new concept of Europe, in partnership with Germany, whilst Britain stood apart. The tensions and resentments it has generated have kept French/British relations at the very heart of the burning question of Britain's place in Europe. Yet the story has another side, to which Philip Bell also does justice. Much has been achieved by the two countries together and alongside their European partners. For all their divergencies and antagonisms, the French and British know and understand each other better today than at any other time in their modern histories and all these developments are fully explored in Philip Bell's engrossing and often amusing, account.

John Roebling was one of the nineteenth century's most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the US in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the nineteenth century's most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn. In between, he thought, wrote, and worked tirelessly. He dug canals and surveyed railroads; he planned communities and founded new industries. Horace Greeley called him "a model immigrant"; generations later, F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on a script for the movie version of his life. Like his finest creations, Roebling was held together by the delicate balance of countervailing forces. On the surface, his life was exemplary and his accomplishments legion. As an immigrant and employer, he was respected throughout the world. As an engineer, his works profoundly altered the physical landscape of America. He was a voracious reader, a fervent abolitionist, and an engaged social commentator. His understanding of the natural world, however, bordered on the occult and his opinions about medicine are best described as medieval. For a man of science and great self-certainty, he was also remarkably quick to seize on a whole host of fads and foolish trends. Yet Roebling held these strands together. Throughout his life, he believed in the moral application of science and technology, that bridges--along with other great works of connection, the Atlantic Cable, the Transcontinental Railroad--could help bring people together, erase divisions, and heal wounds. Like Walt Whitman, Roebling was deeply committed to the creation of a more perfect union, forged from the raw materials of the continent. John Roebling was a complex, deeply divided yet undoubtedly influential figure, and this biography illuminates not only his works but also the world of nineteenth-century America. Roebling's engineering feats are well known, but the man himself is not; for alongside the drama of large scale construction lies an equally rich drama of intellectual and social development and crisis, one that mirrored and reflected the great forces, trials, and failures of nineteenth century America.