"A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now"-- "The long-lost tale of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history. In 1864, as the Civil War still raged, throngs of Chinese migrants began to converge on the...

In this account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage, Stephen E. Ambrose offers a historical successor to his universally acclaimed Undaunted Courage, which recounted the explorations of the West by Lewis and Clark. Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the...

Learn what it was like to travel on the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s.

John Sedgwick recounts the decade-long fight between General William J. Palmer, the Civil War hero leading the "little family" of his Rio Grande, coming down from Denver, hoping to showcase the majesty of the Rockies, and William Barstow Strong, the hard-nosed manager of the corporate-minded Santa Fe, venturing west from Kansas. What begins as an accidental rivalry when the two lines cross in Colorado soon evolves into an all-out battle as each man...

A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Their first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially...

On a somber day in Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln ended his famous address with a promise that the war-torn nation would someday be reborn. At the time of Lincoln's speech, the greatest symbol of that rebirth had already begun. Hailed as an engineering feat to rival the Egyptian pyramids, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was an engineering marvel as well as a technological nightmare. In the 1860s, the Union Pacific began laying tracks...

In this book, you will learn about the history of railroads in America and how it has transformed the nation over the years. Understand the reason why railroads became a "big hit" after the Civil War. How did the use of railroads impact businesses in the USA? What were the advantages and disadvantages of railroads? Start your analysis today!

George Pullman's legacy lies in the town that bears his name. As one of the first thoroughly planned model industrial communities, it was designed to give the comforts of a permanent home to the employees who built America's most elegant form of overnight railroad travel. But the town was more than just a residential wing of sleeper car manufacturing; its 1894 railroad strike led to the national Labor Day holiday. In the early twentieth century, the...

Fifteen-year-old Tam Ling Fan disguises herself as her twin brother, journeys from her village in China to California, and works as a laborer on the Transcontinental Railroad--where she faces danger on multiple fronts--to earn the money her family desperately needs. Includes author's note.--

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad's history is one of big booms and bigger busts. When it became the first railroad to reach and then cross the Mississippi River in 1856, it emerged as a leading American railroad company. But after aggressive expansion and a subsequent change in management, the company struggled and eventually declared bankruptcy in 1915. What followed was a cycle of resurrections and bankruptcies, a grueling, ten-year,...