Railroads Triumphant: The Growth, Rejection, and Rebirth of a Vital American Force

by Albro Martin

Book Overview

In 1789, when the First Congress met in New York City, the members traveled to the capital just as Roman senators two thousand years earlier had journeyed to Rome, by horse, at a pace of some five miles an hour. Indeed, if sea travel had improved dramatically since Caesar's time, overland travel was still so slow, painful, and expensive that most Americans lived all but rooted to the spot, with few people settling more than a hundred miles from the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195038533
• ISBN13: 9780195038538
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

One of the best general railroad history books out there

Albro Martin has a wonderful style of writing which makes this a great read - even better than Enterprise Denied. It details how railroads have not only survived, but continue to play a vital part in our everyday lives, even though we see less and less of them today.

Best Railroad General History

I read a lot of railroad history, and this is the best general history of American railroading that I know of.

Great Overview of Why Railroads have come back from the dead

Railroads Triumphant has given me an excellent history as to why railroads died, and why they are coming back. The author's explanation of the various forms of governmental intervention and how they led to the railroad's demise were enlightening. The Stagger's Act of 1980 clearly was the defining moment when the government stopped micro-managing the railroads and allowed them to serve the public again. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who thinks that railroading is dead! I also reccomend it to anyone who thinks that governmental control is good for the public..