|
| 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $16.99 (100%)
New (40) Used (191) Collectible (9) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  214 reviews
Sales Rank: 23322
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0743203178
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.0973
EAN: 9780743203173
ASIN: 0743203178
Publication Date: November 6, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Worth reading, but May 3, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is perhaps not completely up to the quality of Ambrose's Undaunted Courage or his better World War II books. It seems somewhat hastily written, just the way the transcontinental railroad was built. And he soft pedals a bit the corruption of the financing. Still he engagingly tells the amazing story of how the transcontinental railroad was virtually thrown together and mostly during the Civil War. Think about that. If you ever thought the North could have lost the Civil War, think again. The North had enough extra wealth and resources to build this engineering feat while the country was at war with itself.The story of getting across the Sierra Madre is a marvel of civil engineering, dynamite, and brute manual labor. As someone who works in the railroad industry, I can only wonder how long such a feat would take today or whether it would even be attempted.
EXCELLENT READ BUT LACKING A LITTLE DETAIL IN THE BEGINNING April 11, 2006
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
As with all the Ambrose books, this is a collaboration of a team of historians led by Ambrose. It is covers in exceptional detail the building of the railroad, explaining little details such as, "Why does the engines on the Union Pacific were so small and the engines on the Central Pacific were so big?" Simple: the Central Pacific burned wood while the Union Pacific burned coal. Ambrose also covers the intrigue behind the politics to win the grants to build the railroad. It is interesting how this sort of graft is involved in nearly every government-run venture. It was necessary though, as Ambrose points out --- only the government could risk money in such a fashion. What Ambrose missed, and this is surprising, is how the Civil War led directly to the building of the railroad. The South did not want it. They controlled the government until the war. A railroad benefited the East, not the South. After the war began, a log-jam of legistlation began to flow through Congress. Acts included: The Homestead Act, and the Land-Grant college act. Interesting how times are paralle. Still, despite that flaw, it is an excellent story about engineers and finance that is well-worth reading.
If this review was helpful, please add your vote -- Thanks.
 Not up to standards of basic scholarship January 6, 2006
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is not up to the standards one would expect in a book written by a respected historian. It is obvious that the bulk of the book's research was done by the author's staff and not the writer. The editing is slipshod. The same "notecard" entries, for example, are used word for word in different chapters of the book. I suspect the Ambrose book was rushed to publication in order to appear before the publication of the vastly superior work on the same subject by David Bain, "The Empire Express."
 both a good and bad book. December 17, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
the Bad- it repeated itself too much,and could have benefitted from more depth and detail in both aspects of american history and railroading.
the Good- very easy to read. this is probably a "must-read" book if you want just a good general overview of the genre. however, as both an american history and railroading fan, my expectations were not satisfied.
4 stars for its merit as an overview for the genre; 0 stars for its merit as a "deep" book for the genre, so as an average it gets 2 stars.
Informative, but repetative September 11, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Found this to be an informative read, however, it was very repetative in places. We see the same stories told over in different parts of the book. Could use more editing.
As for the writing itself, I found it a bit bland. Did not have great flow and found myself struggling to finish it.
I am interested in the subject and learned quite a bit, although was frustrated about how much more time he spent chronicling the business end of the building as opposed to the human side.
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 - RailroadBookstore.com | |
