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 enlarge | Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $16.99 (100%)
New (41) Used (197) Collectible (10) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  213 reviews
Sales Rank: 125510
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
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
 Disappointed in a favorite a favorite writer October 24, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mr. Ambrose - who generally writes as readable a history as anyone - fell way short on this one. At the outset, he admits that his publisher recommended this topic to him. I suspect his publisher needed an Ambrose book on the shelves for the summer of 2000 and magde this suggestion in May of the same year. The book was redundant and disorganized and gave the distinct impression of being thrown together like a midnight term paper. This book ought to be skipped.
Only for railroad buffs. A "sluggish" read. September 13, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I purchased this book on a recommendation from a friend. Not
impressed at all. The story itself is interesting, but Ambrose's telling of it was not. Why? - He spent the first 100-200 pages detailing all of the political machinations that were needed to get both railroads
(UP and CP) going. I think 25-50 pages of this would have been fine. - There are many many sections of the book where there is repetitive data: on the tunnels, how they laid the track, how the raw materials were brought up, etc.. I bet I read 200 times how the grading "was 300 miles in advance". Stop it! - I was never able to understand the tricky financing portions of either the CP or UP. If I was able to figure out the financial sleight-of-hand it would have been more fun. - Nice pics, but why not a diagram of the railroad's organization, etc.. that we could refer to? All in all it was interesting but took me months to read. I'd ready 50 pages and put it down in disgust. Read 10-15 other books and then come back to it. It's a book that I would swear was written but 10 different
folks, put together, poorly edited, and sent out into the
world to make money. I will continue to search for a better
work on this subject.
boring unless you are a railroad nutcase September 2, 2002
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
just read my title. it says it all. you have to live, love, and be infatuated with railroads to get through this book.
 Two thumbs down August 15, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book must rank among Ambrose's worst. It is confusing, redundant, overwritten, jingoistic and mind-numbingly dull. If any reader can decipher the Union Pacific Railroad's finances based on Ambrose's exposition, then he or she should get a Nobel Prize in economics.
good, for a first draft... July 19, 2002
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
While this is a good account of the building of the transcontinental RR, this book is an apparent product of the Stephen Ambrose book factory putting quantity over quality. There are some obvious quote and description repetitions and the organization is a little sloppy. I think some thorough editing could have made this book great. I'm a big fan of Ambrose's previous works and do recommend this book despite these disappointments.
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