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Blood, Iron, and Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World |  | Author: Christian Wolmar
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
Buy New: $11.90
as of 9/10/2010 14:07 CDT details
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Seller: ebooksweb*
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 61723
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.6
ISBN: 1586488341
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.09
EAN: 9781586488345
ASIN: 1586488341
Publication Date: March 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of a transport revolution that would forever transform the way we live. Blood, Iron, and Gold takes us on a journey encompassing jungle, mountain, and desert, revealing the huge impact of the railroads as they spread rapidly across entire countries, and linked cities that hitherto had little reach beyond their immediate environs. The rise of the train triggered daring engineering feats, great architectural innovation, and the rapid movement of people and goods across the globe. Cultures were both enriched and destroyed by the unrelenting construction of the railroads, and the new technology quickly took on a vital role in civil conflicts and two world wars. In this beautifully illustrated book, renowned transportation journalist Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious pioneers who developed the railways that would dominate the globe.
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| Customer Reviews:
Interesting but sloppy Overview of RR History June 21, 2010
Alan (Minnesota)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is hard to summarize as its one of those good news/bad news books.
The Good News: It is full of information on the development of railroads throughout the world. Starting with George Stephenson and the early railroads to the split between the private industry vs. public development and how these differences had a major impact on how railroads developed to how railroads impacted society in general and daily life in particular. The author covers everything from the financial scandals to the issues of numerous gauge widths often in the same country and how these things evolved. It is hard to summarize what he has covered as it is so wide ranging.
The Bad News: As some others have noted there are a number of factual errors and odd even bazaar references. For example, he notes that the early plan for the development of the transcontinental railroad was Thomas Judah. However the man's name was Theodore Judah. He makes reference to James Hill and his Northern Pacific Railroad. However, Hill built the rival Great Northern. Strangely he has this correct elsewhere in the same chapter. He compares the RR building in South Africa to that in Panama, 2 countries that have totally different climates and vegetation. And most bazaar, in his explanation of the how private cars could be hired on the British system, he lists one of the users as Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps someone can tell the author that this is a fictional character.
There is more good news/bad news. On one hand, the book deals with most of the subjects in a very superficial way and is all over the map in more ways than one but covers a mind boggling amount of information. Covering 200 years of railroad history worldwide could easily have generated a book 3 times the size of this one. While this is hardly a definitive book on the subject, could use some better organization and suffers from numerous errors such as those noted above, this is a very readable and interesting book.
 Superb History June 13, 2010
Crosslands (Maryland USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This very weel written work by Christian Wolmar fills a very important ninch in history, namely the development of railroads across the world. The book begins with the start of railroads in England in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The work continues with the development of railroads in the united States, Europe, and India. In later chapeters the book examines the spread of railroads across the globe. This book is extremely interesting because a recent account of the history or railroads throughout the world has not been generally available.
Surprises include the fact the the builder of the first railraods in England George Stephenson helped plan the building of many railroads all over the world. Moreover some countries like Belgium built railroads early. In the case of Belgium the railroad was seen as a means to help unify the country. Other early developers of the railroad technology included France and Germany. Other countries like Albania were laggards who built railroad lines later.
Once the technology was proven in England, railroad builders attacked the problem of building railroads through mountains, jungle swamps, and other difficult terrain. Immense difficulties were overcome, often at great cost of the lives of railraod construction workers. But these projects were generally completed. Apparently once humanity really decides to do some project, the project is done sooner or later.
Mr. Wolmar writes a lot about the effects of the railraod on society and on travel. He does not discuss the actual technology much, but such is not his intention as a historian. A reader can learn much more about this technology from Karen Parker How a Steam Locomotive Works.
The author has a last chapter on the development of high speed passenger service. Unlike the case with the early railroads, the United States is somewhat a laggard in this technology. The other countries in the world do not always need the United States to initiate and guide the establishment of modern technologies. Actually this state of affairs is desirable. It would not be good to have Edward Markey, Henry Waxman, and other ecofreak elitists limit the technological possibilities of humanity.
The book is a very interesting read and very good history.
Broad, informative treatment of rail history in a single volume May 22, 2010
James A. Vedda (Alexandria, VA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This engaging book is a valuable find for history buffs who have an interest in railroads but don't have time to explore the extensive literature on this topic. Wolmar takes the reader from the early 19th century to the present and explores the emergence and development of rail all across the world, and manages to do all this in just under 340 pages. (Notes, bibliography, and index add another 40 pages, and there are two sections of photo pages.)
The narrative focuses on the economic, political, and societal aspects of rail development in a wide variety of environments. Much less is said about the nuts and bolts of the trains, although there is substantial discussion of competing track gauges, efforts to overcome challenging geography, and the evolution of passenger accommodations as sophistication and competition increased. Along the way we meet innovative technical and business people, learn of the changes wrought by the railroads everywhere they went, and marvel at the amount of death and suffering experienced in the early construction and operation of rail systems.
Readers may find a couple of passages to be a bit slow as they describe numerous new lines coming into service from Point A to Point B, but a good knowledge of world geography makes these more interesting as they set the stage for the rest of the story. That story includes a sober look at decline in the 20th century as automobiles, trucks, and airlines came to dominate the transportation market. But the book ends on a positive note, projecting a railway renaissance of high-speed passenger trains and a strong freight business.
Highly recommended, especially for those who are new to railroad history or plan to read only a small amount on the subject.
An intriguing, revealing guide May 18, 2010
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
Blood, Iron and Gold: How the Railroads Transformed the World tells how railroads altered time and the nature of communications and connections. Trains created a manufacturing industry, made perishables more widely available, fostered the idea of the vacation, and more. A fine survey of their lasting social impact makes this an intriguing, revealing guide.
World history of train development May 10, 2010
Thomas J. Malizia (Seattle)
The book explains the motivation that launched the development of national rail systems throughout the world. It was interesting to find that both economic and political reasons drove the expansion. Most of the initial took place in the mid- 1800's, and the author describes the difficulty of building railroads because the technology wasn't fully developed. Most all the work, like carving out tunnels was done by hand and at a great price of human life.
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