Lorraine Coons and Alexander Varias explore the world of interwar steamship travel.

Tourist Third Cabin offers a window into a bygone era, where the technological marvels and floating palaces of modern steamships like the Queen Mary, the France, and the Titanic transported a new breed of tourist between Europe and North America. The interwar period saw the birth of mass transatlantic tourism, and women, students, and ordinary people took to the seas in search of education, fun, and freedom. It was also a period of tumultuous social and cultural change. Historians Lorraine Coons and Alexander Varias offer an intimate glimpse of the microcosm of the changing world that was the luxury liner. From crew members to passengers, ship decor to technological innovation, through labor unrest and political upheaval, we see the social world and the business of travel at the dawn of the modern age.