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Blood, Iron And Gold: How The Railways Transformed The World (2009)

by Christian Wolmar(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1848871708 (ISBN13: 9781848871700)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atlantic

review 1: Took me a while to finish this book, some parts were (unsurprisingly) dry and at time belabored. For example, the almost ubiquitous mention of the varying gauge of the lines at one point made me wonder if this book would have been better titled: Blood, Iron, & Gauge. I would classify BIG as a general history on railroads throughout the world. The various railroads are covered with a wide breadth if not depth. He discusses their inception, key players, and anything notable in the realm of the iron road. As such, I would recommend it to anyone who is interesting in the subject but whose knowledge on it is sparse (such as myself). Most readers familiar with the subject will likely find little new here.Wolmar references dozens of books that focus on one particular topic or ra... moreilroad. Although he fell a bit short of his aim of creating a book that dealt with the social history of the railway (see bibliography) I think the material lived up to the blurb on the cover: "How The Railroads Transformed The World."What really surprised me was how much material there is on railroads. Reams and reams of it in fact. If you're looking for a a good introduction or overview I would say this is an excellent book.
review 2: There is no one better than Christian Wolmar at writing about railways. This is the follow up to Fire & Steam which covered railways in Britain whilst this one covers railways throughout the world. What the writer does with these books is write about normal intersting parts of the railway. It never gets remotely technical which makes this bookanothe delight to read. If you only ever read one book about trains then this has to be the one. less

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