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Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroads | 
 enlarge | Author: Dee Brown
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
Buy New: $57.62
New (2) Used (5) from $4.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 840520
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Owl Book ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.0978
ASIN: B000V5WIPO
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Featuring archival photographs, a vivid re-creation of the heyday of American expansion brings the transcontinental railroads to life, including all of the heroes and villains, laborers and presidents, engineers, bankers, and politicians who contributed to the drama. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Hear that Lonesome whistle blow by Dee Brown January 10, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of Dee Browns books that i have not read, and i was not disappointed
an excellent story told in Dee Browns own inimitable way.
Excellent.
 Great read - but. . . December 9, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a heartfelt and highly interesting read that details the creation of America's transcontinental railroads from the men who spawned them down to those who built and later rode them to a new life. The problem is that Dorris Alexander "Dee" [who can blame him for assuming that nickname] Brown was a bitter man, in no small part because of his youthful acquaintance with American Indians that led him to write I Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee. He found little good about the railroad industry and even blamed them for the passing of the wild and wooly western frontier. True, but so what? That the railroads came into existence with inadequate governmental control cannot be denied, but his negativity is annoying. I am still in the process of researching this aspect of American history and possibly could come to buy into all his arguments, but I am suspicious that Brown did not examine all the facts. Nothing of this nature could be 100% bad. For certain, transportation advances are a vital reason why the United States became the richest country the world has ever known. Even Brown had to admit that railroad-spawned immigration turned the American heartland into a bread basket for the entire world. Seems to me that alone was worth the price of admission. The book is well worth reading, but keep an open mind.
Short History of the Western Railroads November 17, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This short history of western railroads starts with the Rock Island bridge across the Mississippi. Abraham Lincoln's inspection of that accident scene allowed a win (pp.10-12). This resulted in commerce moving from Chicago to New York, and not down the river to New Orleans. It tells about the financial exploitation and scheming that was part of the construction. Towns often took on debt to subsidize railroads even thought their promises often failed (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 tells of the many plans to create a railroad that would reach the Pacific. Politics and self-interest were as common then as today. Various Indian tribes were swindled out of their lands in the 1850s (pp.37-38). Military actions by the Confederates resulted in a northern route (Chapter 3). Brown explains the Credit Mobilier scam which billed for construction at inflated prices. People paid taxes to enrich swindlers (p.71). The newspapers cast the Plains Indians as villains for defending their hunting lands. Brown doesn't mention that the "Wild West Cowboy" was invented or exaggerated by journalists for entertainment and propaganda (pp.84-85). He does describe the lives of the workmen (pp.106-107). Chapter 6 has the Great Race to connect to the Pacific and the use of Federal monies. It appeared to be more popular than the Federal Highway projects in the 1950s. The railroad connection bound the nation together. Traveler had more to fear from train robbers than Indians (p.151). Chapter 8 describes the men who worked on the railroad trains.
Chapter 9 tells of the piracy of the railroad promoters and managers as a rising class (p.183). This must have been the biggest swindle of the century (pp.184-185). Was this the first case of a corporation winning favor from Congress after donating company shares (p.187)? [This seems worse than the "High Tech" stock swindles of the late 1990s.] Chapter 10 explains the Indian Wars cause when the Northern Pacific Railroad invaded unceded Indian lands (p.205). The response from Washington was to threaten annihilation or genocide. Over spending brought down Jay Cooke & Company and led to the worst depression yet experienced (p.217). Fred Harvey's chain of restaurants demonstrated the results of good management (p.225). Chapter 12 discusses the immigrants who came west on the railroads. Land companies learned to transport "entire colonies" of families whose shared language and customs sustained each other (p.241). The advertising used to attract immigrants often promised more than they delivered (pp.244-245). The Mennonites brought their "Turkey Red" wheat to Kansas and created amber waves of grain (p.249). Mechanization created surplus workers in Scandinavia. Germany allowed emigration for fear of a revolution (p.252). Lands settled during rainy years suffered during years of drought or locusts (p.253). James Bryce tells about the wealth and power of the "railway kings". Henry Villard's excursion was counter-productive (p.261). Chapter 13 tells how the railroads were looted. Promotions of railroads swindled money from towns before going bankrupt (p.271).
