Nothing Like It In the World

ByStephen E. Ambrose

Release Date: 2000-08-29
Genre: U.S. History

Score: 4

From 157 Ratings

Description

In this New York Times bestseller, Stephen Ambrose brings to life the story of the building of the transcontinental railroad, from the men who financed it to the engineers and surveyors who risked their lives to the workers who signed on for the dangerous job.

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.

Reviews

Errors, misstatements and made-up quotes
1
By 6472749
A Sacramento Bee article from early 2001 details more than sixty instances of “significant errors, misstatements and made-up quotes” in this work (check Ambrose’s Wikipedia article). Wish I’d known before buying this carp.
Interesting, but
3
By Longhorn5555
seems to be some lazy editing. The same stories/phrases are repeated a number of times... in many cases almost word for word... also a fair amount of “filler”, but all in all it’s still an interesting read, and worth buying if you are a history buff.

The building of this railroad was an incredible feat of perseverance. Between the environmental lawsuits, OSHA, etc., doubtful it could be done today. (Not making a judgment about the usefulness of regs, just remarking on how it was a different time and place.)
Mci owns f.
3
By evyfji y gluslfisktombohdmrot
Class d said ah
Rimty tutor. I 🤒😵😴😷😰😅💡go
Had urged glob
Wow
4
By mwm79
This was a great book. I highly recommend to anyone that loves history, railroads, the west, and politics to read this book.