The significance of Lord's book, according to Biel, is that it "gave the disaster its fullest retelling since 1912 and made it speak to a modern mass audience and a new set of postwar concerns. In the creation of the Titanic myth there were two defining moments: 1912, of course, and 1955." Lord updates the popular interpretation of the Titanic disaster by portraying it in world-historical terms as the symbolic and actual end of an era, and as an event which "marked the end of a general feeling of confidence." Uncertainty replaced orderliness, and the ship's sinking marked the beginning of the twentieth century's "unending sequence of disillusionment. Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward, all was tumult." Biel notes that Lord's underlying theme is a rather nostalgic reflection of the "nobler instincts" exhibited in the disaster and their subsequent eclipse. Such ideals were attractive for a post-war society that celebrated the role of the nuclear family and the traditional roles of the male breadwinner and female homemaker.
The significance of Lord's book, according to Biel, is that it "gave the disaster its fullest retelling since 1912 and made it speak to a modern mass audience and a new set of postwar concerns. In the creation of the Titanic myth there were two defining moments: 1912, of course, and 1955." Lord updates the popular interpretation of the Titanic disaster by portraying it in world-historical terms as the symbolic and actual end of an era, and as, an event which "marked the end of a general feeling of confidence." Uncertainty replaced orderliness and the ship's sinking marked the beginning of the twentieth century's "unending sequence of disillusionment. Before the Titanic, all was quie.t. Afterward, all was tumult" Biel notes that Lord's underlying theme is a rather nostalgic reflection of the "nobler instincts" exhibited in the disaster and their subsequent eclipse. Such ideals were attractive for a post-war society that celebrated the role of the nuclear family and the traditional roles of the male breadwinner and female homemaker.