Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America - Softcover

"Imaginative, iconoclastic, immensely informative and mordantly funny." -- Glenn C. Altschuler - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "An acute analysis that in failure came success and in many ways the map of the nation." -- Scott Martelle - Washington Post "A scathing and wonderful new book. [Railroaded] will entertain and outrage readers." -- Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe "A model of narrative skill and [an] insightful reinterpretation of the Gilded Age. It is easily the best business history I have read." -- Donald Worster - Slate "Required reading for anyone interested in the history of American railroading...This is an exciting story and well told." -- John Steele Gordon - Wall Street Journal

This original, deeply researched history shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.