Sir John Jackson (1851-1919) became one of the greatest civil engineering contractors of his age -- an age when Victorian and Edwardian engineers were at their most ambitions and built most of the major infrastructure projects in the world. He saw that machinery was the key to success and led the way out of the navvy era and into the modern age of bigger and better machines. At the age of 25 he built the Stobcross (Queen's) dock at Glasgow, then the second city in the British Empire, followed by London's Tower Bridge contract which made his name. He took over the major contract on the Manchester Ship Canal and built the huge Keyham extension to the Devonport dockyard, a ten year job. Docks at Dover and Simonstown in the Republic of South Africa followed. These dockyards were essential to maintaining Britain's world-dominating naval strength at that time. The Loch Leven hydroelectric scheme, a railway over the Andes and the barrage across the Euphrates in Mesopotamia followed. The book is lavishly illustrated by diagrams and photographs, largely taken by Jackson's own photographers. The story of his life and work was complied from many documents assembled by Sir John and Lady Jackson and various members of their family. By a circuitous route, via the University of Reading, the archive came into the possession of the author, who is Sir John's granddaughter. Patricia also drew information from various archives, including those at the Institution of Civil Engineers, The Corporation of London and the National Archive. Jackson's business papers have not survived.