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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsNothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869by Stephen E Ambrose
Synopses & ReviewsFrom Powells.com:Abraham Lincoln, prior to being elected president and at the time working as a railway lawyer, met future Civil War hero General Grenville Dodge, in Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1859. According to historian Stephen Ambrose, Lincoln's first words were "Dodge, what's the best route for a Pacific railroad to the West?" Lincoln went on to become president, with the building of the transcontinental railroad second to the abolition of slavery on his agenda. Dodge became the chief engineer of Union Pacific, one of the two railway companies (the other being Central Pacific) to create a railroad that spanned 2,000 miles of American soil. In addition to its being one of the most remarkable feats of engineering in the nineteenth century, the railroad represented massive economic risks for the investors of this extraordinary project, and imminent danger for its laborers. UP and CP were pitted against each other in a Congress-mandated race whose winner received the greater share of land and government bonds, while immigrants from China and Ireland, as well as ex-soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy, toiled under backbreaking working conditions.
Stephen Ambrose records the history of this incredible project, with attention to both the financial and bureaucratic wheeling and dealings, as well as the blood, sweat, and ? frequently enough ? lives lost by the men who laid the tracks. Renowned for his masculine prose and his skill at weaving firsthand accounts into compelling narrative, Ambrose presents an assured and well researched record of this milestone in American history. Kate, Powells.com Publisher Comments:Nothing Like It in the World gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad — the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.
The U.S. government pitted two companies — the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads — against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life. Review:"To critics who charge that the railroad magnates were corrupt and grew obscenely rich and powerful through land grants and government bonds, Ambrose replies that the land grants never brought in enough money to pay the bills and, further, that the bonds were loans, fully paid back with huge interest payments. But this argument fails to convince, partly because Ambrose does a superlative job of re-creating the grim conditions in which the tracks were laid." Publishers Weekly
Review:"Relying on newspaper reportage, he presents the project through the eyes of the men working for the Union Pacific and Central Pacific and marvels at the blasting, gouging, grading, hauling, and more that transpire as the rival railroads punched through mountains, straddled gorges, and strode across the Plains in the race to link the continent....his hands every sledgehammer blow hits hard and every blast echoes." Library Journal
Review:"This muscular yet flowing telling of the railroad's physical construction, will be a sure winner with the author's legions of readers." Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
Review:"It is when the human drama of the actual construction of the railroad begins that Ambrose's narrative picks up speed. Although not many first hand accounts exist from railroad workers, what material he does have is woven skillfully into the whole to create a picture of various ethnic groups working together (and frequently warring with each other as well).A master historian and writer takes on another pivotal epoch in American history." Kirkus Reviews
About the AuthorStephen E.Ambrose is the author of The Wild Blue, Citizen Soldiers, Undaunted Courage, D-Day, and Band of Brothers, as well as biographies of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon. He is the director emeritus of the Eisenhower Center and founder of The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Helena, Montana.
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction ONE Picking the Route 1830-1860 TWO Getting to California 1848-1859 THREE The Birth of the Central Pacific 1860-1862 FOUR The Birth of the Union Pacific 1862-1864 FIVE Judah and the Elephant 1862-1864 SIX Laying Out the Union Pacific Line 1864-1865 SEVEN The Central Pacific Attacks the Sierra Nevada 1865 EIGHT The Union Pacific Across Nebraska 1866 NINE The Central Pacific Assaults the Sierra 1866 TEN The Union Pacific to the Rocky Mountains 1867 ELEVEN The Central Pacific Penetrates the Summit 1867 TWELVE The Union Pacific Across Wyoming 1868 THIRTEEN Brigham Young and the MormonsMake the Grade 1868 FOURTEEN The Central Pacific Goes Through Nevada 1868 FIFTEEN The Railroads Race into Utah January 1-April 10, 1869 SIXTEEN To the Summit April 11-May 7, 1869 SEVENTEEN Done May 8-10, 1869 Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Maps From Chicago to Omaha Nebraska Wyoming Nevada Utah California What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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History and Social Science » Americana » General
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