Rails Across America

Fülszöveg

I A unique overview of railroad history in the United States and Canada from the 1830S to the present day, written by a team of authors of international
repute in their field.
• Over 225 black and white and color photographs, contributed by leading
photographers, museums, and archives.
• 22 specially commissioned full-color photographs of railroad artifacts -many displayed over two full pages - from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, the California State Railroad Museum, the Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution.
16 profile artworks showing the development of locomotive designs, in full color, plus two full-color maps.
I Each chapter contains a feature article on a topic of special interest, plus one or two sidebars detailing a vital episode or humorous vignette.
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A History of Railroads in North America
THERE HAS NEVER BEFORE been a book like this one: a concise, well-illustrated... Tovább

Fülszöveg

I A unique overview of railroad history in the United States and Canada from the 1830S to the present day, written by a team of authors of international
repute in their field.
• Over 225 black and white and color photographs, contributed by leading
photographers, museums, and archives.
• 22 specially commissioned full-color photographs of railroad artifacts -many displayed over two full pages - from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, the California State Railroad Museum, the Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution.
16 profile artworks showing the development of locomotive designs, in full color, plus two full-color maps.
I Each chapter contains a feature article on a topic of special interest, plus one or two sidebars detailing a vital episode or humorous vignette.
mn
111
¦ . ' , ' ¦¦ !1
' f
Rails
^^ACROSS
America
A History of Railroads in North America
THERE HAS NEVER BEFORE been a book like this one: a concise, well-illustrated overview of railroad history in the United States and Canada from the 1830s to the
present day, written by a team of authors of international repute in their field. Published especially for a general, nonspecialized audience, the book combines the fruits of the latest authoritative scholarship with a lively, engaging text and illustrations contributed by leading photographers, museums, and archives.
You will discover why and how the earliest steam railroads were built, what train travel was like in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, what it
was like to work on the railroad, why the diesel 'revolution' occurred so rapidly, why railroads are still essential in today's modern economy, and dozens of other fascinating insights into the role of railroads in the social history of the United States and Canada.
Rails Across America is divided into nine chapters, which describe the history of the development of railroads in the United States and Canada from the early days to the present in chronological order. That development was very closely tied to the wider development of these countries — economically, politically, and even culturally — into the nations they are today. In the early nineteenth century, for example, the United States was sparsely populated, with an economy primarily based on agriculture: its transformation into the most powerful nation in the world was made possible by the construction of the
railroads. Goods and services could be traded efficiently and quickly, the riches of the continent could be exploited, and — most importantly — a reliable, continent-wide means of transportation meant that huge new regions could be settled. In everyday terms, too, the railroad's influence was pervasive. Everything from the kind of clothes worn and the type of food eaten, to the very definition of time, was affected by the railroads.
An important feature of the book are the specially commissioned photographs of railroad artifacts, showing historic items from the collections of some of the finest railroad museums in the United States. Various feature and sidebar articles in each chapter allow for the inclusion of humorous vignettes, important incidents, and vital episodes from the amazing story of Rails Across America. Vissza