Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869

Ambrose, Stephen E.

ISBN 10: 0684846098 / ISBN 13: 9780684846095

Edité par Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000

A propos de cet article

STEPHEN E. AMBROSE - NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD - THE MEN WHO BUILT THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 1863-1869
*** SIGNED IN MY PERSON BY THE AUTHOR - STEPHEN E. AMBROSE ***

Nothing Like It in the World gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It 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 engineers and surveyors who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.

The U.S. government pitted two companies?the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads?against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise, with its huge expenditure of brainpower, muscle, and sweat, comes vibrantly to life.

Stephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. He received his Ph.D. in 1960 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In his final years he faced charges of plagiarism for his books, with subsequent concerns about his research emerging after his death.

N° de réf. du vendeur EB-27

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869
• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster, New York
• Date de parution: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0684846098
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780684846095
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• Édition: Edition originale
• Impression: 1er tirage
• État de l'article: Neuf
• État de la jaquette: Neuf
• Dimensions: 3,81 L x 16,51 H x 24,77 P (centimètres) 3,81 centimètres de largeur par 16,51 centimètres de hauteur par 24,77 centimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 726 grammes
• Signé: Signé par l'auteur

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

The Union had won the Civil War; slavery was abolished. Lincoln, an early champion of railroads, would not live to see the next great achievment. It took brains, muscle, and sweat in quantities and scope never before ventured and required engineers and surveyors willing to lose their lives in the wilderness; men who had commanded and obeyed in war; workers from China, Ireland, and the defeated South; and capitalists betting their money for possible profit. The government pitted the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the east through Panama, around South America, or lugged across the country. The railroad was the last great building project to be done by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels. Nothing like this great railroad had been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in at Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific joined tracks. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the nation one.

À propos de l?auteur

Stephen E. Ambrose, leading World War II historian, was the author of numerous books on history including the Number 1 bestselling BAND OF BROTHERS, D-DAY (on which SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was based) PEGASUS BRIDGE and WILD BLUE. He is founder of the Eisenhower Center and the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. He died in 2002.