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To The Edge Of The World (2013)

by Christian Wolmar(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0857890379 (ISBN13: 9780857890375)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Atlantic Books

review 1: Having read most of Wolmar's books on the history of the railways, I venture to suggest that this may be his best. The early part of the story must have been a bureaucratic nightmare, but he manages to find the drama in it. And of course when the building of the line itself begins, drama is in plentiful supply. There are multiple tales from real travellers to give glimpses of what it was like to make this incredible journey at different times over the last century or so, and the fact that Wolmar himself has made the trip also has clearly stirred his enthusiasm. He argues several times that the line is both a massive engineering feat and a world-changing achievement. One suspects that his delight at the journey bent his judgement slightly, but even so he makes a strong case... more that this remarkable railway is rather overlooked in comparison with other globe-changing civil engineering works like the Panama canal.
review 2: A Fascinating set of tales and hardship created the Trans Siberian takeoff railroad. If Russia today seems like a awkward and foreign place, it is dwarfed by these stories and descriptions of 1830s Russia.Backward and in many ways resilient, the making if the long, long, long railroad is interesting and uncommon, in that it really doesn't track like the takes of the US transcontinental rail. It is crazy to think of building anything 5000 miles long, not to mention something as complicated as a railroad and as costly to a people.Good book for those trurly interested in trains, or history. less

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