At 11.40 p.m. on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic 400 miles south of Newfoundland. In less than three hours, 1,517 people—more than two thirds of the men, women, and children aboard—perished as the passenger ship, the largest in the world at that time, broke up and sank into the freezing waters.

On the centennial of this legendary tragedy, Richard Davenport-Hines adds a new dimension to the story, focusing on the Titanic’s voyagers, from the privileged in first class—plutocrats, society matrons, and captains of industry—to the poor immigrants in the cramped steerage decks on their way to a new life in America. Davenport-Hines makes flesh and blood such well-known figures as John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest man on the ship, and Archibald Butt, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Taft’s beloved military aide who helped others to surviv