Modern Railroads

To convey modern China’s history and the forces driving its economic success, rail has no equal. From warlordism to Cultural Revolution, railroads suffered the country’s ills but persisted because they were exemplary institutions. Elisabeth Köll shows why they remain essential to the PRC’s technocratic economic model for China’s future.

An epic and revelatory narrative of the most important transportation technology of the modern world In his wide-ranging and entertaining new book, Tom Zoellner—coauthor of the New York Times–bestselling An Ordinary Man—travels the globe to tell the story of the sociological and economic impact of the railway technology that transformed the world—and could very well change it again. From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the Japanese-style bullet trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of this most indispensable form of travel. A masterful narrative history, Train also explores the sleek elegance of railroads and their hypnotizing rhythms, and explains how locomotives became living symbols of sex, death, power, and romance.

How railroads both united and divided us: “Integrates military and social history…a must-read for students, scholars and enthusiasts alike.”—Civil War Monitor Beginning with Frederick Douglass’s escape from slavery in 1838 on the railroad, and ending with the driving of the golden spike to link the transcontinental railroad in 1869, this book charts a critical period of American expansion and national formation, one largely dominated by the dynamic growth of railroads and telegraphs. William G. Thomas brings new evidence to bear on railroads, the Confederate South, slavery, and the Civil War era, based on groundbreaking research in digitized sources never available before. The Iron Way revises our ideas about the emergence of modern America and the role of the railroads in shaping the sectional conflict. Both the North and the South invested in railroads to serve their larger purposes, Thomas contends. Though railroads are often cited as a major factor in the Union’s victory, he shows that they were also essential to the formation of “the South” as a unified region. He discusses the many—and sometimes unexpected—effects of railroad expansion, and proposes that America’s great railroads became an important symbolic touchstone for the nation’s vision of itself. “In this provocative and deeply researched book, William G. Thomas follows the railroad into virtually every aspect of Civil War history, showing how it influenced everything from slavery’s antebellum expansion to emancipation and segregation—from guerrilla warfare to grand strategy. At every step, Thomas challenges old assumptions and finds new connections on this much-traveled historical landscape."—T.J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

For train enthusiasts, model railroaders, and history buffs, hop aboard this tour of North American railroads, both great and obscure. Few images speak as clearly of a time and a place as a dramatic black-and-white photograph of an American steam locomotive powering through that storied era of railroad history. All the new photographs in this beautiful book meticulously recreate that original style, capturing the bygone age of steam rail against the settings of its heyday, including period architecture and other details. The result is the crisp, stunning quality of contemporary photography of the iconic locomotives of yesteryear. Featured trains include the Milwaukee Road; the Cumbres and Toltec snowplow runs; the Cotton Belt 819 in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois; the Savannah and Atlanta No. 750; the Frisco 1522 in Missouri; the Norfolk and Western 611 and 1218 in Georgia and Tennessee; the Union Pacific 3985 in Wyoming, Nebraska and Arkansas—these are just some of the historic runs and routes Steam Trains brings this era to life with its evocative photographs and accompanying narrative accounts of the locomotives that are still cherished today. This fantastic photographic gallery features twenty-three preserved steam railroad lines and events covering a twenty-five year period. Perfect for train enthusiasts, model railroaders, and history buffs alike, North American railroads, both great and obscure, are highlighted in Steam Trains.