During the 19th century, the engineering of ports and harbours became a large and specialised branch of the profession. This development began in ports in physically difficult locations and may be particularly identified with the growth of the Port of Liverpool. Stimulated by the arrival of ever-larger steamships and the heavy investment in port facilities that they demanded, it spread around much of the world. The opening papers give examples of what could be achieved in antiquity; the following ones set out the advances in design and technology from 1700 to the start of this century - and note some of the failures and recurrent problems. They also illustrate the critical importance of political and economic factors in determining what the engineers achieved.

'This book presents an invaluable reference collection for the study of civil engineering.' Sea Technology Magazine 'Jarvis’ introduction provides an excellent context for the papers included in the volume. He also provides a useful select bibliography...The volume has name and place indices and a subject index, all of which are helpful. Overall, therefore, this is a valuable collection which should stimulate further interest in what is already a growing field of historical study.' The Northern Mariner 'There is probably no one more qualified than Adrian Jarvis to edit a selection of papers on the history of ports...[an] extremely useful collection....' International Journal of Maritime History 'The aim of Ashgate's twelve volume series is to bring together collections of important papers on particular topics from scholarly journals, conference proceedings and other hard-to-access sources. This is a wholly laudable objective. Some of the papers in the volume under review [The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways before 1850] cannot be found even in abundantly-resourced academic libraries. The series opens up, directly or indirectly, debates over the nature of historical evidence which arise from the profoundly different approaches to the past of historians of technology, whose works are principally represented in these volumes, industrial archaeologists and social and economic historians.' Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol. XXI, No. 1 '... the collection will prove a most valuable resource.' The Mariner's Mirror

Adrian Jarvis, Merseyside Maritime Museumand Centre for Port and Maritime History, Liverpool, UK C. Kirkpatrick, G. Jackson, A.W. Skempton, R.B. Matkin, M. Clarke, M.W. Baldwin, J. Naish, E.F. Clark, P. Guillery, R.A. Buchanan, R.W. Rennison, A. Jarvis, L. Twyman, F. Broeze, P. Reeves, K. McPherson, M.T. Tull.