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Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US 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.
Critic reviews
"White delivers an opinionated, delightfully witty but astute account of sleazy Gilded Age politics, business, and journalism, as well as the complex (but uncomfortably familiar) financial maneuvers men used to enrich themselves." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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Moving
- By JB on 02-09-18
By: William Cronon
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Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
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THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
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The Great Railroad Revolution
- The History of Trains in America
- By: Christian Wolmar
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line—the first American railroad—in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel. Built through heroic effort, the American railroad network was bigger in every sense than Europe's, and facilitated everything from long-distance travel to commuting and transporting goods to waging war. It united far-flung parts of the country, boosted economic development, and was the catalyst for America's rise to world-power status.
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Well written and read
- By default on 02-24-24
By: Christian Wolmar
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American Colossus
- The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 23 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In a grand-scale narrative history, the bestselling author of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize now captures the decades when capitalism was at its most unbridled and a few breathtakingly wealthy businessmen utterly transformed America from an agrarian economy to a world power.
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8 Thoughts on 'American Colossus'
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: H. W. Brands
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The Source
- How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers
- By: Martin Doyle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle explores how rivers have often been the source of arguments at the heart of the American experiment - over federalism, taxation, regulation, conservation, and development. Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the US Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation, the origins of the Army Corps of Engineers, the discovery of gold in 1848, and the construction of the Hoover Dam and the TVA during the New Deal, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina.
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Great historical read without compare.
- By Thomas P Dore on 04-10-18
By: Martin Doyle
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City of the Century
- The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900. Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects.
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A STORY THAT TRIES TOO HARD....AND FAILS
- By The Louligan on 02-01-15
By: Donald L. Miller
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The Victorian Internet
- The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
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Very nice audiobook
- By David on 05-23-16
By: Tom Standage
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The Day the Bubble Burst
- A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929
- By: Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan-Witts
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 21 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best seller that tells the story of an overheated stock market and the financial disaster that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. A riveting living history about Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. Captures the era, the intoxicating expectancy, the hope that ruled men's heart and minds before the bubble burst and the black despair of the decade that followed.
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Thorough and fascinating
- By Bowen Florsheim on 04-23-21
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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American-Made
- The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work
- By: Nick Taylor
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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When President Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, he was facing a devastated nation. Four years into the Great Depression, a staggering 13 million American workers were jobless and many millions more of their family members were equally in need. Desperation ruled the land. In 1935, after a variety of temporary relief measures, a permanent nationwide jobs program was created.
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The true spirit of America.
- By Helen on 07-01-08
By: Nick Taylor
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The Comanche Empire
- By: Pekka Hamalainen
- Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer
- Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a Native American empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in American history. This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches.
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A comprehensive evaluation
- By A on 02-28-18
By: Pekka Hamalainen
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A Country of Vast Designs
- James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent
- By: Robert W. Merry
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 18 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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When James K. Polk was elected president in 1844, the United States was locked in a bitter diplomatic struggle with Britain over the rich lands of the Oregon Territory, which included what is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Texas, not yet part of the Union, was threatened by a more powerful Mexico. And the territories north and west of Texas---what would become California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Colorado---belonged to Mexico.
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A Decent Overview of Polk's Presidency
- By James on 06-20-10
By: Robert W. Merry
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The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
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A Slog for Sure
- By Brux on 04-13-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
What listeners say about Railroaded
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MJK1
- 08-07-18
Very In Depth and Enlightening
For fans of both history and railroads, this is a really great book. The author goes into very fine detail regarding the Transcontinental Railroads that formed after the Civil War through the turn of the 20th Century. I learned a LOT of new things. The facts Mr. White was able to unravel from the personal correspondence of the men who formed and ran these railroad companies definitely show that reality is a lot different than high school history classes’ old narratives on these companies and their impact.
