Monturiol's Dream : The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World

Monturiol's Dream : The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World by Matthew Stewart. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781861974013.

Monturiols Dream weaves together several narratives to provide a compelling chapter in a secret history of the worlds transition to modernity. It revolves around the strange and noble life of Narcis Monturiol, a utopian social revolutionary, political misfit and self-taught engineer who, improbably, invented the worlds first fully operational submarine in Barcelona during the mid-19th century. His feat of visionary engineering was to Barcelona what the lunar landings would be to America in the 20th century. But Monturiols utopian ideals would also be applied to the redesign of the city of Barcelona and ultimately contributing to the modern discipline of urban planning. Others inspired by Monturiol would contribute to the music, literature, art and architecture that spawned the celebrated rebirth of Catalan culture around the turn of the 20th century. This elegantly written and extensively illustrated book contains the story of an extraordinary individual and his pioneering technical achievement. But the story of Monturiol is also the story of a unique city and its remarkable transformation.