Railroaded

The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life. Their discriminatory rates sparked broad opposition and a new antimonopoly politics.

With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White 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.

Winner of Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2011
Short-listed for Pulitzer Prize 2012

“"Will entertain and outrage readers."”

"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 -- Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe "An exciting story and well told." -- John Steele Gordon - Wall Street Journal "Imaginative, iconoclastic, immensely informative and mordantly funny." -- Glenn C. Altschuler - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Richard White is the author of many acclaimed histories, including the groundbreaking study of the transcontinentals, Railroaded, winner of the LA Times Book Prize and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is Margaret Byrne Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, and lives in Los Angeles, California.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.