Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
From the author of the best-selling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown's classic account of the building of the transcontinental railroad.
In February 1854 the first railroad from the East reached the Mississippi; by the end of the nineteenth century five major transcontinental railroads linked the East Coast with the Pacific Ocean and thousands of miles of tracks criss-crossed in the West, a vast and virginal land just a few years before.
Read more
The story of this extraordinary undertaking is one of breathtaking technological ingenuity, otherwordly idealism, and all-too-wordly greed. The heroes and villains were Irish and Chinese laborers, intrepid engineers, avaricious bankers, stock manipulators, and corrupt politicians. Before it was over more than 155 million acres (one tenth of the country) were given away to the railroad magnates, Indian tribes were decimated, the buffalo were driven from the Great Plains, millions of immigrants were lured from Europe, and a colossal continental nation was built.
Woven into this dramatic narrative are the origins of present-day governmental corruption, the first ties between powerful corporations and politicians who "enjoyed the frequent showers of money that fell upon them from railroad stock manipulators, and gave away America." How the people of that time responded to a sense of disillusionment remarkably similar to our own adds a contemporary dimension to this story.
Liked Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express Shares hist, history, nonfiction -
Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 Shares american history, nonfiction, economics -
A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom Shares history, american history, nonfiction -
The Wrath of Cochise: The Bascom Affair and the Origins of the Apache Wars Shares hist, history, american history
“People who read Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (history about american history), start with these.”
“If it was the hist that hooked you, try one of these.”
-
Mr. President: George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office
-
Free onlineFree
The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate
-
A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to Saint Louis
-
Wilson's War: How Woodrow Wilson's Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and World War II
