On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, best-selling historian Hugh Brewster has produced a book that provides new research on the lives of both the victims and survivors of the world’s most famous nautical disaster. As his subtitle indicates, Brewster’s focus is on the rich, famous, and influential members of the ship’s first class, though he also finds space for Marconi (radio) operators, stewards, firefighters, bakers, and steerage passengers.

A recurring theme sees the Titanic as a metaphor for the end of the Edwardian era in the U.K. and the Gilded Age in the U.S., and the imminence of the First World War. Brewster quotes survivor Archibald Gracie, who said the pleasure and comfort on board seemed ominous, too good to last. Yet according to Brewster, some of the first-class passengers seemed oblivious to the danger right up until the last moments.

The action follows the ill-fated trip, beginning at Cherbourg Quay and continuing through the collision with the iceberg, the loading of the lifeboats, the sinking of the ship, and beyond. But Brewster’s old-fashioned prose also moves backward and forward through time, offering lengthy passages meant to contextualize the events. Some of the segues are confusing and choppy, especially in the first few chapters, where Brewster introduces significant individuals and ideas.

The book is best viewed as a snapshot of an era, better at exploring social mores than conveying exactly what it must have been like to be a passenger on the voyage. Having said that, the most moving passages are those dealing with the ship’s final few hours, in which the pace becomes appropriately fast and chaotic. Though many ladies of first class lost husbands, sons, and brothers as a result of the “women and children first” order regarding the loading of lifeboats, Brewster makes clear that the accident took a far greater toll on third-class passengers: of 710 people, only 178 survived.