Cox, Stephen. The Titanic Story: Hard Choices, Dangerous Decisions. 1st printing. Chi: Open Court Publishing. May, 1999. wraps. isbn: 0812693965. scarcity: fairly common.

This is a book about the myths that have grown up around the Titanic disaster, especially as they relate to moral and ethical decision making. Was the disaster caused by technological arrogance? Was it right to allow only women and children into the lifeboats? Did Ismay have a moral duty to go down with the ship?

The author rails against the tendency for people to reduce these complicated issues into overly simplistic ones. But his reaction to this is to go to the opposite extreme - intellectualizing the ethics of the story to the point of near uselessness. In his attempt to make no moral or ethical choices about the issues surrounding the wreck, Cox ends up writing an extremely rudderless work. The text is written in such a vague way that the reader can almost read into the text anything they want to. Thus one reviewer has decided this book treats Ismay with scorn, while another comes to the conclusion the book states that Ismay was unfairly vilified.

Did the author intend the one view or the other? or both? or neither? The implication is that the author has left the reader hanging on purpose. To some that is a sign of impartiality, to others it smacks of editorial fence straddling. If you enjoy intellectual arguments for their own sake, you will probably be stimulated by this book. If you believe that people should be responsible for their actions, and it is reasonable that they should be judged by those actions as well, you will likely find this book a source of frustration.