Chapter 14 analyzes the effects of a railroad: it made towns "totally dependent upon a railroad" and they lost control over their lives to a corrupt monopoly (p.272). Farmers were the principal victims. Railroads seized people's properties (p.273). They paid little or no taxes after being given millions of acres of public lands and forests. Railroads bribed politicians and journalists (p.275). The National Grange was the first popular organization to fight the railroads. The Supreme Court ruled in 1876 that a state had the right to impose restrictions "on public undertakings which were in the nature of monopolies" (p.276). But in 1886 another Supreme Court reversed this decision! Next Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the railroads. Low farm prices and drought in the late 1880s led to the formation of the People's Party (p.278). Kansas took the lead (p.279). William Jennings Bryan won their votes. Over time the railroads, which ran on coal, were killed off by the "international combines of oil and motors" (p.281). Railroads still exist for freight hauling; they do this best.
In 1917 the Federal Government took over the railroads to avoid their chronic mismanagement during the Great War. After this war, Congress decided to build a national road system; this was too important a project to leave to corporations. The Great Depression and WW II halted this project, but later plans were made for the 1956 Interstate Highway System which changed America forever. Private toll roads were then banned. But ever present corruption was able to sneak in toll roads afterwards, forcing people to pay more to benefit these monopolies.
 Weird mix of first hand accounts and political diatribe February 16, 2004
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you thought Halliburton abusing the tax payers was something new and different, think again. Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow, by Dee Brown, is a history of the building of the transcontinental railroads. It starts in 1854 and proceeds in detail until the 1890s, then hurriedly summarizes until the 1970s. (The book was written in 1977.) And Brown shows, repeatedly and at length, how the railroad builders screwed the American public time and again.In fact, reading this book made me very very angry. It's the same old story: a bunch of rich men want to get richer, and figure out ways to use the public purse to make money. In this case, there were three main ways that wealth was moved from the taxpayer to the wealthy: scams building the railroads, land grants, and high railroad rates. Brown examines all of these in some detail, and sometimes the disgust just made me squirm. He also, towards the end of the book, examines some of the political reaction to the railroads: the Grangers and the Populist Party. However, he also intermingles first person accounts in this story of perfidy. Whether it is stories from the immigrants, the first riders of the transcontinetnal railroad, the railroad workers, or the Congressmen who authorized the land grants, he quotes extensively from letters and speeches. In fact, he might go overboard in the quoting department; I would have appreciated more analysis of some of the statements. Brown does include some very choice, precient statements though. In chapter 11, talking about Pullman's improvements, a French traveller said "...unless the Americans invent a style of dwelling that can be moved from one place to another (and they will come to this, no doubt, in time)...". In chapter 12, a fellow was travelling on an immigrant train and was happy to be separated in the mens' car because he "escaped that most intolerable nuisance of miscellaneous travelling, crying babies." I learned a lot from this book, both about American history and the railroads. In large part, the railroads made the modern west--I 80 follows the path of the Union Pacific, and Colorado Springs was founded because a railroad magnate owned chunks of land around the area. It's also always illuminating to see that, in politics as in everything else, there's nothing new under the sun.
Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad January 31, 2003
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
One should not be surprised that railroad companies in a capitalist country are run to produce profits rather than for the good of the country. There is no astonishment that railroads in the United States were seen as money machines, and the natural monopolies of railroading were exploited to the max. However, railroads were widely seen as being good for the United States--and indeed the railroads provided the United States with a heightened sense of national unity as well as great economies in transportation.Dee Brown does an admirable job of narrating the inherit contradictions involved in the story of the transcontinental railroads--"the good of the country" and "$$ for a few". The story does not stop once the first transcontinental railroad is built, either. Dee Brown describes effects on Native Americans, immigrant populations, tourists, farmers, and others. The book is readable--good high school students should be able to handle it. There are also lots of vintage photographs, which add to the value. I'm not a professional historian, so I can't judge some things. The book is still in print after twenty-five years, and there's a reason for that: it's good.
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