Britain's race for Africa continues to draw significant scholarly interest. Traditionally, studies have focused on well-documented figures such as explorers, missionaries and capitalists. Working against the trend, this is the first book to concentrate solely on the role of engineers. It analyses the imperial diasporas, identities and networks that developed as the British engineering profession established connections on the African continent.

Using a wide range of primary sources that include correspondence, diaries, technical reports, institutional minutes and periodicals, Andersen reconstructs the networks and activities of Britain's engineers while focusing on London as a centre of imperial expansion. By treating Britain and the empire as an interconnected zone heanalyses the ways in whichideas , people and technologies circulated during the critical period.