Blood, Iron, and Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World

This spirited, dramatic history of the most important invention of the
second millennium celebrates railroads as the central innovation of the
industrial revolution, releasing economic and social energies on a stupendous
scale. Historian Wolmar (The Great Railway Disaster) chronicles the heroic age
of railroad construction in the 19th century, with its mix of epic engineering
and horrible exploitation. (The death toll on the trans-Panamanian railroad
project included a mass suicide by Chinese workers.) Riding the early railroads,
he notes, was almost as harrowing as building them, as passengers braved engine
cinders that set their clothes on fire.and sometimes had to get out and push
underpowered locomotives up steep grades. The railroads' social impact was
equally breathtaking, in Wolmar's telling: it brought city folk fresh milk,
out-of-season produce, and commutes to the suburbs; spawned monopolies and
spectacular corruption scandals; and played a crucial role in enabling the
world wars and the Holocaust. Wolmar explores this fertile subject with
a blend of lucid exposition and engaging historical narrative. The result is
a fascinating study not just of a transportation system, but of the Promethean
spirit of the modern age.

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