The depth and breadth of the research very effectively prove the points Mr. White is trying to convey to the reader. In some instances, the depth he goes into can bog down the overall flow of the book, but overall, I found it a very compelling story. In so many ways, there are so many parallels between Gilded Age financiers and politicians and our current day. Narration is solid overall.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Keith
- 06-23-18
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
Richard White's body of work is impressive for the depth of his research and the urgency of his analysis. Railroaded is a focused book that compliments his more broadly conceived histories of the American West, yet it poses big questions and touches on issues far beyond the scope of railroads in the late 1800s. White uses the expansion of railroads in the West to examine the corruption, incompetence, shortsightedness, and labor exploitation that have become hallmarks of corporate capitalism. The book counterbalances accepted notions of the ultimate benefits to building the transcontinentals by factoring in the myriad social, economic, and environmental costs. Ultimately, White's argument is not that the railroads shouldn't have been built or wouldn't have been realized without government intervention. He questions the moral and financial impact of how and when they were built. White's writing is direct and engaging. It can also be entertainingly caustic, especially when dealing with the ineptitude of men in power. White seems to find special joy in mocking the namesake of the university where he teaches, using archival research to expose Leland Stanford as an incompetent man who nevertheless stumbled his way into fame, fortune, and power. More than taking aim at historical myths, Railroaded is a contemplative and astute book written by one of our premier historians. Highly recommended.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Brent Paxton
- 06-25-18
Great Way to Tell the History
I live in a railroad town in East Texas. So, it was fascinating hearing the retelling of how railroads spread throughout the United States. I recommend this to anyone who has a serious or fleeting interest in railroads and how they shaped the United States. My little town in East Texas, Palestine, was heavily influenced by the railroad in the late 1800s. So, I sawed this book out to learn more about how railroads shaped towns like my own. It's well worth it and I recommend it.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Student
- 07-15-21
Too much detail for an audiobook
This is probably much better in print, but it’s too long and detailed to retain while listening.
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- Godfree Roberts
- 09-29-22
A wonderful journey!
Lie back, relax, and listen to true tales of high jinks and low tricks, scams and strikes, riots and wrecks and, above all, conmen.
This erudite, 360-degree examination of the 1880-1929 Rail Boom tells us why 90% of the money invested was stolen, and why nobody won the race to build a transcontinental railway, because nobody built one.
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- Carl U.
- 10-01-18
A different view of a famous subject
For some time now I've been fascinated by the railroads. Probably from living in CA near both Sacramento and San Francisco. I've read books about The Big Four aka The Associates and about the building of the Cental Pacific and Union Pacific, most notably the Steven Ambrose book Nothing Like It In The World. Railroaded takes an entirely different approach to the subject. The author looks not at the building of the railroad but the financing of the roads, why they were built, where and when they were built and some of their affects on our society. This is a large tome. It is both scholarly and entertaining. It will take a while to read and 23 hours to hear as an audiobook but I considered it well worth the investment of time. There is a lot to process about the men involved, the times, the birth of corporations in the U.S. and the political environment of the second half of the 19th century. I believe this book will be of interest those with a curiosity of American history, railroading, early corporate finance and the political enviornment of the time.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Mark Mears
- 03-07-19
Expertise and Bias
Mr. White deomonstrates his expertise regarding the 19th Century railroads with the incredible amount of minutiae he includes in the book.
I always enjoy learning history, so I did enjoy “Railroaded”, however Mr. White also demonstrated a very strong hatred of the wealthy. The vast majority of the wealthy individuals in the book are described negatively as incompetent, corrupt and worse...repeatedly. Perhaps they were; as I said Mr. White demonstrated his expertise. However he also demonstrated a bias.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-15-18
A history of fraud
The book seems to be well researched and dives into great detail about all of the fraud surrounding the building of the transcontinental railroads. Throughout there is a kind of sassy, dead pan irony to the way they describe how cartoonishly corrupt the whole business was
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2 people found this helpful
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- braintrust
- 11-04-18
Ambitious topic that does not deliver a good story
The book offers plenty of topics that I love. The old west, development of corporations, crooked robber barons and iconic trains that helped develop a country. I learned a few interesting things but I never made it to the end of the book. I think this is a book that you really need to want to listen to. Narration was good enough but the story was just too academic, dry and detailed for me to make it to the end. The all-encompassing story of railroads and everything associated with them is just too distracting.
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- Robert fritz westreicher .jr
- 03-22-21
Not for fans of the railroad
1st 5 minutes of the book and I've already put it away and I am going to delete it. It's so incredibly negative about the railroad making it like it never changed anything they didn't accomplish anything and they were all evil. Definitely an opinionated piece that has little to do with history and not for railroad fans.
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